2nd Sunday in Advent - Year B - 10th December, 2017
What we are waiting for is ‘a new earth’
I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to hold it in my arms
And keep it company
A fractured and fragile world
The daily news this week is that our world is fragile and fractured; Europe is in disharmony; world leaders are in great discord over the decision to accord a disputed and symbolic capital city a place of prominence on the world stage.
A time of hope
Someone once said that, while we have little cause for optimism in our world, that we must never lose hope. Hope is closing the door on all that is negative in the world and reclaiming all that is good and positive. Hope keeps that aspiration or dream of happiness alive in times of near despair or seeming abandonment.
Handel’s Messiah
We can hear strains of the beautiful refrains from Handel’s Messiah in the first reading of hope today. A highway for God is being made across the sands of emptiness and meaninglessness. “Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low…and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all humankind shall see it.” It is the ‘new earth’ which St. Peter calls for today.
Laudato Si
Pope Francis asks us to create this new world of hope in his encyclical “Laudato Si’, mi’ Signore” – Praise be to you, my Lord” using the words of Saint Francis, reminding us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and beautiful world.
The Gentle Challenge – Prepare ye the Way of the Lord.
Some might hear echoes of John the Baptist’s words in the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar: “Prepare ye, the way of the Lord, prepare ye�������.���� as it is repeated over and over like a prayerful mantra. If we wish to welcome Jesus, the creator and hope of a new world we have to have that radical change of heart, a turning from sin and a turning towards the things of God. Then we could sing our song of hope with one voice and in perfect
harmony!
Fr. Michael McCullagh C.M.