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Second Sunday of Advent

Today's Lectionary Readings
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It has been an odd winter in Northern Nevada. Climate change
scientists tell us that many of our winters going forward will not
have a familiar look or feel. The trees around town clutched their
green leaves long into November, and those that did begin the slow
change to autumn, resisted surrender even after the first snowfalls.
Neighbors scratch their heads and comment that "things just
aren't supposed to be this way."

Today's reading of Isaiah 11: 1-10 frames our conversation
similarly. "On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the
stump...and from his roots a bud shall blossom..."
Wait, these things shouldn't be happening either! A bud
blossoming from a root? A bud belongs on a branch. A shoot sprouting
from a stump that had long-since given up being a tree? Really, much
of this entire reading makes no predictable sense.

Here, dichotomies and contrasts, opposites and ironic pairings are
proposed to us and seem to be signs pointing to a better world; a
world, in fact, that we long for in our deepest hearts. A hope where
peace is not the logical outcome to conflict, and harmony, never a
presumed consequence. Yet, this is unequivocally God's
territory! It is the Divine, who brings about counter-intuitive
realities which delight and restore our confidence by inviting us to
hope with more abandon, next time.

In the critical, compassionate work we do at Catholic Charities, we
see contrasts and ironies every day. People have stopped hoping and
still they come to us. We encounter daily the undeniable persistence
that springs from even the most tested heart. By articulating personal
scarcity, our guests walk away in abundance!

We are convinced that God bends mercifully toward the poor. This is
our daily message for those we help. Yet are we completely convinced
of this truth for ourselves? As an ambassador of Divine Love, do I
believe this love enough to surrender all that resists healing within
my own heart?

Our guests model total trust in a providence which defies logic. Their
example rings with the message that the Light is coming, a Light which
defies darkness.

On the road to Bethlehem, journeying to the manager where a Virgin
gives birth to a child, all things become possible. There along the
way, a bud is growing from a root and a shoot springs forth from a
barren stump.

Monique Jacobs serves joyfully as Director of Mission and Identity at
Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada.




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