THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

“Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”

William Wordsworth

Advent begins this Sunday, November 30th. In looking over the readings I see we are not so different from the society about which Isaiah spoke when he prayed to the Lord.

Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways,
and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?

Anyone who paid attention through the recent American election process can clearly see we have become a nation with hardened hearts. We need to always be right. We need to always vilify those who disagree with us. And it was often those who most identified themselves as “good” Catholics whose language of politics became most vile and hate-filled – not anything like our Lord who spoke a message of love, peace, forgiveness, and compassion. But Advent is a season of hope. I lament along with Isaiah as I read his words

Would that you might meet us doing right,
that we were mindful of you in our ways!

Our world is a troubled one. We breed divisiveness through our words and actions. We want everything we’ve broken to be fixed right away and without undue stress or sacrifice on our part. Yet in the midst of all of this Advent comes upon us with the same message it has for the last two thousand some years. HAVE HOPE IN YOUR FAITH IN GOD.

As Isaiah reminds us this Sunday in the first reading,

Yet, O LORD, you are our father;
we are the clay and you the potter:
we are all the work of your hands.

Let us have hope that through our current trials, we will let God mold us and shape us into a more perfected creation. Let us as Catholics pray for reformative transformation of our Church leadership that they will espouse the true message of the Lord, Jesus Christ – who came to unite not divide; to include all at His table.