The Second Sunday of Advent

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say itagain!” Phil. 4:4

Many years ago, I served as an assistant parish priest. One certain Sunday, the Gospel scheduled that day featured Luke’s incomparably beautiful story beginning with these words:

“A man had two sons.”

Many people throughout the centuries would agree it’s arguably the most beautiful story found anywhere in Sacred Scripture because its message represents the heart and soul of the entire New Testament.

Ironically, even though it is most often referred to as the story of the “Prodigal Son,” its main character is really the father – a father who lavishes both his sons with the dearest of all God’s gifts:

Mercy.

So, back to when I served as a parish priest.

On a particular Sunday, I spoke at all the Masses about the boundless, infinite graciousness of the God we believe in through Jesus, and how we are each called to imitate that same mercy depicted unforgettably in Luke’s gospel story.

To put it mildly, the pastor was not pleased with my words.

In fact, he was so upset with my portrayal of a God immersed in a passionate love affair with His people, that the next week the pastor stepped into the same pulpit and ardently emphasized the absolute opposite:

God’s eternal judgment, hellfire and damnation, and the ever-present reality of sin.
To say I was stunned by so outrageous a public rebuttal would be an understatement. Fortunately, many of the parishioners were as bewildered as I was. One lady was even so kind as to say:

“I like your God a lot better.”

According to the Gospels, so did Jesus.

In truth, like St. Paul in today’s second reading, all four Gospels present Jesus as one who enters into a relationship so intense and personal that he dared to speak of God in the most intimate of terms, even addressing God as “Abba” – a familiarity unheard of previously.

Jesus, like the father in the Prodigal Son story, adopted God’s primary characteristic of mercy and made it the hallmark of his entire ministry:
Mercy to the blind and the lame; mercy to the woman caught in adultery; mercy to the good thief as he hung on a cross; mercy to the woman who washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.

Mercy. Always mercy.

Unfortunately, as expressed so pessimistically by that pastor back in the day, the primacy of God’s unrelenting mercy and love throughout the Gospels has, in the words of one scholar, been “criminally neglected” in Catholic theology.

That is why Pope Francis has made the theme of mercy the hallmark of his papacy. In doing so, Francis is trying to remind us in a powerful way that it is mercy that best defines the God of Jesus.

We are urged by Pope Francis, again and again, to make the mercy of God come alive in the world we live in – a world immersed in fear, hatred, threats of vengeance, and in patterns of retribution.

Pope Francis encourages us, each one of us, again and again, to reflect on and live out the ethics Jesus preached and lived out: love, not hate; compassion, not revenge; peace not war.

Mercy.
Always mercy.

The season of Advent is the perfect setting to remind us of the utter importance of God’s mercy. Because Advent is a time especially dedicated to listening and reflecting and “preparing the way of the Lord.”

Again, Pope Francis urges us to make this Advent time one in which we, in his words, “rediscover the depth of the mercy of the Father …. Let us therefore become artisans of mercy in our lives.”

“Artisans of mercy ….”

When we achieve that goal, then we will be able to wholeheartedly say with St. Paul:

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice.”

Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.