NOTE: Throughout the Advent season, we’ll post a reflection on the readings for the upcoming Sunday in Advent just a few days before so individuals and groups can reflect in anticipation or incorporate it into their meetings, homilies, etc. The reflection will be available on our homepage through the weekend and then archived on our Advent 2023 webpage.
The reflection below is written by Sr. Norma Pimentel, MJ, for this year’s Advent reflection booklet. The booklet is still available for purchase at this link as an immediate download for your tablet or e-reader for $4.00.
By Sr. Norma Pimentel, MJ
Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b, 64:2-7 | 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 | Mark 13:33-37
Be watchful!
As we begin Advent, we are called to be watchful and alert. We are called to ask ourselves, “Could it be we have wandered from God’s ways? Have our hearts hardened, that we fear not the absence of God’s presence in our life?”
Have we confused our own design of who God is to us and have failed to allow the true presence of God to guide us to God, to instruct us how to respond to the injustice of our time?
God is never indifferent to human suffering. On the contrary, God’s presence is revealed in our direct contact with human beings, in our response to human suffering.
Daily I meet people who are on the margins of our society, people on the peripheries. Pope Francis calls us to go out to these peripheries to include those who are left out, easily discarded and unseen. They are people who are homeless, people who have immigrated, people who are poor.
If we ask ourselves — who are these people, the ones without homes, who have immigrated, who are poor — we may find that they are people just like us, but whose struggles have left them in a vulnerable position. They are the broken of our society who find themselves living in the streets of our cities. For the most part they are ignored, invisible to many of us who pass by them.
They are people on the move who leave their country for fear caused by violence, corruption, abuses and attacks on their life. They travel great distances and encounter life-threatening hardships along the way. Many don’t make it because the human body is unable to endure the exhaustion of extreme conditions. Many are also victims of the evils of human trafficking.
People who are poor are those who find it so difficult to earn living wages to provide the essentials for themselves and their families. They live day by day oppressed by the living standards of our society.
The social injustices of our time are real. It is the result of an indifferent and detached society that fails to be mindful of God’s ways — a God who is inclusive and compassionate and who demands a response from us.
Take time this Advent to be alert. Be vigilant that you do not wander off from God’s way. Rather than being seduced by the evils of the world that easily invade our minds and hearts and pull us away from God, look instead for ways to respond to the injustices of our time.
FOR REFLECTION:
- How do you stay open to God’s presence in your life?
- What do you need to do to stay alert and responsive?
>> For more Advent resources and reflections, click here.
I was directed to this page by a dear friend. I salute Sr. Pimentel’s great work with people on the peripheries, and the positive example she gives us all. My wife helped in her good works in southern Texas when we lived there, and I remember the loving look on the faces of those who were helped.
As we cycle through each year it is healthy to take stock of our actions over time, and in that theme, a season such as Advent can play a healthy part. But anymore I doubt that focusing on a god is necessarily helpful or even healthy. Yes, the belief in a god may inspire and comfort if there seems no other source of comfort. But, as Sr. Pimentel, WE must be that comfort to others, including the needy stranger, because it is the right thing to do. The Bible has much positive to it, but also contains considerable negative actions by its mythological god that we should not accept, let alone celebrate.
So, I celebrate Sr. Pimentel’s life and inspiration and realize it is she that is doing it because she knows it is the right thing to do. But she is humble and would reject that claim; so be it. Do the right thing, be kind, help those in need, be vigilant, struggle for justice, and join those who make the world a better place, but don’t wait for a god to instruct you.
“Do the right thing, be kind, help those in need, be vigilant, struggle for justice, and join those who make the world a better place, but don’t wait for a god to instruct you.”
There is some justification for waiting. Here’s why:
The Catholic Bishops of the U.S.A. made the mistake of calling for “a Eucharistic Revival”; they should have called first for “a synodal church”. They put the emphasis on “love of God” rather than “love of neighbor”. If they knew enough to wait until the resources of the Church had more time to develop “a synodal church” the world would be much better off, and God would not be offended in waiting for Eucharistic Adoration”.
I acknowledge your thoughtful response, William. But I disagree that we should wait for the bishops. If anything, the bishops are hastening the secularization of the world, which is a good thing. Let them move in that direction while the Church and they become more irrelevant, and we will continue to work for the progress Sr. Pimentel seeks.
I really appreciate your honesty and what you shared resonated with me. Thank you for your response. I am glad I am not the only one who feels as you do.
Thank you, Sarina. There are many that feel as we do and that number is growing. Peace!