Christmas Day 

Readings: The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) | USCCB 

Let the light shine 

As a child, my anticipation of Christmas Day was intense – the gifts, the cousins I rarely saw, the once-a-year foods. All too quickly, though, the gifts were done, the cousins left, and dinnertime was back to humdrum tuna casserole. How could such a monumental cause for celebration be over so soon? 

Today’s Gospel reading reminds us that today is not a singular event to celebrate but a history-upending reality in which we are ongoing active participants. Yes, Christmas represents that moment when “true light” came into our world. But that same reading reminds us about the key role that John played – “He was not the light but came to testify to the light.” 

It can be tempting to overlook this aspect of the Christmas story. We are not simply passive beneficiaries of the true light; we are asked to bear witness to it. As Pope Francis puts it, “it is not enough to receive light, one must become light,” for each of us is called to receive “the divine light in order to manifest it with our whole life.” 

The Incarnation is God shouting to us, “You are loved.” And it is a love that can never be captured in a day or season, no matter how special the gifts, relatives, or food we rely on to mark the occasion when true light arrived. The significance of the occasion will be marked, in the end, by our lives. Do our lives reflect the reason we place so much significance on December 25? As a “weary world” contemplates that “holy night,” as the hymn says, do they see in us “a thrill of hope” for the breaking of a “new and glorious morn?” 

My prayer for you – and for me – is that we let the light shine in us and through us for the world to see, long after the cousins have headed home. 

Merry Christmas! 

Rob Vischer

President, University of St. Thomas

Readings: Third Sunday of Advent | USCCB 

Jesus accompanies us in our pain – Third Sunday of Advent 

Have you ever felt sad or anxious and a friend says to you, “cheer up and look on the bright side,” or “what you need to do to feel better is…”? Despite good intentions to take your pain away, you simply want to be heard and for someone to be with you in your pain.   

Today’s readings feel like a friend who tries to “make” you feel better. The prophet Zephaniah exhorts, “Be glad and exult with all your heart…fear not, be not discouraged!”  In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul tells us to “rejoice!” and “have no anxiety at all.”  As much as I would like to “rejoice!” and “have no anxiety at all,” I’m struggling to do so. I am feeling a lot of sadness recently, and I don’t particularly feel like rejoicing. I just want to be accompanied in my pain.  

I offer this personal sharing to simply say we all hurt. And sometimes our hurt—due to devastating loss, relationship struggles, injustice, feeling overwhelmed, or whatever it may be—feels immune to being “glad.”   

Or is it?   

A closer look at today’s readings shows that persistent calls to “rejoice” and “have no anxiety at all” are not mere platitudes; they are always coupled with a radical and reassuring truth—“the LORD, your God, is in your midst.” This is deep cause to “be glad.”   

Jesus never came to take away our pain; Jesus came to be with us in it. When Emmanuel (“God with us”) comes to be with us in our pain, then our pain no longer overwhelms us. Through Jesus’ own dying and rising, he shows us that our pain, which he shares in, is never the end of the story, but the place where healing begins. Through accompanying us in our hurts, Christ will “renew you in his love.”   

Paul Krenzelok
Executive Director
Ignatian Spirituality Center 

Second Sunday of Advent 

Second Sunday of Advent | USCCB 

Salvation in every time, and in this time 

Today’s readings are all about God’s mercy and decisive action – in the past, in the future, and today. They inspire hope in suffering people. 

The Book of Baruch recalls the Babylonian Exile, a period of devastating loss and destruction for ancient Israel. But now, God is returning the people to their home, and re-fashioning them into a community of mercy and justice. Baruch calls Jerusalem (and us) to stand up and look for this joyful restoration. Likewise, today’s Psalm describes the overwhelming joy experienced by those rescued from exile and returned home. 

In a similar vein, Paul’s letter to the Philippians rejoices “that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6) – even though Paul is writing from prison, and he will soon be executed.  

The Gospel of Luke brings this theme of joyful expectation to bear on a very specific place and time: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee . . . the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert” (Luke 3:1-2). Imagine if we said instead, “In the fourth year of the presidency of Joseph Biden, when Tim Walz was governor of Minnesota . . .” The word of God comes to this place and time?! Into this complicated political, social, historical moment?! Yes. 

What will God accomplish? John the Baptist announces a new era of forgiveness and mercy, echoing the prophet Isaiah: “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Isaiah 40:4-5). Oppressed people in both Isaiah’s and John’s time were longing for this salvation. 

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously quoted the same verses from Isaiah in his “I Have A Dream” speech, delivered in 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. King called his listeners to “the fierce urgency of now,” and repeated insistently, “now is the time” to end racial injustice. He urged his listeners on, even as he acknowledged that “some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations.” 

Jesus comes into our messy lives and our unjust, violent world – now.  

Lord Jesus, help me to be a part of your advent in our world, in a way that makes the oppressed rejoice. 

Dr. Cara Anthony
Theology Department 

First Sunday of Advent 

Readings 

God’s Promise of Peace 

The opening line for the first Sunday of Advent from the book of Jeremiah says, “The days are coming when I will fulfill the promise I made.” As we begin a new church year, we start with a promise from God. The promise is for the fullness of life, and for peace to reign among all peoples. That does not mean the troubles are over, however. In fact, the gospel for the same liturgy has Jesus giving warning signs about disruption, turmoil and roaring seas and waves among other things. In fact, he says “people will die of fright, in anticipation of what is coming upon the world for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” We will still have troubled times. In fact, of course, we are living in troubled times right now with various threats of escalation of war around the world. Many are unsettled and living in fear in our own country and communities. Some are filled with hope and others with fear and worry. And yet the promise of the Lord remains the same. In the Advent season, as we look forward to the celebration of the birth of Christ, we are reminded of the startling way that God promises to bring about that promise of peace. He does not come with thunderbolts or with an iron fist to shape us all up. Instead, he comes as a vulnerable little baby, born on the run, not even in his own home. And yet as he comes in that vulnerability, he brings the greatest power of all which is pure, merciful love. Let’s be on the lookout for that gift of love in the coming week in all whom we meet. 

Fr. Christopher Collins, SJ
Vice President for Mission