Year A

Jan 13 2025

The Promise of Joy

Joy is different from happiness. Happiness is a transient experience, but joy has more depth to it, more lasting roots. It can be independent of what is going on around us. In John’s Gospel, the night before he died, Jesus says to his disciples that he wants his joy to be in them and their joy to be complete (John 15:11). And Paul writes to the Thessalonians: “Rejoice always” (2 Thessalonians 5:16).

Today’s readings invite us to think about what brings us joy. Isaiah offers images of a world that will blossom or bloom, flowering into fullness. The prophet gives us wonderful images of dry, parched land suddenly breaking into a colorful display of new and abundant life.

This fullness also results from something being restored that had been lost or that was missing from the start: sight, hearing, being able to sing and leap with joy, health of body and spirit. Such fullness comes from God. It is gift, pure and simple.

God wants us to have this fullness of life, to be sure. It will come with the coming of the Lord. In the meantime, we are to wait patiently, not complaining, but with hearts marked by certitude. We have assurance in that we have already been welcomed into the kingdom at our baptism. The rest is only a matter of time. In speaking of John as more than a prophet, Jesus concludes by saying, “Yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11).

Consider/Discuss

What makes you happy? What makes you joyful? Is there a difference?
How is God asking you to be patient at the present time?

Responding to the Word

We can ask God to give us that joy that the world cannot give, a joy that is found rooted in our faith in God, in our trusting that the God who raised Jesus up will also bring us to fullness of life.

Jan 13 2025

Scripture Study for

Isaiah depicts two ways in which the renewal promised by God is manifested: the barren wilderness filled with new life, and the healing of those suffering some physical malady. In a world that believes that God created everything in proper order, imperfection of any kind is often perceived as a consequence of sin. This explains why healing was seen as restoration to that proper order. Such restoration was a sign of the transformation that only God can effect. It was a testimony to God’s presence in the world and to God’s victory over evil. God had reestablished the original order of creation, and all life began again to flourish.

Patience is the controlling theme in the second reading. Parousía, which means “coming” or “presence,” became a technical term for the future coming of Christ to inaugurate the definitive manifestation of God’s eternal dominion. Because the exact time of this advent was unknown, patience would be necessary until that day of fulfillment dawned. The example of the farmer waiting for the crop to grow and mature highlights some important aspects of this patient waiting. Believers are told to take the prophets as their models in bearing the hardships of life and in waiting patiently for the coming of the Lord.

In his response to the questions of the Baptist’s followers, Jesus links his own wondrous deeds with the prophets’ allusions to visions of fulfillment. Healings of the needy were all signs of the dawning of the eschatological age. They were also indications of the type of messiah that Jesus would be. Those who were expecting a political or military leader who would free them from Roman domination or a priest who would bring them together as a cultic community would be disappointed with Jesus. Jesus then states that regardless of how insignificant his followers might be, as citizens of the reign of heaven they enjoyed a privilege that John did not know.

Jan 13 2025

God’s Grace Draws Us Closer

I remember a young mother saying to me on Mother’s Day, “I hope you’re not going to preach to us about Mary. She makes us all feel so guilty. She never yelled or got angry. She was just perfect.”

The Immaculate Conception is often seen as a feast that puts Mary at a distance from us, since she was “free from all taint of sin.” But this feast is really a feast that should bring her closer.

God’s presence to and love for Mary surrounded and touched her life from its beginning. This was done because of the unique role she would play in God’s plan of salvation for all. Mary’s role was necessary to bring to fulfillment God’s desire that all be saved. So, her being graced in a unique way does not distance her from us, but places her even more at the heart of the human family.

As the Letter to the Ephesians reminds us today, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world “to be holy and without blemish before him” (Ephesians 1:4). God “destined us for adoption” and destined us to exist “for the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5, 6). We all are destined to be drawn closer to God and each other through God’s grace.

Mary’s gracious response to God is a model of what God desires from each of us singly and as a community: our saying “Yes” to God’s plan, so that the world can know and love and serve the living God revealed in Jesus.

Consider/Discuss

Do I think of Mary as one removed from or uniquely close to the community of believers?
Do you see yourself as having been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy?

Responding to the Word

Today we can praise God for revealing to us that what was done for Mary is a sign of God’s will for all of us, that we know ourselves as chosen by God and as existing to praise the glory of God’s grace. We ask Mary to lead us more deeply into the mystery of the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Jan 13 2025

Scripture Study for

The first reading was probably chosen for this feast because the traditional depiction of Mary as the Immaculate Conception has her foot on the head of the serpent. Actually, the text has “he will strike at your head” (Genesis 3:15), not she. However, the meaning of the passage continues to be important. Since there is no mention of a “fall” from grace, it is best to think of this story simply as an account of sin. After the sin, the woman and man are naked (spiritually exposed), and they refuse to take responsibility for their fault. Each blames another. The final words state that throughout their lives, human beings will have to battle temptation.

Paul insists that salvation in Christ was not an afterthought, but was in God’s plan from the beginning. Furthermore, believers are not chosen because they were holy and blameless, but that they might be made holy and blameless. In other words, salvation is the cause, not the consequence, of righteousness. Paul further states that we were destined for adoption through Christ, so we have been redeemed by his blood. Our redemption exacted a ransom, and that ransom was the shedding of Christ’s blood. All this was done so that God’s plan finally would be brought to fulfillment, the plan to bring all things together in Christ.

According to the passage from Matthew’s Gospel, the conception of Jesus took place within the broader picture of God’s plan of salvation. The angel’s words are both reassuring and perplexing. Mary, a virgin, will bear a son whose name indicates the role that he will play in God’s plan (Jesus means “God saves”). Her response does not question that all of this will happen according to God’s plan, but she wonders how it will happen. She is also a model of openness and receptivity, regardless of the apparent impossibility of what is being asked. The reading shows that the expectations of the past are now being fulfilled.

Jan 13 2025

Seeing Differently, through God’s Eyes

When I was in forestry school in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I recall skiing one winter morning through a birch grove as the sun rose. The white birch bark glowed pink in the snow, reflecting the sunrise. Around me, trees had fallen, some had been chopped up for firewood. Yet each of the ancient trees had stump sprouts rising from its base. (That is the nature of birch trees.) In three years, young trees had grown fifteen feet. How so tall? They didn’t have to start from scratch; the saplings were fed by the root systems of the older trees.

Our Christian faith is like a stump sprout that rises from our Jewish roots. We share a common vision: that peace will reign and justice will thrive. Isaiah envisions a king who will make creation flourish in solidarity: even a cobra will be so tame that a baby can handle it. Together we are rooted in God’s vision, a hope for a more glowing future.

At the same time, John the Baptist bursts in wielding an axe with rough words for the Pharisees—repent! Cut down every tree that does not bear good fruit! Yet he too sees a radiant vision: One who is coming after him who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire!

We are rooted in God’s vision of what can be. The courage of Advent is this faith in the future. We await Christmas. We await eternity. Earthly life will be cut down and pass away, yet we live on the brink of a blessed and infinite future. That mode of seeing can fill the way that we live our lives today. Like the fiery glow in the birch forest, as people of Advent we live within the sunrise of a new day.

Consider/Discuss

Isaiah tells us that a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse. None of us start from scratch either. Our faith is rooted in the faith of those who have gone before us. Our faith is now supported by those who travel with us. We hope that our faith will bear fruit in those who arise from our roots. What do each of those roots look like—past, present, and future?
In this season of preparation for the coming of Jesus, as God sees into our hearts, what is one thing that we could chop off or prune in order to bear stronger fruit?

Living and Praying with the Word

God of the future, thank you for your vision. Open our eyes to see you as you surround and enfold us on this journey. Help us to see this sunrise in which we live. We want to walk with you more robustly. We give ourselves to you this day, for you are the source of our hope. Fill us with the fullness of your peace forever. Thank you and thank you again for your goodness to us.