“The LORD's Glory Will be Shelter and Protection” by Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB)
Piety
Then will the LORD create, over
the whole site of Mount Zion and her place of assembly, A smoking cloud by day and
light of flaming fire by night. For over all, the LORD's glory will be shelter
and protection: shade from the parching heat of the day, refuge, and cover from
storm and rain. Isaiah 4:5-6
When Jesus entered
Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, "Lord,
my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully." He said to
him, "I will come and cure him." The centurion said in reply, "Lord,
I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my
servant will be healed. Matthew 8:5-8
Study
As we begin Advent, we light
one candle amid all the darkness in our lives and the world. It symbolizes our longing, our desire, our
hope. Three “advents” or “comings” shape
our desire. Our piety, study, and action
in Advent renew the sense that Jesus came to save us from our sin and
death. We want to experience his coming
to us now, in our everyday lives, to help us live our lives with meaning and
purpose. And we want to prepare for his
coming to meet us at the end of our lives on this earth.
Every evening in the First Week
of Advent, we light the first candle, traditionally called the Candle of Hope,
to remember to look for the coming of Christ hopefully.
The virtue of hope originates
from God through the grace of faith. It draws the Christian towards God,
providing him or her with confidence in God and eternal life (Catechism 1812,
1840).
God's holy presence in a
person's soul caused by sanctifying grace is like a lit candle that we need
armor to protect from getting blown out.
There is the story where a
scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream. The scorpion asks the frog to carry him
across on its back. The frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting
me?" The scorpion says, "Because if I do, I will die too because we
will both drown." The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in
midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis
and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but the frog has just enough
time to gasp "Why did you sting me," The scorpion replied: "It’s
my nature to sting..."
“No person can be the
sufficient cause of another’s spiritual death, because no man dies spiritually
except by sinning of his own will.” (ST. THOMAS AQUINAS ST, I-II, Q. 73, ART. 8). Nevertheless, we need protection from
ourselves and bad company. Our Second Reading from Sunday advises us to “Put on
the armor of light” (Romans 13:12) to protect ourselves from the sinful desires
of the flesh. They are false hopes. They will sting you.
According to yesterday’s Second
Reading, chastity precedes and is parallel to faith. The reference to the armor
of light, of day, acknowledges that forces of nighttime still exert pressure.
Arm ourselves by taking on acts
of kindness and generosity, with no rivalry and jealously.
The Second Reading also said, “Make
no provision for the sinful desires of the flesh.” This verse led to St.
Augustine’s conversion.
There is another story about a
bible study group that had been asked the question, "In your time of
discouragement, what is your favorite Scripture?" A young man said,
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want (Psalm 23:1)."
A middle-aged woman said,
"God is my refuge and strength (Psalm 46:1)."
Then Mr. John, who was 80 years
old, said, “my verse is ‘and it came to pass,’" which is not a complete
verse. He explained: "At 30, I lost
my job with six hungry mouths and a wife to feed. I didn't know how I would
make it. At 40, my eldest son was killed overseas in the war. It knocked me
down. At 50, my house burned to the
ground. Nothing was saved out of the house. At 60, my wife of 40 years got
cancer. But each time I looked in the
Bible I saw one of those verses that included the phrase, 'and it came to
pass.'
This story is less about
recalling a favorite Bible verse or part of a verse than about the virtue of
hope.
Action
Unlike most of the liturgical
year, the focus during the first part of Advent is on the first readings this
week from the Prophet Isaiah. These readings are about promises. Isaiah is
consoling, building up, and preparing his people to have hope.
Isaiah's words in this Advent
season speak a hope-filled sound into desolate silence to remind us: how we
live today is determined not by the circumstances that surround us, but by what
we believe about the future. And sometimes, to gather that belief that flies in
the face of current reality and defies all logic, we must listen care¬
fully—pay attention—for sounds of hope, even faint, all around us.
During hardships, the Christian
maintains hope. "Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in
prayer," says Romans 12:12.
Hope is powerful enough that
one can hope against all the odds, against all human evidence, which is phrased
by St. Paul in Romans 4:18 as “hoping against hope.”
How do you like 2-to-1 odds? If
you win, you’ll get paid a $2 profit for every $1 bet. Our Gospel today says:
Two men will be in the field;
one will be taken, and one left.
Two women will be grinding at
the mill; one will be taken, and one left (Matt 24:40-41).
Outwardly they may be about the
same task, but one destined for life, one for eternal loss.
Of these four, two are saved,
and two are lost.
Verse 39 in our Gospel states
that the flood came and "took away" the people [carried them all
away]. But Noah and his family were “left behind” and received God's mercy.
This is a typical pattern in
the Old Testament.
The remnant that is left behind
is often contrasted with those who are killed or destroyed, which is symbolic of
dying in the state of mortal sin on the soul. Committing a mortal sin is
spiritual death. Jesus intends that we understand ourselves as being in a
situation analogous to that of Noah— a righteous remnant amid a crooked and
perverse generation— and thus to persevere in righteousness.
Three devils were sent to earth
to tempt and ruin people.
The first one said: “I will
tell them that there is no God.”
But Satan, the chief of the
devils, said: “That won’t do, for the people know that there is a God.”
The second devil said: “I will
proclaim that there is no hell.”
“That is not good enough either
because people know that there is hell as a punishment for sin.”
Then the third one said: “I
will convince them that there is plenty of time. So, don’t hurry, don’t worry.”
“That is an excellent
strategy,” said Satan, “Go and ruin the people.”
Driving outside the beltway, at
a stoplight, I was behind a car that had a religious bumper sticker. I kept
looking at it and finally figured out what it was saying. The top line of the
bumper sticker reads, “Jesus is coming!”
But, the second line underneath
has just three capital letters R U E, but only the letter E was printed in red
ink. If you sound out the letters, the whole bumper sticker says: Jesus is
coming! Are you red-E?!
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