3rd Sunday of Advent Reflection
Hope For a New Moral Imperative –
3rd Sunday of Advent – Luke 3:10-18 – Whoever has two tunics must share with him who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.
A message of hope in our young people:
A change in Moral attitude – Self-interest is for the past and Common interest is for the future (Sir David Attenborough)
The past imprisons us because of familiarity, habit, greed, and fear of change. We impulsively move to familiar ground with knee-jerk negative interpretations and responses based on our anger, fear, and resentment. The destiny of prophets is sealed in blood. We vilify the messenger, belittle them at our dinner tables and so feel good about ourselves and the world we have created. Our minds hold us captive to our own illusions.
“Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos. That is the way we all see each other in life. Vanity, fear, desire, and competition, all such distortions within our own egos, condition our vision of those in relation to us. Add to those distortions to our own egos the corresponding distortions in the egos of others, and you see how cloudy the glass must become through which we look at each other. That’s how it is in all living relationships except when there is that rare case of two people who love intensely enough to burn through all those layers of opacity and see each other’s naked hearts.” ― Tennessee Williams.
Therein lies our hope and our joy; Love has come into the world and will free us of the fear and darkness; Love that changes everything and leads to another way. “Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants of you in your life in Christ Jesus.
Speak to one another in the words of the psalms, hymns, and sacred songs; sing hymns and psalms to the Lord, with praise in your heart. Always give thanks for everything to God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
May you always be joyful in your life in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice! … Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking God with a thankful heart. And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe, in Christ Jesus.”
Today is Gaudete Sunday; Rejoice Sunday! It is a day for considering all that we as Christians and specifically as a Christian community can rejoice about.
This is the good news that each and every one of us shares in. The grace that is the Cross of Jesus in which converges evil, justice, mercy, forgiveness, and transforms all into Love that burns away our blind, selfish misery.
As a Christian community we are privileged to share in Jesus’ spiritual life and so must also share in Jesus’ concerns and desires. In order for us also do the will of ‘the One’ who sent Jesus, we need to free ourselves of the Babylon effect; the commercialisation of religion, the commercialisation of justice, peace and forgiveness, the commercialisation of the world and its creatures, as well as the commercialisation of love.
Only with this new vision do we move to the moral imperative of the common good.
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