Commentary
Sunday, 12/3/2017, First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah’s Prayer for Redemption
First Reading Commentary: Isaiah 63: 16b-17, 19b, 64:2-7
In today’s first reading, the prophet Isaiah prays to the LORD interceding on behalf of the Israelites admitting to their sinfulness. Isaiah could have been praying on behalf of all mankind since all of us are sinners.
Isaiah says, “You LORD, are our father, our redeemer.” As our creator, God the Father is our father in heaven and only He can redeem us with His saving grace and bring us to Him. We must believe and have faith in this fact in order for us to receive God’s saving grace. And so, Isaiah begins his petition in faith giving God the respect of acknowledging who He is.
This is the most important part of any prayer. Our faith must be deep rooted in our hearts if we expect to get a favorable response to any of our prayers. God will not answer our prayers if we do not acknowledge who He is and believe in faith that He can and will grant our requests.
After declaring his faith, Isaiah begins his intercession by saying, “Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways…so that we fear you not?” I want to make note of two things that Isaiah says in this line. First, Isaiah uses the words “us” and “we” which means that he includes himself. So when he later confesses to the sinfulness of the Israelites, he confesses to his own sinfulness as well.
Consider this: God does not send us to hell for the sins that we commit. God sends us to hell for refusing to admit to our sins, repent and do penance for our sins and make an honest effort to amend our lives. That is what Catholics say when they make a "good act of contrition." If we study the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, we find that it was not the sin but the refusal to own up to the sin by confessing the sin that resulted in Adam and Eve being cast out of the Garden of Eden. Worse yet, they each tried to blame someone else.
Second, Isaiah says, “Why do you let us wander…?” This sounds like Isaiah blames the LORD for the hardships of the Israelites. We often become angry with God for allowing us to experience tough times and sometimes we even blame God for our tough times. We loose sight of the fact that our tough times are the result of our own sins beginning with Adam and Eve. God lets us wander because in sin, that is what we choose to do. We have a choice because of our free will which is a gift from God. It is not God’s fault if we misuse our free will by choosing sin.
Knowing the story of the Israelites, one may argue that God did sentence the Israelites to wandering in the desert and therefore, their wandering is His fault. God did sentence the Israelites to forty years of wandering in the desert but it is not His fault. The sentence is the result of their sin which is a deliberate choice to do wrong by committing an offense against God by breaking His law.
When we sin, we separate ourselves from God and this, the Israelites had already done. God merely said that the separation will last for forty years. So anytime we are going through hard times and we want to ask God why, what we really ought to do is confess to our sinfulness and ask God for mercy and forgiveness. That is exactly what Isaiah does in his prayer and he says, “…guilt carries us away like the wind.”
Today’s reading ends with Isaiah testifying once again that the LORD is our father and Isaiah says, “…we are all the work of your hands.” This line from Isaiah gives us an opportunity to remember once again, that God made us in His image and instilled His goodness into each of us. God also gave us a free will which gives us the opportunity to remain faithful to the goodness that God instilled in us or to stray away in sin. Either way, ultimately, it is our choice.
More Thanks Than We Can Measure
Second Reading Commentary: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
St. Paul gives thanks to God for the Corinthians and the grace bestowed on them in Christ. He says that the testimony to Christ was confirmed among the Corinthians and that they do not lack in any spiritual gift. This gives us two things to consider. 1- All grace comes from God by way of the Son through His mother, Mary, who is the Mediatrix of all Grace. 2- The four kinds of grace.
There is “actual grace” which heals our sin and allows us to observe the natural law. Efficacious grace allows the good works of God’s grace to occur in our lives because we accept it. This means that God’s grace can only work for us because we accept His grace. Habitual grace gives one the tools needed to live life as a true disciple of Christ because habitual grace comes with all of the virtues, gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. Finally, Sanctifying grace comes to us when we are baptized. It brings us to a new life without the stain of original sin as we are converted to the Lord.
It is easy to miss the full magnitude of this prayer of thanksgiving by Paul without understanding everything that is available to us with God’s grace. When we look at the four kinds of grace and everything that comes with grace, it is clear to see that Paul thanks God for a great many things, more than we can measure.
Paul is hopeful that the Corinthians; have accepted all of God’s grace and that it will remain with them. He tells the Corinthians that as they wait for the revelation of Christ, He will keep them firm to the end. Paul also tells them that God is faithful and that they were called to fellowship with the Son.
Paul is saying that we are called to follow the Light of Christ all the way to heaven. But let’s take a closer look at Paul telling us that God is faithful. We do not always think about God being faithful to us. We think about our need to be faithful to Him. We realize that we express our faith when we give praise and glory to God. We know that we are being faithful to God when we live our lives according to His Word. Catholics understand that faith itself comes from God as a virtue of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, we think about our faith in God in many ways.
That makes sense because faith is a foundation and I see it as a vehicle through which everything else from God comes to us. That is because we cannot receive anything from God if we do not first believe in God.
But God does have faith in us and God is faithful to us. He has demonstrated that countless times even though some of us will fall victim to the evil one and turn away from God. But that is their choice. God created us in His image which means that goodness is instilled in all of us and God, by His own choice, has never failed to protect us and take care of us providing us with our every need.
God went so far as to send the Son to the cross for our salvation. Why? Because God knows that we will fall into sin. God knows that we cannot bring ourselves to Him meaning that we cannot be with Him in heaven without His salvation. Finally, and most importantly, God the Father sent the Son because He and the Holy Spirit love us too much not to!
As Paul thanked God for more than can be measured, we too have more reasons than can be measured to give thanks. Giving thanks to God is something that we should do every day by living in faith and using our many gifts for His glory.
Jesus Speaks Directly to Us
Gospel Commentary: Mark 13:33-37
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus warns us to be watchful. Throughout Matthew 24:36-25:13 and Jesus warns us to be good stewards of the blessings which are bestowed on us in Matthew 25:14-30 and Luke 19:12-27. Today’s gospel from Mark is a summation of those warnings. Jesus said, “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” Jesus was talking about His second coming on the last day and none of us know when that will be.
I remember years ago, there were those who speculated that the end would be in 1984. Then there were those who said that the end would come in 2000. There have been many speculations, some of them recently, of dates that the world would end. There are those who believe that the end is emanate. Who are we to say when Christ will come again? He will come when He comes and that will be when He is good and ready! The only thing we have to do is be ready. We just can't seem to be at peace with that.
Instead of worrying ourselves with when the last day will come, we should concern ourselves with making ourselves ready by living lives in faith—faith in God and faith in His promise of the Kingdom of Heaven. If we do that, the time of the last day does not matter.
But there is another last day for us to be mindful of and ready for. That is the day that we as individuals end our journey of exodus from this life. Notice, I did not say when we die because our life on earth is a journey and an exodus from this life to the next. On that day, we will face Christ who will judge us. Therefore, for those of us who leave this life before the second coming, our fate will already be decided and that is all the more reason to live a life of faith without worrying about the second coming of Christ.
Jesus said that it is like a man traveling and leaving his servants in charge, each with his own work. In other words, each of us has a mission in life. That mission is God’s Will for us. God has given us everything that we need to carry out that mission and it is incumbent upon us to be good stewards of our gifts and use them for the glory of God. If we fail to do that, we will not be ready for the second coming or for when our journey ends in this life.
Virtually everything written in the gospels which, is written as a quote from Jesus, is written in the context of Him speaking to an individual or group of people and in this case, Jesus was speaking to His disciples. Jesus said, “What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”
Those words cannot be more direct. It is like Jesus being in front of our face and saying, “I tell you: ‘Watch!’” That means, pray, pay attention to what He has taught us, follow His commandments, live in faith, use what He has given us for His glory and after all of that; pray some more.
I heard a very interesting homily a couple of years ago given by Fr. Stephen Ogoe. The subject centered around this gospel with focus on Jesus saying, "What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'"
In making his point, Fr. Stephen pointed to Jude 1:1 highlighting the words, "...to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ." With this phrase from Jude, Fr. Stephen made it clear that a true Christian will not be surprised to see Christ come again no matter when that time might be. A true Christian will not be afraid to see Christ come again either. If anyone is surprised or afraid to see Christ come again, they have a problem with God and do not believe because anyone with faith in God is kept safe.
