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 For Luke, “being lost” is like “being dead,”  and “being found” is like “being made alive.”  This is stated most dramatically at the end of the parable of the prodigal son, “your brother was dead and is alive; he was lost and is found”.


May you be renewed by your celebration of Christ's birth.
Fr. Joe

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It is to shepherds that this Good News is announced:  
“Do not be afraid;  for behold,  I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people."  
While the emperor says "ALL the world,"  the shepherds proclaim "For ALL the people."

May you be renewed by your celebration of Christ's birth.
Fr. Joe

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Mary and Elizabeth are not alone. How good it is that God gave them one to another. God's most radical intervention into history was listened to and received in community.

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"The daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

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The heights of despair and the depths of depression will be leveled out. 

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Advent begins in the dark.  In this dark landscape, we are invited to describe life “on earth as it is," to name the seeming  absence of God. We sit in darkness, longing for light.  We sit in exile, longing for home.  We sit with aching, empty arms, waiting to cradle a life that’s still unformed, still hidden, still in process.  


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“Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice,” Jesus said. And Pilate asked Jesus, in a line that is omitted from today’s reading: “What is truth?” The Greek word for truth literally means, “Remember not to forget.”

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Last week Jesus was in the Temple, sitting opposite the Treasury. Now Jesus is  opposite the Temple mount, on the Mount of Olives. The prophet Zechariah declared that the last days will begin at the Mount of Olives. Jesus takes his place on the mountain  long foretold to be where that new day will begin.

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The widow says nothing, and yet her actions speak volumes. The Greek word for her "giving her whole life" prefigures the sacrifice Jesus is about to make. 
It is both a judgment on the temple cult  -  that demanded giving that so impoverished the widow  -  and as prelude to Christ giving his whole life for the life of the world.

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Rabbi Rami Shapiro points out that the four-letter Hebrew Name of God -  Y-H-V-H, yod-hey-vav-hey - when written vertically, takes on the shape of a human being.  Each one of us is the Name of God incarnate.

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