Daily Archives: December 5, 2025

Being Attentive

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Each Friday, the daily Mass includes the children, teachers and staff of our parish elementary school. And so the readings are taken from the Children’s Lectionary – while the themes are the same, the readings may be different. The post at 9:00 am today was a homily that would have been for one of the readings of the day -Isaiah in particular. This post is a reflection for elementary school students on Luke 12:35-38 – be prepared and keep the lamps burning.

Without a doubt the gospel is about being ready, being prepared. Even the opening verse says, “Be ready and keep your lamps burning.” And absolutely do that, be prepared for Christmas. Make room in your hearts for Jesus’ coming: be kinder, be more patient (especially when things don’t go your way), express your gratitude by saying thank you and letting people know you appreciate them – and make more time for prayer.  All of these are ways to prepare for Christmas.

But you know what stands out for me in that gospel? The servants are paying attention. Their eyes are open, their ears are listening, their hearts are awake. They don’t want to miss the moment when their master arrives. Jesus is not just saying, “Be ready.” He’s also saying: “Pay attention to Me. Don’t miss the ways I come to you.” During Advent, that is one of the most important things we can learn—how to pay attention to Jesus. How can we do that?

Pay Attention to People Who Need Love. Sometimes Jesus comes to us in a person who needs something: someone sitting alone at school, a sibling or classmates who seems sad. A parent who looks tired. When we pay attention, we notice these things. And then we can pray that Jesus help us to do or say the right thing. Or maybe combining “bring prepared” and “paying attention” we can start the day by praying: “Jesus, help me notice who needs kindness today.”  Now you are specially prepared to be attentive to the needs of others. And in this way you are attentive to Jesus living in others.

Pay Attention to Quiet Moments. Advent is a busy time—lights, music, shopping, parties. But Jesus also comes in the quiet moments, when our hearts can hear Him best. During Advent you might:

  • Sit silently for 20–30 seconds and talk to Jesus in your heart
  • When you see an Advent wreath and remember Jesus is near
  • When you see someone who needs kindness, say a small prayer on the way to school

These simple moments help us and remind us to pay attention to Jesus’ gentle voice.

Pay Attention to Goodness. Jesus often shows Himself through good things around us: a friend’s smile, a teacher’s patience, a sunset, a moment when you felt forgiven, a time when you did something kind or loving. During Advent, try to notice the good things God puts in your day and simply say: “Thank you, Jesus, for being with me.” Gratitude helps our hearts stay open, making room for Jesus.

Paying Attention to the Christmas Story. Sometimes we can get so excited about gifts and decorations that we forget the real story. During Advent, you can pay attention to Jesus by intentionally looking at a nativity scene and thinking about each person in the scene. Read a Bible story about Jesus’ birth with your family. When you see a Santa Clause in a book or in the shopping mall, smile and remember Mary and Joseph making their way to Bethlehem.  Amidst all the family traditions, always remember who we’re waiting for.

Each day of Advent, try to be attentive to moments when Jesus is close—and respond to it. It might be a person, a prayer, a good action, or a quiet moment. This is how we “pay attention” to Jesus as Christmas draws near.

So today, let’s ask Jesus to help us: Open our eyes to see Him. Open our ears to hear Him. Open our hearts to welcome Him. That is the Advent way of paying attention to the Lord who loves us.

Still in Need of Conversion

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In today’s reading from Isaiah, we hear a beautiful vision: “The deaf shall hear… the eyes of the blind shall see… the lowly will find joy in the Lord.” These words are full of hope, and we rightly cherish them during Advent. They promise renewal, justice, and a people restored to God. But if we read the whole chapter, Isaiah’s hope comes only after a very hard truth. Before the healing comes the diagnosis. Before the restoration comes the revelation of what is broken.

Isaiah speaks to a faithful remnant, people who want to follow God and so cling to the covenant. But he also tells them that they are still part of a larger community of people who have become blind, deaf, self-satisfied, unjust, and spiritually forgetful. It is a remarkable tension: Israel is both remnant and rebellious; faithful, yet deeply flawed; and chosen, yet still wandering.

That well describe many of us here in the first week of Advent

We are the faithful remnant. We are here at daily Mass listening to the Word of God. We pray. We serve. We try to love our families and neighbors. We want the Lord to come and find us ready.

But we are also the people Isaiah warns. We are not separate from the blindness and deafness he condemns; some of it lives quietly within us. We hear God’s Word, but we can be deaf to the parts that challenge our comfort. We see God’s blessings, but we can be blind to our own patterns of sin. We pray with our lips, yet our hearts drift into distraction, self-protection, or indifference. We want justice, but sometimes resist the personal conversion that justice requires. We admire God’s mercy, but can be slow to offer it to others.

Isaiah is not just speaking to the miscreants and wayward. He is speaking to all of God’s people, including those conscientiously trying to walk in faith. This is why the Church gives us Isaiah in Advent. Not to condemn, but to awaken. Not to shame, but to shake loose what has grown numb or complacent in us. 

The good news is that God does not reveal our blindness to punish us. He reveals it to heal that blindness. Isaiah says: “Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction.”

This is a promise directed not to strangers, but to us. If we admit what is not yet right in our hearts, God will teach us. If we bring Him the parts of us that resist Him, He will give understanding. If we acknowledge our spiritual deafness or blindness, He will open our ears and eyes.

Advent is only a few short weeks, but we can still name our blindness and deafness. And then ask God to show us how we might be part of the problem. We can examine our prayer life. Is it routine? How is our attitude? Are we becoming more jaded? Impatient? Uncharitable? 

Advent is not only about waiting for Christ. It is about making room for Him and making room requires clearing away what blocks the door. But it is also remembering that all this is spoken with a hopeful message surrounding it all: God already sees the remnant in us. He can heal what we cannot. He can restore what looks worn out. He can remove what blinds us or renders us deaf.

Advent offers that grace now that we might be ready, not only as the faithful remnant who hope, but as the people who allow themselves to be ever changed and growing so that the promise of Isaiah will be fulfilled in us: “The lowly shall find joy in the Lord.”

Image credit: Prophet Isaiah, Mosaic, Right of Lunette, South Wall of Presbytery, Basilica of San Vitale | PD-US | Pexels

Lost Along the Way

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Just as in all the weekday reading for this first week in Advent, today’s first reading is taken from Isaiah 29:17-24.  Over the course of the week we have jumped from Isaiah 11, hopscotching our way to Isaiah 29. The readings are well chosen for the Season of Advent as all the selections carry with it a modern Christian understanding as a promise to believing people of the Christian era that points to a Messianic restoration. It becomes a message to all people whose hearts are converted and who “stand in awe of the God of Israel” (Is 29:23).

But some things are lost along the way. It is good to know Isaiah’s immediate audience, the context of the times and situation, and the fundamental message the prophet is proclaiming to that audience. Lest you think that just a “bible study” thing, I would suggest that by knowing those things, there is additional content for our modern day Advent reflection.

The audience is the people of Judah and Jerusalem in the late 8th century B.C., during the reign of King Hezekiah. More specifically, Isaiah is addressing three groups of people. Firstly, Isaiah is addressing the leadership of Jerusalem (political and religious). Isaiah often portrayed them as blind, deaf, and stubborn (cf. Is 29:9–16). Isaiah is also speaking to the wider population, many of whom have been led astray by corrupt leadership and whose spiritual perception has become dulled. And lastly, the prophet addresses the faithful remnant, who need reassurance that God will act to save and restore the situation that is clearly going astray.

Our reading sits within the larger apocalyptic section of chapters 28–33 whose context in history is in the shadow of the threat of the nation of Assyria whose armies are marching on Jerusalem. Some leaders in Jerusalem are seeking political alliances (e.g., Egypt) rather than trusting God. The people are accused of lip-service to religion:“this people draws near with words, honors me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me” (Is 29:13). In this run-up to our reading, saiah has just issued a series of woes condemning Judah’s spiritual blindness, moral corruption, and political cynicism.

The immediate literary context is that God has rebuked the leaders who think they can hide their plans from Him (29:15–16). God instructed the prophet to issue an indictment of the people for spiritual blindness and deafness as he warned them about empty worship (29:13–14). After these warnings, 29:17–24 shifts dramatically into promises of future reversal, healing, and renewal. This pattern of a warning followed by a vision of hope is typical of Isaiah.

The fundamental message of the reading is that God will bring a great reversal: “But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest” (Is 29:17). Lebanon, known for forests, becomes a cultivated field; the field becomes a forest. This metaphor signals that God will overturn the present order: what seems barren will flourish, and what seems powerful will be humbled.

The reversal will also address the life of an individual: God will heal spiritual blindness and deafness: “On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see.” (29:18). 

The reversal will reach into the circumstances of life. The humble and poor “shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel” (29:19). 

God will vindicate those who have been crushed by unjust leadership who will be judged: “The tyrant shall be no more… all who are alert to do evil shall be cut off” (29:20–21).
The message is that the present injustice in Judah will not last.

The people will be restored to true faith: “They shall keep my name holy; they shall fear the God of Israel” (29:23).

The passage ends with a purified remnant who truly worships God. As well those who had gone astray will gain understanding: “Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding” (29:24).

Image credit: Prophet Isaiah, Mosaic, Right of Lunette, South Wall of Presbytery, Basilica of San Vitale | PD-US | Pexels

Changing one’s ways

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The Greek for “repent” (metanoeo) means, “to change one’s mind.” However, given Matthew’s emphasis on “bearing fruit,” his idea of “repentance” probably goes back to the Hebrew shuv — “to change one’s ways.” It involves more than just thinking in a different way. The word “Repent” is really a command, and is in the present tense, which denotes continual or repeated actions, i.e., “Keep on repenting!” Repentance is not a door we pass through once that gets us into the kingdom; repentance is the ongoing life of the kingdom people here and now. Warren Carter enhances this understanding by noting that when people repent when prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight. Both “way” and “path” are metaphors for God’s will and purposes (Deut 5:33; Jer 7:23; Matt 7:13-14). God’s purposes, manifested in Jesus, will be experienced either as salvation or as condemnation depending on one’s response to the call – here seen in John’s call to repent. To repent signifies, then, not only specific changes in structures and ways of living, but a basic receptivity to God’s purposes.

Repentance is also a daily renewal of our baptismal vows.  St Paul wrote: “Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (Roman 6:3–4). It is living the newness of life that is the focus of repentance best understood. But there is a potential pitfall. If we understand living the newness of life as a sequence of “I can” – “I am sorry for my sins. I can do better. I can please you, God.” Then we over accent our “doing” to our openness to God’s will.  It is the subtle difference between our turning to God without recognizing that in Jesus God has turned to us.

In repenting we ask the God, who has turned towards us, buried us in baptism and raised us to new life, to continue his work of putting us to death. In other words, to repent is to volunteer and ask that the “death of self” which God began to work in us in baptism continue to this day. The repentant person comes before God saying, “I can’t do it myself, God. Let me die to self so that you can give me new life. You buried me in baptism. Bury me again today. Raise me to a new life.” That is the language of repentance. Repentance is a daily experience that renews our baptism. 

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