First Sunday of Advent

The prophet Isaiah in today's first reading (Is.64:2-7) offers us one of Scripture's most beautiful images of God. God is the potter, and we are the clay. Like an artist, God is busy molding and shaping us. He is not some distant, impersonal force watching over the world the way a little boy might look at an ant farm. Rather, God is involved in our lives, calling us to recognize his great love and inspiring us to show it to the world.

The question we might naturally ask is, "If God is so active in the world, why is it such a mess?" Isaiah himself asks this question when he writes, "Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?" It is a question that mankind has been asking for thousands of years.

One simple answer is that God is not done with the world yet. Before the potter gets his hands on it, clay is just a lump of wet mud. The potter has to place it on the spinning wheel and then form it gently but firmly into whatever shape is pleasing to him. Then, the clay must be baked in a kiln, and once it is removed, the paint can be applied. It is a long process to go from a lump of clay to a beautiful vase. And, it is a long process to lead humanity out of its selfishness into the wisdom of God.

If there's one thing we can say about God it is that he is in no rush. God takes the time he needs to get things right. He has all the time in the world! He took millions of years to form the universe and eventually to form the earth. He took millions more years to make the earth suitable for life and to sustain humans. Then, he took many centuries to form the people of Israel. Over the course of several more centuries, he taught them to hope for a Messiah. Then, in the fullness of time, Jesus was born to save us from our sins. Now, God is preparing the world for the time in which Jesus will come again to create a new heaven and a new earth.

We don't know how long it will be until the world comes to an end. But, it will come to an end. And, when it does, Christ will be revealed as the King of Creation, and those who have believed in him will reign with him in glory. As Saint Paul tells us in the second reading (1 Cor.1:3-9), "He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." God's masterpiece, which he fashioned patiently with his own hands, will then be complete.

There's another reason why the world can be such a mess. Very simply, we don't give God permission to work on us. We keep trying to get in the way of God's plan. Clay does not have a mind of its own. It cannot jump out of the potters hand or out of the kiln. But human beings are always running away from God. We'd rather stay a wet lump of cold mud than be transformed into something beautiful by him. Even believers very often find it difficult to trust God enough to let him take control of their lives. It is a basic human tendency to believe that we know better than God what's good for us and how we should live.

But God never gives up on us. Like an artist consumed with his work, God is intent on making each of us into the woman or man he dreams we can be. He doesn't see a cold, hard lump of clay when he looks at any of us. God sees something beautiful made in his own image. No matter how we may have tarnished our beauty through sin, God never fails to see the good he has placed within us. And God will never stop working to bring the good out of us.

The early Fathers of the Church had a beautiful way of describing how God works in the world. They described Jesus and the Holy Spirit as the two hands God the Father uses to shape us. Jesus reveals the truth of the Father's love while the Holy Spirit works within our hearts to inspire us to do good. All this takes place within the course of our lives. When things are going well, the Son and the Spirit work together to make us grateful and generous. In bad times when we are suffering or struggling, the Son and the Spirit teach us to place our trust in God and to allow him to carry us through it. Therefore, whatever situation we may be facing, God is with us, using the circumstances in our lives to help us grow in holiness. With the Son and the Spirit, the Father shapes and molds us into something beautiful.

Today, we begin the season of Advent - four weeks of preparation for the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We wear purple during this time as we do during Lent because it is a season of penance. We are to spend these weeks searching our hearts for the ways in which we fail to let God work in our lives. We are to invite God back, asking him to take us into his hands and mold us into the image of his Son, Jesus Christ. The gospel warns us to be on the look out for the God who approaches us with tenderness and mercy. May he find us ready to welcome him and ready to abandon our lives into his gentle yet firm hands.

Let them drink pee!

We have all heard stories of people lost in the desert who resorted to drinking their own urine to keep hydrated in the scorching heat.

Along these lines, NASA has been testing a "urine processing" system which would allow astronauts to recycle their urine to provide potable water for long journeys in outer space. It is part of a 154 million dollar water processing system which, along with urine, can purify sweat and condensation for drinking water. The system is already being tested on the space shuttle Endeavor and at the international space station. But these rocket scientists are proceeding with caution, waiting until the recycled pee is tested on earth before imbibing.

Now, inspired by the revolutionary idea, a columnist at the Christian Science Monitor is wondering whether recycling urine is the way to deal with the planet's growing fresh water shortage http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/11/26/should-we-recycle-urine-on-earth-too/.

One out of six human beings on earth lacks access to fresh drinking water often making long, dangerous trips to secure enough for their daily use.

The popularity of bottled water has also been a concern among environmentalists since the plastic bottles find their way into already choked landfills. Furthermore, there is a fear that bottled water companies will use their profits to acquire rights to aquifers around the globe depriving local peoples of access to clean water.

One thing's for sure -recycling pee is only going to make bottled water more popular!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

So all may eat

About two years ago, my family attended a Lenten mission at Saint Dominic's in Swansea. The priest used the opportunity to create for us the experience of being guests at a soup kitchen. In an orderly line, we held out our Styrofoam bowls for a ladle full of noodle soup and sat at the wooden folding tables in the chilly parish hall. As my wife and daughters ate, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if that was the only meal I could afford to provide for them that day. I got a sense of the feelings of failure and helplessness the poor must experience.

While reflecting on that experience this week, I remembered an article I had read in the Boston Globe about a revolutionary restaurant in Denver called the SAME cafe.

The acronym "SAME" stands for "So all may eat". Unlike a typical restaurant, there is no set menu. The cook puts together whatever ingredients he has on hand. The food is served buffet style so there is little waste. But, most importantly, there is no set price. A donation box is set out so that customers can pay whatever they can afford that day. Those who can't pay volunteer washing dishes or mopping the floor.

Unlike a soup kitchen, you can't tell who is there because they can't afford to eat anywhere else. The poor are not singled out. They are customers like everyone else.

The SAME cafe provides more than food. It gives attention and a sense of community to people who so often feel lost and afraid. It is a place where people from all walks of life can mingle and overcome their prejudices and fears.

You'd think that such a restaurant would have little chance of surviving, but the SAME cafe has been in business for just about two years now. And it is not the first of its kind. It was actually inspired by a similar restaurant in Salt Lake City called One World-Everybody Eats.

I've provided links to the two restaurants on my "favorite links" board (I still haven't figured out how to embed links in the blog itself, sorry). Hopefully, more people will be inspired to take the risk of setting up such places throughout the country.

"I Knew You Would Come Back For Me"

The evangelical preacher, Jack Graham, tells the story of a man who brought his young son and daughter to the beach. While they were jumping around in the waves, a powerful riptide began to drag the children out to sea. The father, realizing that he would be able to save only one of them called out to his daughter, "Honey, listen to me! I'm going to bring your brother to shore. I want you to float on your back like you learned in your swimming lessons. You can do that for a long time. Then, Daddy promises he will come and find you." The daughter, her voice trembling, said "Okay", and the father fought the riptide to bring his son to shore.

Once on the beach, the father cried frantically for help. Someone offered the use of his boat, and they put out to look for the girl.

The father was sick with worry as he called out his daughter's name over the waves. After about an hour, they found her floating on her back just as her father had told her to do.

Getting her to safety on the boat, the father, overjoyed at finding his daughter, hugged her and said, "I'm so proud of you, honey! You were so brave!"

The daughter, shivering in his arms replied, "Daddy, I just did what you told me to because I knew you would come back for me."

Over the past few weeks, we have reflected on the God who has not abandoned us to drift aimlessly but has promised to come back to find us.

When Jesus ascended to take his throne in heaven, he left his disciples instructions and gave them the promise that he would be with them always to the end of the world. If the disciples followed Jesus' instruction, they could be assured that he would come back to find them.

What we are to do until Jesus comes to save us is given to us in yesterday's gospel (Mt. 25: 31-46). We are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the sick and those imprisoned. If we do what Jesus tells us, then we can be assured that he will pull us to safety, wrap his arms around us and congratulate us for our courage.

Christ the King

Saint Francis of Assisi is one of the Church's most popular saints. With good reason he is considered the one saint whose life most resembled that of Christ. Of all the good works he performed, one kind deed especially stands out. Shortly after he decided to dedicate his life to God, he came upon a leper in the street. It was customary at the time for lepers to ring a bell to warn people that they were approaching. When the young Francis saw the leper's twisted body and open sores, he felt disgusted and revolted. But, just as suddenly, another feeling came over him. His heart was filled with compassion for the man's suffering. Overcoming his feelings of disgust, he rushed over to him and embraced him as a brother. Inspired by today's gospel reading, Saint Francis understood that it was Jesus he was holding in his arms.

Jesus tells us in today's gospel that we will be judged by how we treat the poor and needy in our midst. He does not tell us this story to scare us, but to encourage us. For, when we find the courage to reach our hand out to another in need, something incredible happens. We discover Jesus. As he says, "Whenever you did it for the least of these, you did it for me." Jesus still walks the earth in the form of the neediest among us.

In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel blasts the "shepherds of Israel." They are both the political and spiritual leaders of the people who have used their authority and power to enrich themselves rather than to protect the sheep. God will not leave the sheep of his flock scattered, terrorized by predators and hungry. If the princes and priests of Israel will not lead, then God himself will come down to tend his sheep. God himself will protect them, feed them and heal them.

This prophecy finds its fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God himself come down from heaven to guide his sheep to everlasting life. His message was not just that a better life was waiting for us in heaven. Rather, Jesus came to show us how even now we could experience the saving love of God. As he told the disciples of John the Baptist, "The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them." With Jesus, the destructive effects of sin and death are being undone and the foundations of a new heaven and a new earth are being laid. It becomes real in the world today by the love which Christians show to those in need.

On this feast day, we proclaim the bold truth that Christ is King! As Saint Paul describes it for us in the second reading, Jesus by his death and resurrection has already won the victory over sin and death. Evil has already been defeated. That victory has been revealed to us through faith. It is hidden to give the world time to repent and to be saved. But the day is coming when Jesus' victory will be revealed once and for all. Then there will be no doubt. All people will have to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Until he comes again in glory, Jesus has left it to us to seek out and find those who are lost. Who in our life needs an encouraging word? Who in our life needs a friendly ear? Who in our life could use a visit? Who in our own home needs to know that they are loved and cared for? Like lost sheep, they will not come to us. If we are to live up to the challenge Jesus is giving us, we must go out to them.

For Christians, salvation is not just a future event awaiting us after death or at the end of the world. Salvation and eternal life are here, today and now. What we as Christians seek to do is bring heaven and its promises down to earth. Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and so we seek in everything we do to bring the love of Christ to those we meet.

Christ now reigns in heaven above. He has come to earth to bring hope and comfort to those who suffer. That same Christ is still among us hidden in the weak, the poor, the outcast and the sick. Saint John of the Cross said, "At the end of our lives, we will be judged on love." If we serve the suffering Christ in those we meet, we can be assured of reigning with Christ the King in his heavenly glory.

Just in time for the holidays

I found this prayer at http://www.catholicdoors.com




Holy Spirit, I want to lose weight,
but I keep on eating, and eating.
Help me to understand myself.
Why do I eat when I am not hungry?
What is it that I am trying to satisfy or fill up?
My need for affection?
My desire to feel full and strong?
Am I confusing a feeling of weakness and inadequacy with hunger?
Do I binge eat in order to smother my anger?
Please Holy Spirit,
give me the peace of heart I need in order to understand me.

And help me to say "no" to myself,
to control my urge to put something in my mouth,
to acquire some self discipline.
Help me to understand that my "no" is really a "yes"
to the person you are calling me to be.
Strengthen me to say "no" to myself and "yes" to You.

Amen.