The readings today are filled with images of terrible signs and portents: the proud and evildoers being burned to stubble, wars and insurrections, earthquakes, famines, plagues, awesome sights and mighty signs coming from the sky, and the faithful being handed over to persecution. These readings today are a sure sign, a foretelling without any doubt whatsoever, a prophecy if you prefer…that Advent is not too far away.
Indeed, each year about this time our readings begin to alert us to prepare for the coming of the Lord, and we prepare to welcome him into our hearts at Christmastime, which will be here in a matter of just a few short weeks from now. It makes for a worthwhile reflection to ask ourselves how we are prepared to welcome Jesus into our lives and what we will do to present Jesus to the world.
Rather than understanding today's readings as the foretelling of apocalyptic doom, we should ask how we can make a difference. It's true that the warning of judgment is real, but rather than being fuel for fear and dread its purpose is to spur us into action. The warnings are there to urge us to take collective responsibility rather than to have false hope that we, as individuals, will somehow be snatched away from the trials and tribulations of life while God continues with a plan for those left behind in the absence of believers.
The second reading today, taken from St. Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, admonishes us to follow the model St. Paul set and to get busy working. There are different interpretations we could attach to this message. For example, some might see it as a call to be practical workaholics in regard to life in general, going in early and staying late on a daily basis. Others might see it as meaning that we can gain our salvation by working for it the same way that we work to earn our wages. I think that it's neither of these subjective interpretations, the one being somewhat unhealthy and the other erroneous, but there is an important question to consider that has to do with all of us: how do our actions as Christians, not just individually but also all together, prepare the way of the Lord? How do we, through our actions and attitudes, present the Christian message so that the world may see it as a positive transforming force?
Psalm 98 offers a hint of direction. The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice. We shouldn't necessarily understand the kingdom of the Lord as being a far-off future event from the time of the fulfillment of all things. That is, it's not just an end-of-time, last-days, kingdom-come thing. The kingdom is inaugurated already here in our midst. The rule of justice is ours to put in place in the here and now. It's true; something that we probably don't talk enough about is how we make the kingdom evident for everyone. We don't talk enough about what we do, or ought to do, for the common good.
The justice of the kingdom of God, the kingdom that is already here, is about the work that we are to do and the work which we are to support. Justice is foremost economic justice: it is being for those who are marginal in our world—the poor—and it's about building a world of fairness, equality, ecology, and peace. Sure, there are things we can do individually, but overall it's not an individual responsibility only, nor is it the responsibility of the Church or faith-based groups only. The job at hand encompasses many issues, and to adequately address them we can't afford get stuck on one thing or on one issue.
Jesus promised us that his message would not be a popular one, and it seems his message is less popular today than ever before in our lifetimes. Talk of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, taking in strangers, or healing the sick is branded as "socialism" by many. It's not socialism to understand social programs as an ethical and just necessity. Taxes and taxation, rather than being necessary evils, should be seen as our moral responsibility. It's our collective responsibility to care for the common good of all now, but also we are to be a people of vision who are able to prepare for a future world in which our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren have the most basic of human rights such as clean air and water.
Jesus' message means radically leveling how we relate to all people in our world. It's a message in which we embrace those who we may feel obliged to reject because we regard them as irresponsible or otherwise unworthy. It is a message about giving, about a habitual attitude of gratuitousness in which we imitate the actions of the one emptied himself and gave all to each and every person on earth, worthy and unworthy alike. It's a message about justice for all the people of the world, and let it be our challenge, now and in this coming Advent season, to begin building justice where we have previously, and personally, refused to do so. A commitment to justice, to the common good, has served us well in the past; it's been the hallmark of the American Catholic, and it can only serve us well to take it up afresh now.
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