Welcoming the Advent Season
We are concluding the Jubilee Year of Hope called for by Pope Francis and Isaiah paints a word picture of a way to get to that hope, to recognize God at work in the NOW, in simple yet profounds ways. In the First Sunday of Advent, Isaiah suggests the theme for Advent this year. We need to seek the instruction of the Lord on how to construct peace, to put away the things of war and make them implements of peace. In the Second Sunday, Isaiah describes the one who brings peace. Can we make an effort to recognize the peacemakers of our times, the day-to-day ones and ourselves, as we attempt to make peace? In the Isaiah reading on the Third Sunday, there is the description of how the peaceful landscape will look and what will be some of the wondrous results. But don’t wait for the Lord to appear to do them. God has put all this work in our hands and our work is to recognize it. Finally on the Fourth Sunday, Isaiah speaks of signs and Matthew writes of the signs for Joseph. Our work continues. Look for the signs and in our times they may be spectacular, but don’t miss the everyday ones. Be prepared as John the Baptist cautions and Rejoice as Joseph did as he took Mary to be his wife.
Written by Barbara Mass, SLW
First Sunday of Advent Reflection
November 30, 2025
Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122: 1-9,
Response: Let us go rejoicing
to the house of the Lord.
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:37-44
It may seem strange that as we begin a new Church Year and wait with a pregnant Mary to give birth that the Scriptures all point to the End Time. What might we make of this?
The Prophet Isaiah lived in a time of substantial political upheaval in Judah causing chaos, injustices and suffering. There were threats from external factors and decay from within.
(Recognize this today?) Isaiah would foretell the birth of the Messiah and call for peace and righteousness. Values that the Messiah would promote. Isaiah pleaded with the people of his time to walk in God’s path, in the light of the Lord.
Paul writes his letter to the Romans in AD57. The Messiah has already lived, died and risen from the grave. Paul tells us to awake from sleep, to take the high road, to conduct ourselves properly and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are encouraged to throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. What is the darkness that we need to throw off, e.g. all manner of poverty and oppression? The armor of light that we need to clothe ourselves in, e.g. compassion, inclusion, love?
Before Paul took up his ministry, Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel is giving us the same advice as Isaiah, stay awake. Don’t get so caught up in self-centeredness and power that you cannot see what is happening now. We, as followers of Jesus Christ, know that He asks us to live our lives by Gospel values – values that are counter-cultural. Jesus made no secret that He had a special love for the poor. Poor even though they work hard – the oppressed, for whatever bigoted reason.
Pope Leo XIV has written his first Proclamation to all Christians on love for the poor. He says “we must not let our guard down when it comes to poverty…. The poor cannot be neglected if we are to remain within the great current of the Church’s life that has its source in the Gospel and bears fruit in every time and place.” He encourages us to stay awake, live the legacy of Jesus and pass it forward.
Stay awake for the birth of grace.
Written by Donna M. Williams, SLW