Second Sunday in Advent: Answering the Call

Answering the Call

All three readings for the Second Sunday in Advent have a common theme of being called. Each of them expresses a definite call and an invitation to change. Baruch’s call, in chapter 5 of the Old Testament is to put on a new garment, “a robe of righteousness and a crown of eternal glory”. There is also a call to come together in unity. His recognition of the power of God to assist in the change is shown as God brings his people from bondage to level ground to a place fragrant with the scent of cedars.

In the second reading, in Philippians 1:3-11, the call is a need to grow in prayer. There also is an acknowledgment of the good already accomplished. However, there is a further call in the form of a challenge to continue in love as overflowing, a deepening in knowledge and insight.

The call in St. Luke’s Gospel is a familiar one as heard every year during Advent. It is the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight his paths.”  Without doubt, this calls for work to be done which may begin in the deepest recesses in the self or it might be a place of darkness or light. Blame cannot be placed on what we have inherited or from where we have come. The work is there for us to do. We may need to seek help. Nothing says that we must work alone. God gives the challenge and is present if called upon.

John the Baptist issues the final urgent call when he insists, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.”  This is the call to LOVE.

As we allow the self to be touched, encouragement is at hand. The Advent Gospel proclaims:

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low

and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

By Sister Caroline Bering, csj

Photo credit: ignation .ca

What's Strong With You?

Recently, a recurring line from a TV commercial caught my attention. Repeatedly, we are asked, “What’s strong with you?” Not wanting any viewer to miss the query, the line is printed several times across the screen.

Upon reflection, I decided to adopt this line as my entry point for Advent 2021. What insights might I gain if I sat with the question,

“What’s strong with me?”

How might my experience of Advent change if I withdrew my attention from self-reflection on the question, “What’s wrong with me?” Could I better put the focus on my inner strength and the graces given me by the Sacred Strength Giver? How might this shift in perspective open my heart to new graces? What might I discover about what buoys up my spirit? What messengers of new strength might I identify as the ones who bring tidings of good news and encouragement into my daily life? Who in my circle of interactions might I find an opportunity to thank for their recurring strength?

As Advent begins, I challenge you to join me in reflecting upon your own life.

What’s strong with you?

Sister Nancy Wales, csj

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Header image: Unsplash/Waldemar Brandt

A Reflection for the First Sunday of Advent

This Sunday, November 28th marks the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the Church’s new liturgical year. It is likely that we will hear again the beautiful strains of the Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”. In its words we hear, in our hearts, a yearning and a personal call for Christ to meet us on the journey of our lives anew. Christ is always present in all things and in every moment and event and yet in Advent we ask for a new beginning, a fresh encounter with Christ as the time invites us to wait in patient hope to celebrate the birth of Jesus again; the incarnate Word en-fleshed  in the world.

The world in which we find ourselves, however, may seem less than hopeful at present. We continue to experience the devastation of the Covid pandemic, increasing news of global and local violence, the effects of ecological destruction accompanied by immeasurable human pain, poverty and displacement and the deep suffering endured by indigenous individuals and communities in light of the further revelations of the harm and cultural destruction wrought by the residential schools. Many will also be profoundly discouraged and saddened by examples of corruption and polarization in the Church, where the Good News of the Gospel seems to have been forgotten or abandoned and in the collapse of other institutions that formerly we may have trusted. 

Hope may seem far off and yet if we truly call on “Christ, Emmanuel, God-with-us, to come we are already” expressing hope even in the darkness. In the Advent season we are reminded to encounter Christ again and any encounter with Christ calls each of us to BE hope in the world.

Advent invites us to prepare for the celebration of Christ’s coming by reflecting on our lives. The season presents an opportunity to gift us some time for quietness and inner reflection as we wait in hope. Am I able to enter into Advent in this way before getting caught up in the “razzmatazz” of contemporary celebrations of Christmas?  In the second reading in the Lectionary for the first Sunday of Advent, St. Paul, in his Letter to the Thessalonians says, “May God make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all.” As I call out for Christ to come again and as I encounter Him on the journey of Advent will I increase and abound in love for all? – the very reason for Christmas. What will that love look like? How wide and inclusive will it be?  Perhaps each day of the season as I greet the morning I might ask, not “what will I do today but rather, how will I love today? May our love continue to grow as we once again approach the  celebration of the birth of Christ in the world, the world of our times. And as we love so will we be and become like Christ, hope for a new day, the joy of Christmas!

-Sister Mary Rowell, csj

Generous Listening

Finally, attention to the almost-lost art of listening! September 26th being the National day of Listening, I thought it might be appropriate to focus on how we are called to listening to what Indigenous voices are saying to us these days as Canadians.  To what are we listening and what are we really hearing about Residential Schools, about murdered and missing women, men, girls and boys?

What are we really hearing and believing from Indigenous Elders who are survivors of Residential Schools? What is heard? What is heart-felt? What is the message in the revealing of hundreds of graves found on the grounds of former residential Schools? Are we brave and sufficiently honest to acknowledge this dark history of Canada that was one form of cultural genocide?

Krista Tippett says of listening: “Generous Listening is an everyday art and virtue, but it’s an art we have lost and must learn anew. Listening is more than being quiet while others have their say. It is about presence as much as receiving; it is about connection more than observing. Real listening is powered by curiosity. It involves vulnerability — a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity. It is never in “gotcha” mode. The generous listener wants to understand the humanity behind the words of the other and patiently summons one’s own best self and one’s own most generous words and questions.”

In being present to  Indigenous Knowledge Keepers who have committed themselves to truth telling, I have found from my own experience that it requires of me, the listener, to be open minded, eager to learn the truth, respectful, and have the ability to create an atmosphere of hospitality and to provide a safe environment.  When that happens, relationships begin to develop, because of the mutual respect that grows.

If one has already made up one’s mind about Aboriginal people, true respectful listening cannot happen. One is simply unable to move the shared intellectual truths from the head to the heart. For any steps toward reconciliation to happen, the heart must be affected. 

The Doctrine of Discovery, promulgated in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI, has done incredible harm to the valuing and appreciation of the First Peoples of any land, and especially, in this case, of Canada.

Thankfully, THAT doctrine has been definitively denounced.

The scar tissue left from this doctrine has left a deep wound that is in need of healing. We, non-Indigenous people, need to be healed from our ignorance and arrogance, our shame and shock.  Indigenous peoples need to healed from the belief that they are inferior, less than, and hence are not worthy to be in relationship with all creation and to share the resources of the earth equitably.

If one opens one’s heart in this listening process, one discovers that the First Peoples of Canada have a deep respect for the land, for all creation.  “All my relations” is not just an idle phrase.

For us non-Indigenous people especially, but not totally, there is a useful resource available for further assistance in developing relationships between First Nations peoples and us non-Indigenous people.  It is the guidebook put out by the Jesuit social forum: A Guide to Listening to Indigenous Voices .

Ideally, it is very workable with an Indigenous person or more, to be in these Sharing Circles.

The time is now. The place is here.  Let’s move forward together in creating a more just and sustainable world.

 - Sister Kathleen Lichti, csj

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Images provided from Unsplash: Jonathan J. Castellon | Lee Campbell