​“Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm…Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs.”

This verse from today’s first reading from Isaiah encapsulates the joy and hope that comes during this season of Advent. The great prophecy of God coming to his people to not only rule with his strong arm to lead his people, but also a God that comes to carry his people in his bosom. God is coming to lead us to his Kingdom but he is also coming to love us tenderly as his flock.

It’s an interesting duality to consider, and one that man has been questioning forever: how can God be so strong and decisive in the way he rules the world and his peoples, but yet so tender and compassionate to love us with a personal love? You may recall questions such as, “how could the vengeful God of the Old Testament be the same loving God of the New Testament?” I think if we step back for a second we’ll see how God is both strong ruler and tender loving shepherd.

The people of Israel that Isaiah is speaking to are in a deep place of despair- they’ve been ripped from their homeland, living as slaves in exile in Babylon. All of the great promises of God in the Old Testament seem like distant memories to them at this point. The Messiah that they are waiting for is a God who can rule with an iron fist to lead them out of this exile and back to the promised land of their fathers. They weren’t looking for a God to be tender and compassionate to them, but rather a firm ruler to take over the nation who controlled them. However, this is always the starting place for God to show us who he really is.

We see an incompatibility between a firm ruling hand and a tender loving hand. Why is this? Is it because we only see firm rule as prohibitive, such as a child who rebels against their parents rules? Yet none of us fails to know the tender love of our parents as we come to mature. God is a loving Father, and just as we sometimes need to know the tender love of our parents, we also need them to lead us with a firm and guiding hand. 

Isaiah proclaims a God who is coming to not only lead us to the glory of his Kingdom, but a God who will love us tenderly as he leads us to that freedom. Advent is all about waiting for the Lord to come to us — small and seemingly insignificant as a baby in a manger — but it is also about recognizing the power of the Lord who will lead us to his Kingdom. It is in this that we find joy and hope as we wait for the coming of our great God, our tender Shepherd.

How do I see God as a firm, prohibitive, ruler? 

How do I see God as a loving shepherd to me?

​In what ways is my relationship with God struggling to grow because of how I see him?

"We wait for you."

"Show me your love."

"Lead me to your Kingdom, Lord."

Take time today to look at your view of God. Make a two-column list and put "firm ruler" at one side and "loving shepherd" at the other. Then write down how you see God working in your life with specific examples in each column. Take stock of where you are lacking in seeing God as both/and, and ask God to bring you to a greater knowledge of who he is to you.

“Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?”  In his ministry, Christ always places primary emphasis on the interior disposition of the heart rather than the external or physical.  We see in this story from the Gospel of Luke; He is more interested in offering forgiveness and interior healing than He is interested in offering physical healing (not to say He is not interested in physical healing, because he is).  Yet in this passage, He only offers the physical healing as proof that he is capable of the interior healing, of forgiveness of sins, of offering an eternal hope that only the Divine can offer.

“Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?”  Perhaps this is because he knew of our human inclination to get fixated on the external.  We want the big flashy sign: the golden letters in the sky or the ecstatic healing or miracle.  And yes, sometimes those moments happen, but more often than not, they do not. Why? Because God became man. And the normal way He wants to encounter us is through our normal experiences of everyday life, not exclusively in the big flashy exciting moments of prayer.

​This is precisely what Advent is about: taking time to focus on how to find our Human-God in our own humanity!  He wants to be part of our everyday humdrum normal lives and daily routines.  He wants to encounter us in the quiet of our hearts when we go to Him and acknowledge his love and presence for us despite us not “feeling” it at all like we do in the big flashy moments.  When we got to Him and ask daily forgiveness for a sin we’ve just committed for the 5,000th time. Nothing delights Him more than to whisper, even if silently, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Where in your life do you need Jesus to heal you? 

What sins do you find yourself constantly struggling and battling against? 

​Where can you encounter Jesus?

"Rise and walk." 

"Your sins are forgiven."

"Jesus, I trust in you."

Where in your life do you need to experience Jesus's healing. Examine your life, your routine, your strengths and weaknesses. Bring them to confession as soon as you can this week. 

This year, my family received a letter stating exactly how to decorate our house for Christmas. The letter specified that our trees should be decorated with multi-colored lights or we would be considered the Grinch of the neighborhood. I am sure the letter writer thought they were being cute or clever, but really all it did was offend my dad who did not want to be told how to decorate his house. It is so easy to think of lights as how we prepare for Christmas. But isn’t Jesus asking us for more? 

As we being the second week of Advent, all of today’s readings ask us to prepare for the Lord. For Christmas we tend to prepare by putting up stockings, putting up the Christmas tree and hanging up lights. All are beautiful ways to prepare for the coming of the Lord. But how do we ensure we go a bit deeper, not to make it about just lights as our letter writer did, but how do we truly prepare for Christmas?

First, we must be joyful. The first reading states, “Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever:” We are not mourning, though the days are long and dark. We are called to be joyful, full of life. Where in your life do you need more joy? Maybe it is when you are scraping off your car, maybe it is in doing chores. Where can you bring joy to a place you normally complain? 

In the second reading, Paul tells us, that his prayer for Christians is to love. To love genuinely and generously. The real love he is describing who push us on to share the Gospel with others and that love should reflect the glory of the Lord. Who can you love better? Maybe it is your annoying sibling, or the person who sits by themselves at lunch. Who can you be Christ’s light to?

In the Gospel reading, John is going around proclaiming the need to repent from sins. This is the ultimate way to prepare for Jesus: go to confession. Seek His forgiveness. Find a time this Advent and ensure that you will receive God’s love and mercy so that you can open your heart to Jesus. 
So take time this season of Advent to be joyful, to really love and to repent. These three things will truly help you to welcome Jesus (and to not be a grinch) this upcoming Christmas. 

Where in your life do you need more joy?

​Who (and how) can you love better?

What are some areas you need to repent in your life?

"Fill my heart with your Joy."

"I love you Lord."

"Jesus, have mercy on me."

Go to confession this week so you can love better and turn that mourning back into joy.

​It is the Spirit that gives life. 

Do you remember when you first started at something new? It’s hard, no? If you start playing a sport, it takes time to get the fundamentals down, then the conditioning, then the teamwork, then finally after much practice you come to a place where you are really good at it. The same can be said for learning an instrument- it takes time and practice and some days are going to be better than others. Well why the heck do we think the spiritual life is any different? It’s not! The difference is that we have a personal coach, trainer, teacher, assistant, at every moment. 

We are promised happiness when we follow Jesus and put Him first in our lives. But so often, when I start to follow Jesus, my life gets twisted upside down, or someone says something and I stop following Him. Why can’t I say one day “I am going to follow Jesus” and simply do it? Because it takes time to get good at something worth getting good at. It takes time to begin to live a new way of life. Just as it takes time for someone playing an instrument to get good at it AND they have to rework their schedule so that they make time to practice AND they ask for assistance when they hit a wall. The spiritual life is no different. When we want to live a life of grace, we have to begin reworking our schedule, our priorities. We also have to ask for help. It’s why God let the Holy Spirit overshadow Mary- to show us that just as He brings LIFE into Mary, so He leads us into that same LIFE, namely Jesus Christ. This solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is a beautiful day in which we can ask Jesus and Mary to send the Holy Spirit to overshadow us and to lead us, step by step, day by day, into a new way of living; a life of grace rooted in Jesus Christ.

Has the Holy Spirit overshadowed you? Do you allow the Spirit into your life in this way?

Are you ready for your entire life to change by letting the Spirit in?

Have you put the same effort into conforming your life to God's Will as a sport you've mastered, instrument you've learned, or subject you know a lot about?

"I give my life to you."

"I'm going all in to your will."

"Overshadow me Lord."

Go to Mass today. Ask the Lord to overshadow you with His love and His will for you.