The dream of Jesus for our world

The Third Sunday of Advent has some stirring readings. The first one is from the prophet Isaiah which Jesus read in the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth, when those blinkered people with their small-minded view of life, tried to throw him over the cliff because he claimed to be the Messiah.  "Why can't he do the things he did in Capernaum here?" they complained. But Jesus faced them squarely. "Because you do not believe in me" he replied.  They growled angrily muttering things like: "He was at school with our  Nathan (or Samuel or Moses). Who does he think he is?  He is working miracles in Capernaum and Bethsaida, but here, where he was brought up, he refuses even to pray with our sick!  Some prophet he is!"  You can imagine the angry exchanges that took place after the few words that Jesus spoke to them.  Angry and jealous, they tried to kill him, but he escaped. Here this text is given in full, and it is a beautiful Advent reading.  We can see why it contained what we might call the dream of Jesus for our world - his blueprint, or mission statement we might call it today.  This young, sunburned man had offered to his own people his dream for our healing. A dream he and his Father shared, a dream that, in the end, would bring him to that hell-hole we call Calvary - the place of the skull, the place of death.  But the dream survived because Calvary is also the place of the greatest love this tired old world has ever known. Drop by drop it came to us, as his blood landed on our earth, and we have never been the same since.  He blotted out all the hatred,  the misunderstanding, the envy by love and forgiveness. And here, in Advent we are faced once more with this dream which appeared to end on Calvary, but in reality carried on through time and space to us.  Jesus envisaged a world where the light of Christ would overcome the darkness of sin and ignorance, where no one would be left out, ignored forgotten or unhealed. Where there would be a special time of blessing, when debts would be written off, rifts healed, old scores forgiven and families would live in peace.  Not for one year of course,  as the Jewish law procclaimed, but for always. 



Christ has no hands but ours...

 We are carriers of that dream, and Advent is the time to look at it again.  St. Teresa's prayer "Christ has no hands but ours..." becomes a reality - we are offered the chance to reach out to heal, to forgive, to reconcile, to place love at the heart of the Church and the world, as St. Therese put it.  Our Foundress used to say that we are all given the hands of Christ to work with, the heart of Christ to love with, and the mind of Christ to illumine the world.  That's quite a statement, whoever first thought of it! 

We talk a lot about service, what we can do to help our neighbour, how we can best serve one another, but here we have the way given to us by Christ himself. "The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me and he has anointed me to give Good News to the poor...  the prophet cries.  And Christ answers:  "I have anointed  YOU to bring my name before Gentiles and Kings. Go and tell everyone...."   What a commission! 

Notice the responsorial psalm of this Sunday. It is Mary's Song, the Magnificat, which she quoted at the Visitation.  "My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour..."  She had just said her "yes" to being a carrier (literally) of the dream of God for our world - and her spirit was full of joy - in smaller ways we can do the same.  Have a joyful Advent!