MASS READINGS
December 07, 2003 (Readings on USCCB website)
COLLECT PRAYER
God of power and mercy, open our hearts in welcome. Remove the things that hinder us from receiving Christ with joy, so that we may share his wisdom and become one with him when he comes in glory, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Recipes (1)
Activities (6)
Prayers (9)
Library (3)
Blog & Podcasts (11)
» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!
Today the Church celebrates the Second Sunday of Advent. The readings are taken from Cycle C. This week is concerned with the Lord's coming as Judge of all men at the end of time. The memorial of St. Andrew, which falls on December 7, is not celebrated today since Sunday takes priority.
The first reading, Baruch 5:1-9, is similar to last week's reading from Zechariah. All the valleys will be raised and the mountains lowered "so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God".
The second reading, Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11, stresses the need to be ready for "the Day of Christ" which can come at any time. If we are to be true to the Advent season we must be vigilant and prepare ourselves for the second coming of Christ before we celebrate His first coming in Bethlehem.
The Gospel is taken from Luke 3:1-6. John the Baptist is a key symbol of Advent preparation. The prophet Isaiah is quoted to show how John is preparing the people for Christ's coming. When the Jews were held captive in Babylon, they built roads for their captors. A day would come, Isaiah wrote, when they would build a highway for their God to prepare the way for His coming. Valleys would be filled in, and hills would be lowered for the "king's highway". In a similar fashion, the Church says today, John the Baptist is calling on us to prepare a road so that Christ can come.
Salvation History Meditation — Joseph
During this Advent season we review our salvation history, meditating on God's promise of a Savior. Today we reflect on Joseph. His brothers were furious that Jacob favored their younger brother above all of them, and when Jacob, his father, gave him an expensive coat of many colors, they jealously conspired against him. Like Christ, Joseph was sold for silver, but the hand of God led him to become a leader of the nation of Egypt. Later, his brothers, leaders of the Chosen People after their father Jacob, came to Egypt and settled under his rule. The many-colored coat has become the symbol of Joseph, since it was instrumental in the most pivotal event of his life.
Symbols: coat of many colors, sheaf, silver coins.
Suggested Readings: Genesis 37:3-4, 12-24, 28.
Things to Do
- The dish sent by Joseph in Egypt to Benjamin and his brothers is thought by some sources to be a kind of "frumenty" made from hulled wheat boiled in milk. It was both a satisfying and symbolic dish, since Egypt was a great grain-producing country in Jacob's time, and Joseph's brothers turned to her when famine ravaged the land of Canaan. Cook some Whole Wheat Sweet Porridge for breakfast.
Advent Reflection: Dare to Step Forward toward God's Mysterious Presence
From early times the Church's liturgy has set words from one of the psalms at the beginning of Advent, words in which Israel's Advent, the boundless waiting of that people, has found concentrated expression: "To thee, O Lord, I lift up my soul; O my God, in thee I trust . . ." (Ps 24:1). Such words may seem hackneyed to us, for we no longer attempt the adventures which lead man to his own inner self. While our maps of the earth have become more and more complete, man's inner self has become increasingly a terra incognita, an alien region, in spite of the fact that there are greater discoveries to be made there than in the visible universe.
To thee, O Lord, I lift up my soul: recently I came to a new awareness of the dramatic meaning behind this verse when reading an account which the French writer Julien Green recently published concerning his path to conversion to the Catholic Church. He tells how, in his youth, he was in bondage to "the pleasures of the flesh". He had no religious conviction to restrain him. And yet, the strange thing is that, now and again, he goes into a church with the unadmitted longing for some miracle to happen that would instantly set him free. "There was no miracle", he goes on, "but, from afar off, the sense of a presence." This presence warms him and seems to offer hope, but he is still repelled by the idea of salvation being connected with belonging to the Church. He desires this new presence but is unwilling to undertake renunciation; he wants to effect his own salvation, as it were, and without any serious effort. Thus he encounters Indian spirituality and hopes to find in it a better way. But he suffers the inevitable disappointment and begins to examine the Bible. He is so in earnest about this that he starts taking Hebrew lessons from a rabbi. One day the latter says to him: "Next Thursday I won't be coming since it's a holy day." "Holy day?" asks Green in surprise. "The Ascension—do I have to tell you that?" answers the rabbi. The young man in his earnest search is suddenly struck as by a thunderbolt: it is as if the words of the prophets were raining down upon him. "I was Israel", he says, "whom God was entreating to come home." I felt the application to myself of the words, "The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master's crib; but Israel does not know..." (Is 1:3).
This kind of experience of the truth of Scripture in our lives is what Advent is. This is what is meant by that verse, "I lift up my soul"; from being a hackneyed phrase it can become something new, adventurous and great if we begin to explore its truth.
Julien Green's account of his turbulent youth provides an amazingly accurate description of the struggles which our own age has to face. First of all there is the universal acceptance of the modern lifestyle, which on the one hand seems to us to be the inalienable form of our freedom yet is felt to be a slavery which it would take a miracle to abolish.
(And there is no question of the Church's old-fashioned ways being of any use here; the Church is not even regarded as an alternative. Exotic religions, by contrast, present a novel attraction.) And yet it is of great significance that the longing for liberation is not extinguished, that occasionally it asserts its influence in moments of quiet in a church. And it is this readiness to expose oneself to a mysterious presence, to accept it slowly and gradually, to allow it to penetrate, that enables Advent to take place, the first glimmer of light in however dark a night.
Sooner or later it becomes alarmingly clear: Yes,I am Israel. I am the ox that does not know its owner. And when, appalled, we get down from the pedestal of our pride, we find, as the Psalmist says, that our soul lifts itself up; it rises, and God's hidden presence penetrates ever deeper into our tangled lives.
Advent is not a miracle out of the blue such as is offered by the preachers of revolution and the heralds of new ways of salvation. God acts in an entirely human way with us, leading us step by step and waiting for us. The days of Advent are like a quiet knocking at the door of our smothered souls, inviting us to undertake the risk of stepping forward toward God's mysterious presence, which alone can make us free.
—Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Seek That Which is Above
Second Sunday of Advent
Station with Holy Cross In Jerusalem (Santa Croce in Gerusalemme):
The church in Rome appointed as the stational church for the Second Sunday of Advent is the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. Of old, salvation was of the Jews, but through them, and through this church, salvation is also given to the heathens. The Jerusalem, the Sion of today's liturgy, is the Holy Catholic Church, the vessel that contains Christ and his salvation. In the mind of the liturgy the figure applies also to each Christian soul, and to the church of stone in which we await the celebration of Mass in anticipation of the advent of our Redeemer (Baur, The Light of the World).
For more on Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, see:
For further information on the Station Churches, see The Stational Church.
