Are You Stuck?
- Fr Raphael Ma, CR
- Luke 3: 1-6
A Resurrectionist Vocation Minute for December 8, 2nd Sunday of Advent
Are you stuck?
The beginning of today’s Gospel sounds like just another historical preamble until you stop and think about what each of those figures represents. Emperor Tiberius and Pontius Pilate – Roman occupation. Herod (Antipas) and his brother Philip – Herodian Dynasty. Annas and Caiaphas – will be involved later in Jesus’ trial and condemnation. All of a sudden, we see a world not so different from our own being described here in the gospel – a world where things seem stuck, and we do not expect those in power will do anything to make it any different.
Then we are told: “the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” We are hearing from Luke’s Gospel, and so we know exactly who Zechariah is, and who John is. Zechariah was doing his priestly duty in the Temple when the word of God came to him, and he was unable to speak for 9 months until his son John was born. So John is technically of priestly lineage, but John is not in the Temple when the word of God comes to him, he is in the wilderness. That’s different. And the word that John then goes on to speak is that God is about to come and make things different very soon. And as we know, God did just that.
It’s easy for us to feel stuck, like nothing we do makes any difference. But the word “Advent” comes from the Latin words “ad”, and “venire”, which means “to come to”. But who is coming to whom? We often think that we have to come to God, and perhaps we feel stuck there too. But the good news is: it is the Advent of the Lord. God is coming to us. That makes a big difference.
“Above all we strive to acquire internal mortification, which includes recollection, silence and the awareness of God's presence. These forms of mortification are all the more necessary due to the fact that we are called to the apostolic life.”