2022 Advent Reflection – Week Two
The Sisters of the Living Word offer you these Advent Sunday reflections as we move into this new Church Year. Advent is a transition time, a transformation time. So much of our lives and world are in need of transformation today. Personally, nationally and globally there are so many situations moving us to consider differing options and opinions. All the Advent Readings urge us to look to the future work of God while paying attention to the good works we witness in the present. As Jesus told John the Baptist’s disciples in Week 3, see what is happening and know God is here with us. We, like Joseph in Week 4’s Gospel, need to awake and do what we are called to do to prepare for the coming of Christ Jesus all around us.
Week 2 Advent Reflection
Written by Barbara Mass, SLW
Last week, Isaiah described the desire of all the people to travel to the Lord’s mountain. Then Paul and Jesus urged us to stay awake and be ready to make the journey. And so we move into Week Two of Advent with readings that are more about peace, what it will looks like and what we have to do to make peace happen.
I am writing this in the beginning of November. Our elections are coming. Thanksgiving has not been celebrated. There is lots of anticipation in the air that hints at the transformation urged by the readings of this Week Two.
The First Reading from Isaiah was written at a time when Israel was about to be overcome by the Assyrians. As a nation it had survived several really corrupt kings and their wars to remain whole. The people of the country suffered while the kings and their friends did well. So Isaiah says from this stump, the dead looking line of royal leaders, a new shoot is coming. This future leader will be different and all of creation will respond to him by establishing a time of peace. The natural enemies will put aside those differences and past hurts and live in peace. In the end it will be so good in Israel that all the nations will come to see how they too can be part of this peaceful kingdom.
Both Paul and John the Baptist give us ways to be ready. Paul writes, “Welcome one another as Christ welcomed you for the glory of God.” That is such a strong image. Here we are in this time of tension in our politics, in our Church at times, with one another. How do I transform my attitudes into welcoming ones? When might listening first be a better welcoming response before I engage in sharing my opinion? That’s a task for this Second Week as all the preparations for the season get into high gear.
Then we hear about John the Baptist. He criticizes those who come only for show, those who “do the ritual,” but don’t let it change the heart. The transformation will be apparent by how our lives show the works of one who has taken on a new way of being.
Blessed Advent and Transformation of heart.