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Word To Life
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Sunday Scripture Readings: Dec. 10, 2006
By Dan Luby
Catholic News Service
December 10, Second Sunday of Advent
Cycle C Readings:
1) Baruch 5:1-9
Psalm 126:1-6
2) Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
3) Gospel: Luke 3:1-6
The morning paper on this second Sunday of Advent overflows with glossy, four-color inserts urging us with almost religious fervor to shop. Christmas ads blanket TV and Internet screens. Mailboxes burst with catalogues, coupons and breathless fliers advertising everything from honey hams to diamond rings.
The acquisitive fever for getting the right gifts, and lots of 'em, so characteristic of this time of year, is once again epidemic.
It's hard resisting the culturewide illusion that decisions about Christmas purchases are matters of, if not life and death, at least epic importance on which our happiness and the happiness of our family and friends (and co-workers and neighbors, and anybody else who might give us a gift this year) teeters.
The problem is not gift giving itself. It's appropriate to celebrate God's inestimable gift of intimate friendship by the exchange of lesser gifts. Such gestures of generosity and gratitude can be powerful expressions of our mutual affection, our desire for communion of heart and mind.
Difficulties arise when we lose perspective -- when our sense of proportion deserts us and we find ourselves elbowing a 9-year-old in the jaw to get the last Tickle-Me-Elmo in the store, or spending the mortgage money on the giant flat panel plasma screen TV, or fuming with rage when our expensive and lovingly chosen contribution to the Christmas gift swap yields us a cheesy gift bag with a half dozen sticks of convenience story jerky.
At moments like these, Paul's prayer in today's reading from Philippians hits the mark: "that your love may more and more abound, both in understanding and wealth of experience, so that with a clear conscience and blameless conduct, you may learn to value the things that really matter."
May our Advent longing be for the Gift we already have received, whose birth we celebrate and for whose coming again we hope.
QUESTIONS:
What simple gift could be an effective display of love for someone in your life? What is one concrete action to take that might help you keep your shopping in perspective?
SCRIPTURE TO BE ILLUSTRATED:
"Stand upon the heights ... and see your children gathered from the east and the west ... rejoicing that they are remembered by God" (Baruch 5:5).
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.
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