"Do you hear what I hear?"

The two readings today are helpful invitations to prayer during these middle-days of Advent.  The first reading from (Second) Isaiah continues to put before the Jewish people reasons for hope and promises for joy as the new King Cyrus played a significant role in returning the faithful to Jerusalem so that they could rebuild their most sacred physical space, the Temple in Jerusalem.  The days of return and the days of beginning to build the Temple provided the people time for rebuilding their own spirituality.  It was a time for them to open their hearts to "the Sacred."  It is a reminder to them of a well-known Genesis verse (22:17):  I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore."

In the gospel we are challenged to hear the message that our Creator God is offering us in our times.  In the gospel Jesus is rather sharp putting forward a reprimand  to the crowds who seem to need hearing aids.  This is why Jesus compared the crowds to the young people seeming playing games in the town square and saying to those who did not pay attention:  "We piped and you did not dace; we wailed and you did not mourn."

Two examples:  John the Baptist came with a different style of living, fasting, not drinking and wearing must unusual and unfitting clothing.  The people considered possessed by some kind of evil spirit.  Yet, when Jesus came who apparently dined with the a la their customs, eating and drinking with them, he became an announced glutton and drunkard.  Of course, too, he was account of being the friend of tax collectors and other sinners.

So what for us?  If we do not understand and listen for "the Sacred" in others, we are no different.  We hear time and again reminders from pulpits and from our personal spiritual reading that God is calling us to recall his will for us.  A friend recently told me that his relative had dropped out of "church going" because the pastor could never get beyond asking for money.  The irony to it is that man's parish was a hair's width away from bankruptcy!  Might it not be like promising that you would never return to a certain shopping center because you did not like the new refacing project in the shopping center!  Now you opt for driving twenty-five miles to another location!  Make any sense????

Where there is pain or loss because of dissatisfaction, is walking away the answer?  It is, rather, a time to listen .... "to listen to what I (Jesus) said."  He is say, "Do you hear what I hear (.... from my Father in heaven)?"  Advent should be a time when we look at renew our Savior's role for us:  "He is the embodiment of the Wisdom of God" Fr John Daley, SJ).