by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace
You’re aware, I’m sure, that the word Advent means coming and during this season, we’re celebrating a coming of God into our midst in a very powerful and special way. First of all, we’re looking forward to celebrate the coming of Jesus that happened 2,000 years ago when the Son of God became part of human history, became a human just like us in every way except sin.
God entered into our midst; that’s part of what we celebrate in Advent. Also as the gospel suggests, we’re looking forward to that final coming of Jesus when he will come to establish the reign of God in its fullness and all of us will enter into a complete, full life of joy and peace and love and all of the universe will be brought to a completion, a perfection. We’re looking to that coming.
If we listen to the scripture lessons today carefully, we discover how God is telling us about these comings of God into our midst. In that first lesson from Jeremiah, as I mentioned, Jeremiah was with the people in exile and that was a very difficult time of great suffering. He kept assuring them that God is with you; God will bring you through this trial and God did. Then after they’re back in their own land — they rebuilt the temple and so on — Jeremiah continues to preach only he begins to look forward to a new intervention of God in their midst….