Optional Memorial of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

Lectionary: 180

The Lord will give you the bread you need
and the water for which you thirst.
No longer will your Teacher hide himself,
but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,
While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears:
"This is the way; walk in it,"
when you would turn to the right or to the left.

In Advent we remember the promises of the Lord; promises found throughout the Old Testament, and revealed more clearly in the New Testament, in the person of Jesus. 

There is little point to remembering the promises without remembering both the hardships and the threats. From their days in the desert the Lord promised he would remain with his people, protecting and guiding them to security and prosperity. He asked only that they prove their holiness as his peculiar people, by their worship and by the justice and mercy with which they governed themselves. 

There should be no neediness among them for they distribute their resources evenly among themselves. There should be no poverty in the land because they are generous and courteous to strangers and aliens. Although they would be subject to all the hardships of human life -- with widowed wives, orphaned children, and suspicious strangers -- the Lord would reward their generous sacrifices for others with abundance and fertility in their farms, many children, and pacified neighbors. 

The Bible does not attempt a complete history of Israel, but the testimony of the Hebrew prophets shows that, despite their prosperity and security, the nation of Israel from David onward never proved their readiness to raise up the lowly and distribute their wealth evenly. Those who had much got more; those who had little went hungry. 

And so the nation and its people were subject to all the vicissitudes of any other nation; and all the continual upheavals of political, economic, and military life in the near east. Plus the droughts, famines, flooding, pestilence, and disease. 

G.K.Chesterton said of Israel's heirs, "“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” As spiritual descendants of Abraham, we have received the same promises and suffered the same upheavals. The heaven on earth which God promises has made only brief appearances. 

It appeared especially in the community of men and women around Jesus of Nazareth. Although there was some contention and bickering among them, their cowardice and betrayal never appeared until his final hour. They had such love for him and such respect for his authority that their fellowship was externally free of bitterness. 

As Isaiah had predicted, their Teacher no longer hid himself, but with their own eyes they saw the Lord. (Is 30:20) Despite its inevitable end, that memory remains with us as a halcyon moment to this day. 

In Advent we remember the promises of the Lord and we're given time to assess our worthiness. First, do we deserve the promise? And secondly, do we deserve its fulfillment? Clearly the Lord wants the world's nations to have a holy people living among them. 

And we can see that they expect a Church both to represent the merciful justice of God, and to demonstrate it. They might counter our opposition to abortion; they might argue with our standards of marital fidelity and sexual purity; they will continue to build ever more powerful weapons to kill millions of people; but they want the Church to stand aside and prove the futility of their efforts. They do not believe in what they're doing; but, driven by fear, they feel they have no choice. 

And through us God offers the choice. We must continually, 

...make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give."