Posts Tagged ‘Advent’
Doubting into Faith with Saint Thomas – Br. Jonathan Maury
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Br. Jonathan Maury
Saint Thomas the Apostle
As this year’s Advent season draws to a close, we may well find ourselves questioning where God is present or even if God is present in the frightening chaos of our time. Yes, the Word’s coming among us in human flesh at Christmas still promises the restoration of wholeness, abundant new life and the future of divine glory for all creation. But in the midst of a fearful, world apocalypse of injustice, violence, cruelty, oppression, untruth, and greed – we may have our doubts.
It seems apt then, fortuitous even, that we should celebrate the image of Christ in Saint Thomas, the so-called “doubting” apostle. For just when the eternal Light seemed to have been extinguished, Thomas found faith and hope to be rekindled in the midst of his doubts.
If we are honest, the path to faith of “doubting” Thomas is in some measure shared by us all. Read More
Hope amidst the Eclipse of Light – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
Advent 4A
Today we have lighted the last candle in the Advent wreath, the fourth and final Sunday in the season of Advent. Today is also the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen and the sun rises higher in the sky. This anticipates a holiday season of light, with festal candles adorning dinner tables, and lights aglow in windows and shops and on Christmas wreaths and trees. These lights we see all around this time of year actually have a Christian history, but not a Christian origin. Followers of Jesus in the first centuries wanted the celebration of Christ’s birth to coincide with or to rival the winter solstice festival of the Roman Empire, which was on December 25th, the day the empire called “the birthday of the unconquered sun.”[1] The early Christians were convinced that Jesus, not the emperor, was the light of the world. In later years, the Gospel writers remembered Jesus’ saying of himself, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
Whether or not we understand the history and symbolism of festal light this season, we do innately crave light. Whether we suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, whether we are afraid of “things that go bump in the night,” or whether we simply feel that we are “in the dark” about the mystery of our own life, we crave light and enlightenment. The candles and strands of light we see most everywhere in the season of Advent and in the coming Christmastide are reminders of how common and how deep this craving for real light actually is, and from the depths of our souls. Read More
When in Doubt, Be Humble – Br. Jack Crowley
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Br. Jack Crowley
Tonight we heard Jesus say to the chief priests and elders “Truly, I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” Ouch. How do you come back from that? Those are humbling words.
One rule I follow in praying with scripture is, no matter what the context, I try to imagine Jesus speaking his words to me personally. I try to imagine Jesus’ tone and words matching what someone close to me would say to me today. So for tonight’s passage, I imagine Jesus looking me in the eye and saying “Jack, seriously, tax collectors and prostitutes are getting into heaven before you.”
I’m always left humbled by Jesus’ words. Humbled, not humiliated, but humbled. Humbled to know my place in line.
The good news is there’s never a bad time to be humbled. Humility is always a good response when you have no response. Humility works when nothing else does. Read More
Longing for Christ – Br. James Koester
Br. James Koester
Preached at the Church of St. Augustine and St. Martin, Boston.
Advent 3A
Isaiah 35:1-10
Matthew 11:2-11
Several years ago, one of my favourite newspaper columnists[1] wrote about how she loved going to Church on Christmas Eve, especially if there was a light snowfall. She wrote about how she loved to hear the nativity story and sing the familiar Christmas carols. She wrote about how she would line up with the other members of the congregation and kneel before the altar, decorated with poinsettias, and receive Holy Communion. She wrote about all this and then ended her column wondering why she bothered, because even though she had grown up an Anglican, she had long ago stopped going to Church. She admitted that she didn’t believe a word of what was said in Church on Christmas Eve, or any other day for that matter.
What she loved was the ritual; the familiarity of the story; and the picture-perfect Christmas card scene of a moonlight night with lots of bright stars and snow. For her, there was no sense that the ritual and the story could mean any more than a reminder of a simpler time in her life. What she loved, and I hasten to add, these are my words and not hers, what she loved was the nostalgia of Christmases long ago. Read More
Between Offense and Misunderstanding – Br. Keith Nelson
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Br. Keith Nelson
Advent 3A
Isaiah 35:1-10
Matthew 11:2-11
In my senior year in college, I took a linguistic anthropology course. One lecture seemed to summarize much of my life’s experience. The topic was direct and indirect communication, and the cultural dimensions that shape our often unconscious use of one or the other in public situations.
I had spent the first nine years of my life in southern New Jersey, then age nine to eighteen in central Alabama. In very general terms, U.S. culture as a whole favors direct communication, along with countries like Germany and Australia and all of Scandinavia. But the northeastern and Atlantic states, as well as the Western U.S., especially typify direct speech. People say what they mean; clarity and efficiency are priorities; the manner of speaking is more informal. Indirect communication characterizes places like Japan, China, the Middle East, Latin America, and the south of England: places where people often infer or imply what they really mean using understatement; where avoidance of social conflict is a high priority; and where speech tends to be more formal.
Lots of exceptions apply: the individual, the context, the class, race, and gender of those speaking. But generally: New Jersey and Alabama fit those contrasting patterns. Read More
The Lady on the Hill – Br. Jamie Nelson
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Br. Jamie Nelson
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Today we celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary’s appearance near Mexico City in the year 1531 as Our Lady of Guadalupe.
As the story goes, an Indigenous Nahua farmer named Juan Diego was walking alone at dawn on his way to mass at the nearest church. As he passed a hill, he heard music and birdsong coming from the summit. When he went to the top of the hill to find out what was going on, he saw a beautiful lady surrounded by light.
The lady spoke to him in Nahuatl, his native language, and identified herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God. She told Juan Diego to go to the bishop in Mexico City to ask for a church to be built on top of the hill.
So Juan Diego humbly and faithfully presented himself at the bishop’s office, but the bishop didn’t believe him. Juan Diego returned to the hill and reported his mission’s failure. Undaunted, the Lady told him to go back to the bishop the next day and to ask again. Read More
John’s Unpleasant Message – Br. David Vryhof
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Br. David Vryhof
In recent years, a prepackaged Advent series called “The Advent Conspiracy” has become quite popular in certain churches. It has the laudable goal of focusing on what’s really important in our preparation for Christmas by encouraging people to buy less, to give more to charity, and to spend time with their families rather than just spending money on them. The program seems commendable but there’s something that seems to be missing.
I wonder what John the Baptist would have thought about it. John pops up everywhere in our Advent readings and with good reason. He was the most popular preacher of his generation. Jesus claims that “among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). People walked for miles just to see him, drawn by his unusual lifestyle and his dramatic, even theatrical, preaching. He was a sight to see, for sure, but they also found their hearts captured by his message. Hordes of them found themselves welling up with tears, telling God how sorry they were, and lining up to be cleansed in the River Jordan. Even those who came just to see the spectacle went home drenched with baptismal waters. Read More
Child of Hope and Promise – Br. Lain Wilson
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Br. Lain Wilson
The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Luke 1:26-38
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12
A couple, diligent in their prayers and service, humble in their relationships, faithful to their God. Long denied their one desire: a child of their own. Fervently praying, they are brought tidings of good news by a messenger from God: they will have a child
Anne and Joachim’s story, although not found in scripture, more than echoes other scriptural accounts. Sarah and Abraham, Hannah and Elkanah, Elizabeth and Zechariah: all couples whose joy in children had been withheld, and who eventually were able to conceive following fervent prayer. Anne and Joachim fit into this tradition.
This story, and the feast of the conception of Mary, are thus, from one perspective, standard scriptural fare on the power of God to intervene in the lives of the faithful. But, from another perspective, something new is happening here. Read More
Recognizing the Lord – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
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Br. Geoffrey Tristram
Sirach 48:1-11
Matthew 17:9-13
The prophet Elijah is one of the great figures of the Bible, and straddles both the Old and New Testaments. In our first reading today from the Book of Sirach, we have this great paeon of praise for Elijah: ‘How glorious you are Elijah in your wondrous deeds’. There is also a profound hope that he would come again, to prepare the way of the Lord. This hope grows through the Hebrew scriptures, and culminates in the very last verses of the Old Testament, in the Book of Malachi: ‘Lo I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.’ And to this day, when Jewish families celebrate Passover, they leave a place at the table for Elijah, and at one point a son goes to the front door to see if Elijah has come.
In our Gospel reading from Matthew, the disciples Peter, James and John are coming down the mountain having just experienced the glorious Transfiguration of Jesus. At the Transfiguration they saw Elijah, as well as Moses, who were talking with Jesus. As the disciples walked down the mountain they questioned Jesus about Elijah. They wanted to know why Elijah had not come earlier, as promised in scripture, preceding the coming of Jesus. Jesus told them that Elijah had already come, but that people did not recognize him. ‘Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.’ John came preaching repentance and prepared the way for the promised Messiah. In this way, he was fulfilling the role of Elijah, but the religious leaders simply did not recognize him. They did not recognize him. The scriptures are full of this theme of failing to recognize the one who is in their midst; of not truly seeing; of spiritual blindness. Of course, Jesus’ enemies did not recognize who he was. Remember all those chapters in John’s Gospel, where the Pharisees keep asking him hostile questions about his identity. ‘Where are you from? Who is your family? How do you know so much – you’ve never been taught. You are not yet fifty; how have you seen Abraham?’ Finally, in chapter 8: 25 in exasperation, ‘Who are you?’ as the prologue to John puts it, ‘He was in the world, yet the world did not know him,’ Read More
Desire, Distilled – Br. Keith Nelson
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Isaiah 40:1-11
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8
I was blessed in the second year of my novitiate to work with a spiritual director who was a Trappist monk. Once a month, he patiently listened to the many words I would summon as I circled around my inmost experience of prayer. With a verbal precision sifted by silence, and great love, he would wait. And at the right moment, which would always come, he would name the heart of the matter. Suddenly, words would feel small and superfluous, and the way forward obvious, in the presence of a God whose one desire was simply to be with me.
He shared with me an adage I still remember:
Filled with ardent desire
yet not pressing the point
we become a place
where the Lord may rest.
The words capture the essential invitation in swift, clean strokes. We let our thirst for God rise up from within. We refrain from any agenda of our own contriving, any attachment to this or that experience. And we wait. As we wait, it may happen that God rests – and we rest in God, drawn by this harmonious alignment of wills. Read More