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The Perspective of Justice
First Sunday of Advent A
November 27, 2016
Gerald Darring

Preparing for Christ

  “The Son of Man is coming at the time you least expect (Mt 24:44).” That is a frightening prospect.

• What if Jesus comes when there are still nearly two and a half billion people living in countries where the annual per capita income is $400 or less?

• When there are still about 40,000 people dying every day from hunger?

• When a billion people, one fifth of the human race, still do not have decent housing?

• When there are still 20 million Latin American children sleeping in the street?

• When there are still hundreds of millions of people without basic medical care?

• When one out of every four human beings still has no access to safe drinking water?

• When we are still burning down rain forests, depleting the ozone layer that protects us from the sun, depositing black crude oil along the delicate shoreline of the world, sending noxious gasses into the atmosphere so they return to earth as acid rain and pollute lakes and streams, playing games with radioactive materials that will be around to torture us for centuries?

  “It is now the hour for us to wake from sleep (Rom 13:11).” The challenge to “beat our swords into plowshares” (Is 2:4) has been around for centuries, as have other biblical challenges to “cast off deeds of darkness (Rom 13:12).” The season of Advent is a time for us to wake ourselves up and begin preparing better for the coming of Christ.
Hope in the coming kingdom is already beginning to take root in the hearts of men. The radical transformation of the world in the paschal mystery of the Lord gives full meaning to the efforts of men, and in particular of the young, to lessen injustice, violence and hatred and to advance all together in justice, freedom, brotherhood and love.

Synod of Bishops, Justice in the World, 1971: 76

Gerald Darring
Now published in book form, To Love and Serve: Lectionary Based Meditations, by Gerald Darring This entire three year cycle is available at Amazon.com.
Art by Martin Erspamer, OSB
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org