2nd Sunday of Advent (07.12.14)<\/p>\n
Did You Hear What I Mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n Words are one of humanity\u2019s basic tools of communication. People may sometimes use them excessively and not infrequently inappropriately. Returning to the UK after a lengthy absence, people are sometimes shocked and saddened by the seismic deterioration in language most notably by participants in reality and \u2018comedy\u2019 TV shows. The audible street language used by students at the end of a school day can be unnerving, too.<\/p>\n Words change their meaning over time. For example, an older generation use the word \u2018cool\u2019 to refer to the temperature or, maybe, to relations between people. For today\u2019s youth \u2018cool\u2019 is an expression of approval, even enthusiasm. A person or a gadget can be \u2018cool\u2019. Likewise, \u2018wicked\u2019, to the older generations has overtones of evil but to youth it equates with \u2018that\u2019s great!\u2019<\/p>\n Changes in the meaning of words and phrases have been occurring for centuries. \u2018By our Lady\u2019 was once an intercession invoking the help of Mary, Mother of Jesus. If you repeat the phrase fast enough you\u2019ll soon discover the origin of the too popular expletive beginning with \u2018b\u2019. Likewise, the word \u2018crikey\u2019 has its origins in a plea for divine help namely, \u2018O Christ\u2019.<\/p>\n More subtle changes in word comprehension take longer to become established. The first Scripture reading for this 2nd<\/sup> Sunday of Advent comes from the prophet Isaiah (40:1-5, 9-11). God directs his prophet to \u201cComfort my people\u201d.<\/em> Some translations use the words \u2018show compassion to\u2019 instead of \u2018comfort\u2019.<\/p>\n Were you to be asked, how would you explain the meaning of the word \u2018compassion\u2019? Contemporary usage indicates the showing of sympathy towards another or others experiencing some form of distress. Others understand compassion as an attribute of character \u2013 he \/ she is very compassionate, meaning that the person has a naturally forgiving disposition. What might God want us to remember through Isaiah\u2019s word(s) \u2018comfort\u2019 \/ \u2018show compassion to\u2019? We are reminded that we are oppressed exiles, descendants of those who originally brought exile upon themselves and their descendants through their disobedience. The earth has been roamed by oppressed exiles from Adam and Eve to the present day. God has reached out compassionately to each and every one.<\/p>\n For Christians, especially, Jesus of Nazareth is the Incarnation of the visible, infinite, unconditional love God has for his people. Jesus is truly God made Man, like us in all things but sin. Jesus demonstrates, by his every breath, that being compassionate is a lifetime activity. Our English word has Latin origins \u2013 com passio \u2013 meaning \u2018with passion\u2019 or \u2018co-suffering. In its original form \u2018compassion\u2019 described the way in which people directly shared the same danger, discomfort as a victim, thereby showing solidarity and depth of care.<\/p>\n This quantitative dimension of compassion, reflecting depth, vigor, and passion, differentiates it from empathy<\/a> that can be \u2018support from a distance\u2019. Compassion more commonly gives rise to an active engagement with the alleviation of another’s suffering. An example is M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res<\/em> (MSF) an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare. MSF offers assistance to people based on need, irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.<\/p>\n There is considerable personal risk attached to a \u2018hands on\u2019 approach to being compassionate \/ giving comfort. The barbaric beheadings of volunteer aid workers in recent times is ample proof along with the countless religious women and men staffing field hospitals and care centres who have been and continue to be murdered. Recently, Pope Francis observed that, in our age, more Christians are suffering persecution than ever previously recorded.<\/p>\n Yet, there is no limit to the power of a compassionate touch or word other than the intentions of the person doing the touching or speaking and the willingness of the recipient to allow the other\u2019s intervention. For example, Our Lady\u2019s sinlessness allows the fullness of God\u2019s grace to flow through her to humanity. Mary is honoured by the Church with the title \u2018Mediatrix of all Graces\u2019. By comparison, my state is that of being a recovering sinner. As such, I lessen the flow of God\u2019s grace through me \u00a0to others in much the same way that an impacted pipe delivers less of whatever it is intended to carry. In the same way, the disposition of a recipient of a compassionate touch or word limits its effectiveness. For example, a person\u2019s lack of faith inhibits their reception of God\u2019s full love.<\/p>\n Jesus was crudely but expertly nailed to the cross on Calvary. His companions were tied to their crosses. Despite his additional agony, Jesus reached out with mercy to the thief who accepted his compassion. “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”<\/em> \u00a0(Luke23: 42) Some limited comparison can be drawn to a person who, for example, aware they are dying of a cancer that pain relief can only partially relieve, determines to demonstrate a strength of love and compassion capable of forgiving someone who has injured both them and those they love.<\/p>\n Enduring compassion does yield miracles but not always so immediately. The older we become the more clearly we appreciate, with no small amount of embarrassment, how long Jesus has been longing for us to grow closer to him since he first reached out to us, unconditionally, through the gift of Baptism.<\/p>\n \u201cI know exactly how you feel\u201d is a phrase all too easy to say. Not infrequently it causes upset. A person, in making use of the phrase, may have kindly intentions but misplaced empathy. This is especially true when the speaker has no first hand experience of another\u2019s tragedy. \u2018How can you possible know what I\u2019m feeling? You have never experienced what I went through!\u2019 is an understandable, if fiery, response.<\/p>\n Jesus\u2019 compassion for us, his right to declare \u201cI know exactly how you feel\u201d, is born out of his Baptism in the River Jordan when, as an adult, he freely chose to take on himself humanity\u2019s painful incarceration by Satan and thereby committed himself to battle with Satan for our release. Implicit in this acceptance of humanity\u2019s pain, caused through sin, is humanity\u2019s pain of guilt because it is part and parcel of the sin. John the Baptist\u2019s own \u2018advent\u2019 traditionally features on the 2nd<\/sup> Sunday of Advent. This year we read Mark (1:1-8). Our attention may be captured by Mark\u2019s description of John\u2019s choice of clothing, which probably says more about our preoccupation with our appearance than John\u2019s attire! John\u2019s \u2018advent\u2019 reveals a remarkable public appetite. Mark tells how: \u201c<\/em>People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Clearly the Jews, then, found inadequate motivation to reform their religious lives through the exhortations of their own religious leaders. It was not John\u2019s basic clothing and food that drew the crowds. They came because of their appetite for The Truth that they discovered in John\u2019s words and presence. John awoke a powerful response from a spiritually distressed people and thereby prepared the way for Jesus.<\/p>\n John fulfils the role of a prophet which is to tell people the meaning of what is happening, not what will happen:“One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of His sandals. I have baptized you with water; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”<\/em> Jesus can look any womb-conceived child in the eye, as it were, and say – \u201cI know exactly where you became human\u201d. Jesus\u2019 dovetailing with the human experience, \u2018like us in all things except sin\u2019, exemplifies how perfectly he fulfils his heavenly Father\u2019s command, voiced by Isaiah so many centuries previously, \u201cComfort my people\u201d \u201cshow compassion to my people\u201d. God made Man does not empathise from a safe distance. He immerses himself in the human condition to the point of freely accepting suffering and death for our salvation. In the many forms of pain that we experience during the journey of life here on earth, Jesus can truly say to us \u2013 \u201cI know exactly how you feel.\u201d<\/p>\n That so many of his contemporaries flocked to John the Baptist tells us that John, from the womb onwards, must have been nourished with God\u2019s holiness. Jesus and John were first cousins in an oppressed nation where the extended family was always close. John would have been in physical proximity as well as spiritual communion with Jesus.<\/p>\n When we give true, informed consent to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit our life becomes suffused with a holiness that not only fills us but also reaches out to all. The late Mother Teresa of Calcutta is but one easily recognised exemplifier of this. There will be members of our extended family, parish or pastoral area resilient with holiness. Others sense this holiness in them while they themselves remain unaware. In fact they see themselves as repentant sinners. In this they are correct for that is what they and we are!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2nd Sunday of Advent (07.12.14) Did You Hear What I Mean? Words are one of humanity\u2019s basic tools of communication. People may sometimes use them excessively and not infrequently inappropriately. Returning to the UK after a lengthy absence, people are … Continue reading
\nWe affirm Jesus\u2019 right to declare to each and every one of us, \u201cI know exactly how you feel\u201d, each time we acclaim, \u2018Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world. Have mercy on us.\u2019 <\/em>\u00a0Jesus gave us the visible demonstration of his co-suffering with humanity throughout his life culminating in the Triduum days of the week known to Christians as Holy – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday.<\/p>\n
\nJohn was not reading from a script. What he said came from the depths of a heart and soul replenished by the Holy Spirit when he, in his mother Elizabeth\u2019s womb, leapt for joy at the nearness of his Saviour in Mary\u2019s womb. The occasion we commemorate in the second Joyful mystery of the Rosary known as The Visitation.<\/p>\n