|
|
|
|
Word To Life
|
Sunday Scripture Readings: Dec. 3, 2006
By Jean Denton
Catholic News Service
December 3, First Sunday of Advent
Cycle C Readings:
1) Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:4-5, 8-10, 14
2) 1 Thessalonians 3:12 to 4:2
3) Gospel: Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
When I was 4, I spent the better part of an afternoon standing out in the front yard fearfully listening for the signs of the end times. "When you hear the trumpets playing, you'll know it's the end of the world," my friend Bertha had told me. Bertha didn't seem the least bit scared, but I immediately ran outside to listen and wait.
Looking back, I can imagine why Bertha, even though she was only in her 20s, seemed to hope she'd actually hear those trumpets harkening a glorious coming of God's heavenly kingdom. I'd been to her house, a run-down wooden structure covered with brown tarpaper, in a rural area below New Orleans. I noticed her clothing was well-worn and saw that she sometimes took home bags of our hand-me-downs. I watched her working hard at heavy household chores two days a week at my family's house, three elsewhere. No doubt her wages were low, because it was common in the 1950s for even middle-class white families to employ black women as domestic workers.
Bertha had every reason to be sullen and unhappy, but she sang as she worked. She had every reason to be resentful of the families she worked for, but offered them many kindnesses.
Bertha was good and loving to our family, as she was to her own, and my parents often trusted her to care for my siblings and me. I'd like to think that in the ensuing years the accomplishments of the civil rights movement changed her life so that she wasn't constantly wanting the trumpet call.
Luke's Gospel reading for this first Sunday of Advent describes the signs of the Lord's coming in judgment. Jesus warned his disciples not to get distracted from their mission of love for others or they would fear the day.
Bertha's eyes sparkled confidently when she spoke of the day of the trumpets because she was living a life of holiness and was not diverted from it by her anxieties. She had nothing to fear in standing before the Lord.
QUESTIONS:
How is the life you are living today preparing you to stand before the Lord in judgment? What are the things that distract you from the Christian call to holiness?
SCRIPTURE TO BE ILLUSTRATED:
"Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength ... to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36).
END
Copyright © 2006 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS Word To Life column may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
|
|
|
|
