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Sister Rose’s Reflection for Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

How often do we hear those words? If you were a Boy Scout, you learned their meaning early in your life. For my family, be prepared usually meant, “Go to the bathroom now. We are going to church and there is no bathroom there.” Way back then, that was the truth!

Our readings for this weekend speak of a different time, the end time! It is otherwise known as the fullness of the Kingdom arriving, or the Second Coming. Jesus tells us that we never know when that will be. In the same way, we don’t know when we will die. Being prepared for death and conserving hope is part of our long-held Christian tradition. Most of us learned early that God made us to know, love, and serve God on earth and to be happy with God in heaven.

How does one prepare for death, especially in the midst of random acts of violence and terror, natural disasters of huge proportion, or the deaths of refugees seeking a better life? How do we make ourselves ready to meet the Lord each and every day? How do we stay vigilant with hope? How do we become like the “wise virgins” who keep their lamps lit with abundant oil?

First, hope in everlasting life with God asks us to not be afraid. Our much needed “oil” comes from a variety of sources. We consistently and intentionally reflect on God’s Word in Scripture, we look to the witness of Jesus, we celebrate the liturgy whole-heartedly, we live according to commandments to love unconditionally, and we seek spiritual guides or mentors. There we will find Wisdom. Paying attention to God’s presence in our lives will be our guiding light. Our lamps will burn brightly and illuminate our path. And we won’t run out of oil!

So we pray: Fill our lamps with hope so that we might be a light in the darkness. Help us to stay awake and open our hearts to act in ways that express love. And may we do all this with our eyes constantly fixed on you, God! We live in hope that you will come again to establish justice forever. This is your promise and our heart’s yearning.

Reflection on the Third Sunday of Advent

Providence is all about “preparing the way” because we KNOW that God is coming more and more.  God is closer and closer. God’s will to do “good” is already in our hearts and on our lips… we have only to carry it out.  When we live the good news, we become the “voice crying out in the wilderness”… so that others can also KNOW that God in near.  God is near.  God is here.

The Gospel has St John the Baptist telling people to “do good”, to be ready… to live in the Kingdom that is coming to us in the person of Jesus.  Just before we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we get a scripture that asks us to move our minds and hearts to the person of Jesus alive in our hearts and living through us.  Rejoice, shout for joy.  The Lord IS in our midst.  Providence is here.

The Second Sunday of Advent scripture readings deliver a powerful message of hope against the cacophony of this week’s terrorism, shootings and violence, teaming waves of refugees, political rhetoric, and other catastrophes.  Jerusalem, awash in a similar raw mix of human emotions and poignancy of human suffering, is told “take off your robe of misery … put on the splendor of glory of God from forever.” Their momentary whirlpool of wretchedness had to yield to the greater, lasting reality of the splendor and goodness of God.  How does that work today?  How can we exemplify Christ’s compassion and the hope we find in Him amid our own global and domestic tidal waves of shock, dread, and disbelief? How do we rise to St. Paul’s confidence in the Second Reading that “the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus?”

The Gospel provides clues as to how “good work” continues to grow in us. The words echoed by the prophet Isaiah reminds us that God uses us to help “prepare the way of the Lord,” to take the “roughest ways” and “make them smooth,” and to bring joy and fulfillment out of incomprehensible pain and loss.  Power does not reside in detonating or stockpiling weapons of mass destruction; power comes when we use of our God-given strength, prayer, power, resources, and faith as lasting antidotes against evil and destruction.  Hearts reshaped and lives poured out in compassion, belief, courage, resiliency and boldness of hope endure beyond the impact of brokenness, death or destruction.  For Christians, the ultimate victory is always the power of love. This is the fundamental way how “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

Today’s men and women of Providence must love and appreciate life like never before.  We are mandated to actively seek out the good, the beautiful, and the holy - and carry that charism of hope in God’s goodness and love into the dark spaces of pain, sorrow and despair we encounter in everyday life.  Sr. Margaret Riche, a CDP Sister who died two days before the San Bernardino shootings this week, wrote an earlier jubilee reflection that beautifully summed up how this can happen in simple, yet most profound ways.  “I believe I touch the heart of God when I reach out to others … a smile, a listening ear, a bit of time, can say ‘I care.’ My God is a tender, loving, compassionate God who shows me the way; I seek to follow that way.”

Reflection on the First Sunday of Advent Again, we begin the season of Advent, the time of looking forward to Jesus’ new birth among us. Again, we pray with Isiah, John the Baptist, Mary. Again, we ask God to fill our hearts with the peace, love, and compassion that must mark us as Christians. Thomas Merton claims: “The Advent mystery is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ.” How this Advent mystery can bring about such a transformation in us can be found in today’s readings: Jeremiah promises that “David, the just shoot, shall do what is right and just”; Paul promises that “our own hearts will be blameless in holiness before our God and Father”; Luke assures us that when we see the signs of the end-time, we are to stand erect and raise our heads “because our redemption is at hand.” Again, may we be ready for all these blessings!