My friends, as I said in last week’s homily, “I love the Season of Advent!” And here is just one of the reasons why: It is a season of hope and that hope is displayed so appropriately in churches like ours, that remember the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, with the royal blue color for vestments and liturgical drapes.  And we should do this because Advent is not a “little Lent,” wherein we “beat our breasts”, moaning, “mea culpa, mea culpa,” and for those who have forgotten their Latin, “through my fault, through my fault,” but a season for “building joy,” day by day, as we remember once again the coming of our extravagant God into human existence in the person of our brother, Jesus, and as someone recently said of him, “our Way-shower,” for living our best lives.

   All of this Sunday’s Scripture readings speak of “justice” in general, and explain in more obvious ways exactly how we are to bring this “justice” about. 

   Recalling Isaiah’s reading from last week, we were asked to consider, “making war no more,” a seemingly near impossible task, it seems, as we look at our present world and see wars raging across the planet. 

   This week, Isaiah calls us to consider another set of seemingly impossible happenings: wolves and lambs, calves and young lions, cows and bears, all lying peacefully together, and often, our first reaction to hearing of this idyllic image is to say, “Yes, how wonderful that would be!” We might want to ask though, “why does Isaiah do this? – giving us unrealistic pictures of seemingly impossible things.”

   I believe what Isaiah is prophesying about is his belief, inspired by the Spirit, that we humans are capable of so much, more, good than we usually show.  He is basically telling us that we must “envision” what we hope for, in order to make it happen.

   This reminds me of when, in the past, I misplaced things, and I kept looking, but just couldn’t find them.  Robert usually tells me in these cases, “Kathy you have to believe it is there!” When I approach it this way—believing, I often find what I am looking for in the same place I was looking previously, to no avail.  And for us all, friends, we have to believe too that the “goodness” we hope for, in our world, our nation, our city, and our families, can actually come about—and very likely, it will need to come through us!  And when I say, “us,” I mean, all of us, each doing our part—together!

   Isaiah goes on to say that we won’t need to do this alone, another bit of hope: “A shoot will sprout from the stump of Jesse, and the Spirit of God will rest there.”  Isaiah goes on to describe how this “shoot,” that we know to be our brother Jesus, will act – he will bring “wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, knowledge and reverence for God.”  Additionally, “justice will prevail” for the suffering and the lowly. 

   Earlier I stated through another’s words that Jesus is our, “Way-shower” and the challenge seems to be, for each of us, to keep our eyes on him, doing as he did.  If we don’t try as much as possible to do as Jesus did, then the good work that he began, may simply end.  We must remember that Jesus’ coming was all about, “showing us the way,” and if we follow his lead, all will come to fruition in giving the justice to all that they deserve. 

   And again, it is for this reason that the prophets of the Second Vatican Council, in their Spirit-led wisdom encouraged the Church to update, moving away from an institution bent on guilting people for their human condition, and become rather, a joy-filled community of people striving to become their best selves, even when we fail at times, but always believing, and encouraging others to believe, that we are capable of so much more! Becoming stuck in a theology of guilt and allowing one individual to basically, “take the rap” for all of us, simply does nothing to help us become the people in our world that Jesus expects us to be.

   Paul, in his letter to the Romans says as much – all that is in the Scriptures was written down to give you, “hope and encouragement.”  And when did we need, hope and encouragement more? 

   Advent calls us my friends to great hope in all that we can be, in following our brother, Jesus, not to “remembering his dying for us, but more so, his living for us. I have said this many times, but it bears repeating; if we believe that Jesus’ coming among us was simply,  “to die, in reparation for our sins,” then we do our awesome God such a disservice – One who loved us beyond measure in sending us Jesus, for no other purpose but to “show us the way.”  Beginning to “pre-guilt” ourselves in Advent, symbolized by the liturgical color, purple, which you will see used in most Catholic churches during Advent, is in my mind, not a reflection of our God’s great love for each of us. 

   Today’s gospel from Matthew tells John the Baptist’s story, who’s coming was also foretold by the prophet, Isaiah, “A herald’s voice cries, prepare the way for our God.” Advent my friends, is a time “to prepare” our hearts, minds, our whole beings to once again say, “yes” as our sister, Mary did to God’s call that she give our world, a wonderful son.  This truly is what tomorrow’s Marian feast, “The Immaculate Conception should be about – Mary’s “yes!” If our God cared enough to enter into our existence, to become, “One-with-us,” then that same God had no trouble being born from a “less-than-perfect” human – love gets beyond all that!  Perhaps we could rename this feast, “Mary’s Yes!”  We will sing of her “yes” in the recessional today. 

   And as Mary did, we each have the possibility of “giving birth” in a spiritual way to Jesus in our world, “making straight his paths,” as John advocated – “giving some evidence” as he said, that we intend to truly follow in Jesus’ footsteps.   Amen? Amen!