Advent: Be Prepared

Definition

The term advent derives from the Latin ad venio, which means to “to come.” The Advent season, which marks the Catholic new year, is meant to be one of preparation for the coming of Christ. Most people associate this period with the coming of Christ at Christmas – baby Jesus born in a manger. While this is correct, it is not the full story. Advent is also meant to be a preparation for the second coming of Christ.

Be Prepared

If you have followed the readings for the past week, one of the running themes has been the end of times. To put the message of these reading succinctly: we've got to get right with God because we don't know the day nor the hour that he is coming. SPOILER ALERT: we are all going to die, some of us sooner than others. If you were to drop dead in the middle of reading this post, would you be ready to be called home (or at least purgatory)? Like the Boy Scouts, we are being reminded to always be prepared.

Spiritual Jump Start

The Church knew what she was doing when she organized these special seasons within the Liturgical Calendar. The majority of the year is made up of Ordinary Time when the priest normally wears green. This models the life of Christ who spent the majority of his life in obscure ordinariness. We too spend much of our time conducting the affairs of our own ordinary (normal) lives. Sometimes (often) we fall into ruts, even in our daily prayer lives. Special seasons like Advent are meant to help give us a spiritual jump start.  Like the Lenten Season, we can incorporate three key characteristics to enrich our Advent: prayer, mortification/penance and almsgiving.

Mix Up Meditation Material

Assuming you have already incorporated a spiritual game plan that includes daily personal prayer, I recommend using Advent as a time to mix things up a bit. If you don’t set time aside each day to pray and meditate– start! If you are currently meditating on the daily readings, for example, think about switching to a spiritual classic like The Way by St. Josemaria Escriva or Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales. I am recommending these books because they are meant for the laity.

Practical and Powerful

A practical, yet powerful practice we can include during this Advent Season is to invite a fallen Catholic back to the sacraments. Most parishes conduct Evenings of Reconciliation during Advent. Invite a friend or family member who has been away for a while. You may be the very instrument God chooses to use to bring them back into the Church. What better gift to give during this season than the sacraments?

Plug Into Parish

Finally, we should find ways to plug into our parish activities. Most importantly, we should participate in the rich liturgical celebrations during this month, like the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Feast of St. Juan Diego and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Perhaps your parish has some cultural celebrations like the posadas celebrated in many Hispanic communities. Another way may be for your family to volunteer to light the candles of the Advent Wreath prior to mass.

More to Come

In the next few days I will write more about Advent. I will be reviewing a devotional from Magnificat to help with your daily meditations. I will also be writing about how to use entertainment to get you in the right seasonal spirit. Finally, I will share a number of family traditions associated with Advent and Christmas. Later tonight, I will share our first two posts on the Jesse Tree and Advent Wreath.

Navarre Bible Commentary:Tuesday, 4th Week of Advent

Zechariah by James Tissot

Luke 1:67-79

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

Zechariah’s Prophecy

67 And his father Zechari′ah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying,

68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people,

69 and has raised up a horn of salvation[a] for us in the house of his servant David,

70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

71 that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us;

72 to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant,

73 the oath which he swore to our father Abraham,

74 to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,

75 in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.

76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,

78 through the tender mercy of our God, when the day shall dawn upon[b] us from on high

79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Footnotes:

a. 1.69 a horn of salvation: i.e., a mighty savior.
b. Luke 1:78 Or whereby the dayspring will visit. Other ancient authorities read since the dayspring has visited

[Notes from Bible Gateway]

Cited in the Catechism:  In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."  He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism, paragraph 422, 523, 706, 717 and 718.

Commentary

1:67. Zechariah, who was a righteous man (cf. v. 6), received the special grace of prophecy when his son was born—a gift which led him to pronounce his canticle, called the Benedictus, a prayer so full of faith, reverence and piety that the Church has laid it down to be said daily in the Liturgy of the Hours. Prophecy has not only to do with foretelling future events; it also means being moved by the Holy Spirit to praise God. Both aspects of prophecy are to be found in the Benedictus.

1:68–79. Two parts can be discerned in the Benedictus: in the first (vv. 68–75) Zechariah thanks God for sending the Messiah, the Saviour, as he promised the patriarchs and prophets of Israel. In the second (vv. 76–79) he prophesies that his son will have the mission of being herald of the Most High and precursor of the Messiah, proclaiming God’s mercy which reveals itself in the coming of Christ.

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome

Advent: The Unexpected Encounter with Christ

Spirit Juice Films consistently produces beautiful work. What is your unexpected encounter?

Jesse Tree: Day 19 - Zechariah and Sarah

Luke 1:39-45

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

Mary Visits Elizabeth

39In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechari′ah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be[a] a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Footnotes:

1. Luke 1:45 Or believed, for there will be

Commentary

1:29–30. Our Lady is troubled by the presence of the archangel and by the confusion truly humble people experience when they receive praise.

1:30. The Annunciation is the moment when our Lady is given to know the vocation which God planned for her from eternity. When the archangel sets her mind at ease by saying “Do not be afraid, Mary,” he is helping her to overcome that initial fear which a person normally experiences when God gives him or her a special calling. The fact that Mary felt this fear does not imply the least trace of imperfection in her: hers is a perfectly natural reaction in the face of the supernatural. Imperfection would arise if one did not overcome this fear or rejected the advice of those in a position to help—as St Gabriel helped Mary.

1:31–33. The archangel Gabriel tells the Blessed Virgin that she is to be the Mother of God by reminding her of the words of Isaiah which announced that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, a prophecy which will find its fulfilment in Mary (cf. Mt 1:22–23; Is 7:14).

He reveals that the Child will be “great”: his greatness comes from his being God, a greatness he does not lose when he takes on the lowliness of human nature. He also reveals that Jesus will be the king of the Davidic dynasty sent by God in keeping with his promise of salvation; that his Kingdom will last forever, for his humanity will remain forever joined to his divinity; that “he will be called Son of the Most High”, that is, he really will be the Son of the Most High and will be publicly recognized as such; in other words, the Child will be the Son of God.

The archangel’s announcement evokes the ancient prophecies which foretold these prerogatives. Mary, who was well-versed in Holy Scripture, clearly realized that she was to be the Mother of God.

1:34–38. Commenting on this passage John Paul II said: “Virgo fidelis, the faithful Virgin. What does this faithfulness of Mary’s mean? What are the dimensions of this faithfulness? The first dimension is called search. Mary was faithful first of all when she began, lovingly, to seek the deep sense of God’s plan in her and for the world. Quomodo fiet? How shall this be?, she asked the Angel of the Annunciation […].

“The second dimension of faithfulness is called reception, acceptance. The quomodo fiet? is changed, on Mary’s lips, to a fiat: Let it be done, I am ready, I accept. This is the crucial moment of faithfulness, the moment in which man perceives that he will never completely understand the ‘how’; that there are in God’s plan more areas of mystery than of clarity; that, however he may try, he will never succeed in understanding it completely […].

“The third dimension of faithfulness is consistency to live in accordance with what one believes; to adapt one’s own life to the object of one’s adherence. To accept misunderstanding, persecutions, rather than a break between what one practises and what one believes: this is consistency […].

“But all faithfulness must pass the most exacting test, that of duration.

“Therefore, the fourth dimension of faithfulness is constancy. It is easy to be consistent for a day or two. It is difficult and important to be consistent for one’s whole life. It is easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm, it is difficult to be so in the hour of tribulation. And only a consistency that lasts throughout the whole of life can be called faithfulness. Mary’s ‘fiat’ in the Annunciation finds its fullness in the silent ‘fiat’ that she repeats at the foot of the Cross” (Homily in Mexico City Cathedral, 26 January 1979).

1:34. Mary believed the archangel’s words absolutely; she did not doubt as Zechariah had done (cf. Lk 1:18). Her question, “How can this be?”, expresses her readiness to obey the will of God even though at first sight it implied a contradiction: on the one hand, she was convinced that God wished her to remain a virgin; on the other, here was God also announcing that she would become a mother. The archangel announces God’s mysterious design, and what had seemed impossible, according to the laws of nature, is explained by a unique intervention on the part of God.

Mary’s resolution to remain a virgin was certainly something very unusual, not in line with the practice of righteous people under the Old Covenant, for, as St Augustine explains, “particularly attentive to the propagation and growth of the people of God, through whom the Prince and Saviour of the world might be prophesied and be born, the saints were obliged to make use of the good of matrimony” (De bono matrimonii, 9, 9). However, in the Old Testament there were some who, in keeping with God’s plan, did remain celibate—for example, Jeremiah, Elijah, Eliseus and John the Baptist. The Blessed Virgin, who received a very special inspiration of the Holy Spirit to practise virginity, is a first-fruit of the New Testament, which will establish the excellence of virginity over marriage while not taking from the holiness of the married state, which it raises to the level of a sacrament (cf. Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 48).

1:35. The “shadow” is a symbol of the presence of God. When Israel was journeying through the wilderness, the glory of God filled the Tabernacle and a cloud covered the Ark of the Covenant (Ex 40:34–36). And when God gave Moses the tablets of the Law, a cloud covered Mount Sinai (Ex 24:15–16); and also, at the transfiguration of Jesus, the voice of God the Father was heard coming out of a cloud (Lk 9:35).

At the moment of the incarnation the power of God envelopes our Lady—an expression of God’s omnipotence. The Spirit of God—which, according to the account in Genesis (1:2), moved over the face of the waters, bringing things to life—now comes down on Mary. And the fruit of her womb will be the work of the Holy Spirit. The Virgin Mary, who herself was conceived without any stain of sin (cf. Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus) becomes, after the incarnation, a new tabernacle of God. This is the mystery we recall every day when saying the Angelus.

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome

Jesse Tree: Day Sixteen - Jeremiah

Source: Shower of Roses

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

A New Covenant

31 [a]“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Footnotes:

31.31-34 The new covenant; cf. Mt 26.28.

The new Covenant

31:31–37. The words of this oracle are central to Jeremiah’s message, and they constitute the passage in the book that has had most impact on the New Testament and on Christian teaching. Most ancient and modern commentators consider these words to be original words of Jeremiah, and they generally attribute them to the early stages of his ministry, because they express support for King Josiah’s religious reform.

The oracle is made up of two contrasting parts: the first (vv. 31–32) describes the Old Covenant, broken by the people’s sins; the second (vv. 33–35) speaks very forcefully of the New Covenant which will endure forever.

The old Covenant is described in terms of three characteristic features: it carried the force of tradition because it was a pact made “with the fathers”; it was a sign of divine election, as can be seen from a phrase exclusive to Jeremiah: “when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt”; and it showed the Lord’s authority over his people.

The new pact has three key features, too: it is new, it is something interior, and it is heartfelt, written upon their hearts. It is new, because prior to this the pact with God was never described in that way; that is, it is new not in terms of the previous covenant which has ceased to operate (cf. Heb 8:8–13) but in the sense that it is definitive and will not be superseded. When, at the Last Supper, Jesus said the words of consecration over the chalice: “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant” (Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25), he brings Jeremiah’s words to fulfilment. It is interior because it is etched in the heart of the people and of each individual. Its content did not change (it is the Law of God) but people will know it in a different way: the previous covenant was written on tablets of stone (Ex 31:18; 34:28ff), but this one will be written on the heart and soul of man. Therefore, it is part of a person’s very being; it is not just an external obligation; people’s well-formed consciences tell them what they ought to do; if they fail to live up to the demands of the until they are converted and are redeemed from sin. In the Letter to the Hebrews it says, by way of explaining this passage, that in the New Covenant Christ has obtained forgiveness of sins for us through the cross, and therefore the old sin offerings no longer have any effect: “Where there is forgiveness (of sins), there is no longer any offering for sin” (Heb 10:18). Finally, it is heartfelt because it is based on a loving relationship between God and his people. The wording that Jeremiah likes so much (“I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer 31:33; cf. 7:23) implies bonds of fidelity and love. The nearest precedent for this is Hosea, who used the metaphor of marriage as the hinge of his preaching and who defined sin as estrangement from God, and punishment in terms of marital breakdown: “Call his name Not my people, for you are not my people and I am not your God” (Hos 1:9). Therefore, moral imperatives should not come via legal imposition from outside; they should arise from a person’s heart—the aim being not so much perfect, guiltless behaviour as living in union with God: “All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them” (1 Jn 3:24).

The New Covenant has given its name to the “New Testament”, on which the new people of God is founded, as the Second Vatican Council says: “At all times and in every race God has given welcome to what is right. God, however, does not make men holy and save them merely as individuals, without bond or link between one another. Rather has it pleased him to bring men together as one people, a people that acknowledges him in truth and serves him in holiness. He therefore chose the race of Israel as a people unto himself. With it he set up a covenant. Step by step he taught and prepared this people, making known in its history both himself and the decree of his will and making it holy unto himself. All these things, however, were done by way of preparation and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant, which was to be ratified in Christ, and of that fuller revelation which was to be given through the Word of God Himself made flesh. ‘Behold the days shall come saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel, and with the house of Judah. […] I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. […] For all of them shall know Me, from the least of them even to the greatest, saith the Lord’ (Jer 31:31–34). Christ instituted this new covenant, the new testament, that is to say, in his Blood, calling together a people made up of Jew and Gentile, making them one, not according to the flesh but in the Spirit” (Lumen gentium, 9).

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome

Jesse Tree: Day Fifteen - Isaiah

Source: Festal Celebrations

Isaiah 6:1-8

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

A Vision of God in the Temple

6 [a]In the year that King Uzzi′ah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

6 Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar.7 And he touched my mouth, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.” 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Footnotes:

1. 6.1-13 This vision stresses the solemnity of the prophet’s calling. The “Holy, holy, holy” is fittingly included in the Mass. The vision also serves to introduce the Immanuel prophecies.

Commentary

The Lord calls Isaiah

6:1–13. As an introduction to what is called the “Book of Immanuel” (7:1–12:6) we get this account of how the Lord called Isaiah to be a prophet, sending him to his people at the time of the Syrian—Ephraimite coalition to explain to them what is going on and how they should act.

The account begins with a theophany (vv. 1–4), which is one of the key points in this book’s message. God manifests himself seated in the manner of eastern kings, surrounded by his angelic court (the “seraphim”), who extol the holiness of the Lord: he clearly is Lord of all. In this vision, God is depicted as the thrice holy (v. 3), the highest form of superlative available in Hebrew. Being holy implies standing apart—standing above everything else. God stands far above all other beings, and he is their creator. In Hebrew “holy” includes the idea of “sacred”. It means that God has none of the limitations and imperfections that created beings have.

The holiness and majesty of God fill Isaiah with a sense of his own uncleaness and that of his people (v. 5). Typically, visions of God in biblical history induce feelings of fear in the seer; we even see this in the angel’s announcement to Mary (cf. Lk 1:30): “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.” “Faced with God’s fascinating and mysterious presence, man discovers his own insignificance. Before the burning bush, Moses takes off his sandals and veils his face (cf. Ex 3:5–6) in the presence of God’s holiness. Before the glory of the thrice-holy God, Isaiah cries out: ‘Woe is me! I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips’ (Is 6:5). Before the divine signs wrought by Jesus, Peter exclaims: ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’ (Lk 5:8). But because God is holy, he can forgive the man who realizes that he is a sinner before him: ‘I will not sinner before him: ‘I will not execute my fierce anger … for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst (Hos 11:9)’ ” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 208).

Isaiah is cleansed and consoled as soon as he humbly acknowledges his unworthiness and insignificance before God (vv. 6–7). His instinctive sense of fear is immediately replaced by a generous and trusting response on the prophet’s part: he is ready to do what God wants (v. 8). “In their one to one’ encounters with God the prophets draw light and strength for their mission. Their prayer is not flight from this unfaithful world, but rather attentiveness to the Word of God. At times their prayer is an argument or a complaint, but it is always an intercession that awaits and prepares for the intervention of the Saviour God, the Lord of history (cf. Amos 7:2, 5; Is 6:5, 8, 11; Jer 1:6; 15:15–18; 20:7–18)” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2584).

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome