Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/120611.cfm

Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.

We heard this passage from Isaiah on Sunday and I reflected on the stern word of Truth which is a pastoral word despite its challenge. When we as friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, employers or church confront sinners with their sins we do them a kindness. They may not want to be confronted; they may disagree, saying what they have done is not sinful; or that there is no such thing as sin; but the intervention is nonetheless a kindness.

It is also a comfort. It is good to know there is a truth which is above me and confronts me. Just as children need barriers, boundaries and rules, so do adults need to face the truth of their actions.

In this same passage from Isaiah we hear:

Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
Carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.

and today’s gospel speaks of the “Good Shepherd” who leaves his flock of 99 sheep in the wilderness to find the stray.

Many of us find comfort more easily given than received, but appearances are often deceiving. Comfort which is inspired by good intentions is not as genuine as that which comes from a heart that has known comfort. I have sometimes found my efforts to console and reassure rebuffed because they were ham-fisted. I wanted to give advice; I wanted to fix things and make them all better. I wanted the unfortunate person to quit being so sad and get back to her normal, uncomplicated self. I wanted to make a difference. That is playing messiah, not giving comfort.

To belong to Jesus we must accept the pastoral consolations of the Good Shepherd. Perhaps that is why the Catholic Church celebrates the Blessed Virgin Mary; she comforted the Baby Jesus and he remembered the experience throughout his life. “Though he was in the form of God” he let himself be a helpless, needy, crying boy who could be comforted by a simple, peasant woman. Later in life he would not play messiah; rather he truly sympathized with the lost sheep and the wounded soul because he knew the heartache of being disciplined, disappointed, and hurt. 

In his last agony we remember Mary reassuring and consoling her son as he bore his cross to Calvary and died on it. (John 19:25) We hope and pray that she represented all of us. 

Saint Paul would say of the ability to give and receive comfort:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.  For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ – does our encouragement also overflow. (2 Corinthians 1)

As we celebrate Advent and anticipate Christmas we should find comfort in our penitential disciplines, prayers, sacred reading, fasting and almsgiving. We should remember the experience of being lost and found, dead and brought back to life.