Remember the promises
The Third Sunday of Advent – December 3, 2023 Tell someone to “just be happy,” and you often get a cheesy, fake grin in return. The Third Sunday of Advent commands us, “Rejoice!” Unless we go deeper into why we … Read More
Don’t waste any time
The Second Sunday of Advent – December 3, 2023 By tradition, the opening lines of the Gospels correspond to their evangelist’s symbolic creature: Matthew is a winged human; Luke a winged bull; John’s symbol is an eagle. And today’s Gospel … Read More
Don’t be caught sleeping
The First Sunday of Advent – December 3, 2023 The thirteenth chapter of Mark’s Gospel is a strange place to begin Advent. Today’s passage comes right before Jesus’s passion, and the marking of the nightwatch hours foreshadows what comes next: … Read More
Starting Over
Fourth Sunday of Advent – Year A Homilists and music ministers will constantly have to fight the human urge to think sequentially and impose a historical lens upon the liturgical year, treating the seasons as a diary of Jesus’s life. … Read More
Looking for others
Third Sunday of Advent – Year A “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” (Mt 11:3). If John the Baptist had doubts about Jesus, what hope is there for us to believe? For … Read More
Enmity is erased
Second Sunday of Advent – Year A The lectionary’s first reading and gospel pairing usually works, but not today. Isaiah’s radical “peaceable kingdom” has been so romanticized in our religious imagination that its eschatological meaning, in light of John the … Read More
Time to Prepare
First Sunday of Advent – Year A In addition to being a time to prepare for Christmas, Advent begins a new liturgical year, inviting us to reflect on the entire Christian journey of faith to its end goal. On the … Read More
Greeted with blessings
Fourth Sunday of Advent – C The Filipino women in my family tend to be short, which makes some people think we are also quiet. But if you ever get invited to our family parties, you will hear us before … Read More
Upending the System
Second Sunday Advent – C Unlike a chronology in which events unfold linearly, we hear the Sunday lectionary Gospel stories symbolically through the liturgical year. This is so we might recognize our place and connection to the events of salvation … Read More
The Paradox of God’s Reign
First Sunday Advent – C We Christians love a good paradox. At the start of each liturgical year, we begin with the end. While the world soothes us with serene Christmas images, the First Sunday of Advent warns us of … Read More