Category: 2nd Sunday in Advent year B

Comfort, my planet.

Isaiah 40:1-2

Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord‘s hand double for all her sins.

Thank you Isaiah for these much needed words. Indeed we have paid out enough suffering to placate and satiate the whole damn pantheon. Obviously we have created enough to worry about down here without the threat of some angry deity coming down to make us pay more. After all, we’re like grass, not around very long, and we’ve got valleys that need filling, hills to climb and roads to fix.

Calling all Earthlings

2 Peter 3:13 – But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

The story of the universe is one of rebirth, a rebirth that is a new creation of all things. The liturgy, and indeed all religion is at its best when it faithfully bears witness to this story. During Advent the Liturgy directs us to reenact and re-envision the new birth, both individually and communally. In this way the story of Jesus is truly the story of humanity. If Jesus is of one being with the father, and we’re one with Jesus, then all life is at least sacred, if not wholly divine. That means the good news is that we as a singular creation are the ones who get to (must) make it happen. It means everyone has to get on board or it won’t work. One might even say that the good news needs to go out to the ends of the Earth or something like that.