Blog | Subscribe | Free Trial | Contact Us | Cart | Donate | Planned Giving
Log In | Search
facebook
rss
twitter
  • CURRENT
    • Spring 2023 FULL ISSUE
    • Spring 2023 pdf
    • Symposium: Where Do We Go from Dobbs?
    • NEWSworthy: What’s Happening and What It Means to You
    • Blog
    • INSISTING ON LIFE
    • Pastoral Reflections
    • About Us
    • HLF In The News
  • DINNER
    • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER 2023
    • HOST COMMITTEE Great Defender of Life Dinner 2023
    • Great Defender of Life 2023 Dinner Ticket
    • Great Defender of Life 2023 Young Adult / Student Ticket
    • DINNER JOURNAL ADVERTISING 2023
  • ARCHIVE
    • Archive Spotlight
    • ISSUES IN HTML FORMAT
  • LEGACY
    • Planned Giving: Wills, Trusts, and Gifts of Stock
  • SHOP
    • Cart

Pastoral Reflections

0 Comment

Advent: No Time for Comfort Zones

Rev. George G. Brooks
Advent, sin
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

 

Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. (Isaiah 40:1)

 

The word “comfort” has considerably weakened in the centuries since it was chosen to translate this passage from the Prophet Isaiah. In its original force, “comfort” comes from the Latin confortare, which means “to greatly strengthen.” But for us today, to “comfort” is more likely to convey the sense of “soothe” or “tranquilize,” as in “comfort food” or “comfort zone.” God commissioned his prophets to strengthen his people, not to soothe or tranquilize them: They brought Israel the good news that the bitter penance of their exile was coming to an end; their hope for the restoration of the temple was to be strengthened by the prophets’ words, Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.

Likewise, in the centuries since it was written down, the gospel story of the prophet John the Baptist has been taken to be about a menacing or terrifying figure, scaring the people into repentance by his dire warnings of God’s wrath—whereas in truth, John appears to comfort them, to strengthen their hope in their God coming to them. To “repent” simply means to “turn,” to reorient oneself in hopeful expectation. The people went out to the Jordan River to be baptized as a sign of preparation for the Holy Spirit that the Lord was coming to pour out upon them.

Advent is, like Lent, a season for repentance. The shade of purple that we use in both seasons is a penitential sign. But the penance of Advent is different from the penance of Lent. In Lent, the emphasis is upon that from which we turn away—our sins; in Advent, the emphasis is more upon the One to whom we turn—the Lord who comes to save us.

To put the same thing slightly differently, we will think in Lent about our coming to the Lord, whereas now, we think of our Lord coming to us. Of course, this is only a relative distinction, because both of these seasons are penitential; they have to do with our sins as obstacles between ourselves and our God.

There are several ways to think about our sins. We may think of them as disobedience to God’s commands, or falling short of God’s (or our own) expectations. We may think about our sins as failures to love; as self-indulgence or self-centeredness. In whatever way we think about them, though, our sins are a dreary subject; and our feeble effort to overcome them may be an even drearier subject—which makes Lent such a dreary season for many of us.

Advent, though, offers us a different, more encouraging perspective, for, in the perspective of our God coming to us—coming to our dreary world so graciously; wanting to share our dreary lives and to give us the strength to live them hopefully and even joyfully—in that perspective, our sins still seem to be an obstacle to us, but they evidently are no obstacle to God.

When John the Baptist appeared to the people of Judaea, he caused a great stir of excitement. No prophet had been seen in Israel for several generations. But here at last was a prophet proclaiming the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. The people came out in great numbers to hear him, eagerly going to the Jordan River to be bathed, washed, cleansed, renewed in preparation for their meeting with their savior.

When Jesus came along as one of them, among them, John pointed to him, saying, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29)—who comes to free us from the dreary burden of our sins; for whom our sins are no obstacle, but are instead his opportunity to show God’s love for his world.

Can you think about your sins that way? As God’s opportunity to show his love for you? Our sins are the reason why God came down among us, to be born, to live and die as one of us. So we may use our sins to come to God, as opportunities for us to turn to God for mercy, claiming the Lord’s promise to baptize us with the Holy Spirit. We may use the things that feel to us like obstacles—our acts of disobedience and falling short, our failure to love, our self-indulgence and self-centeredness—we may use these very things to come to God, who comes to us to relieve us of their burden.

That is what we do when we make a good confession and come to Communion; when we pray like the publican whom Jesus praised—Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner; or when we ask our Lady of the Rosary to pray for us sinners now, and in the hour of our death. These are hopeful, even joyful, ways of coming to our God, who comes so graciously to us. That is the perspective of this holy season; that is “Advent penance.” Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.

 

 

234 people have visited this page. 1 have visited this page today.
About the Author
Rev. George G. Brooks

Fr. George G. Brooks is a retired pastor.

Social Share

  • google-share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments will not be posted until approved by a moderator in an effort to prevent spam and off-topic responses.

*
*

captcha *

Get the Human Life Review

subscribe to HLR

Recent Posts

Pro-Life Principles and Politicians

18 Sep 2023

South Dakota's Pro-Abortion Amendment: An Analysis

15 Sep 2023

Vice President Kamala Harris Launching Pro-Abortion Tour on College Campuses

08 Sep 2023

CURRENT ISSUE

Alexandra DeSanctis Anne Conlon Anne Hendershott B G Carter Brian Caulfield Christopher White Clarke D. Forsythe Colleen O’Hara Connie Marshner David Mills David Poecking David Quinn Diane Moriarty Dr. Donald DeMarco Edward Mechmann Edward Short Ellen Wilson Fielding Fr. Gerald E. Murray George McKenna Hadley Arkes Helen Alvaré Jane Sarah Jason Morgan Joe Bissonnette John Grondelski Kristan Hawkins Laura Echevarria Madeline Fry Schultz Maria McFadden Maffucci Mary Meehan Mary Rose Somarriba Nat Hentoff Nicholas Frankovich Patrick J. Flood Peter Pavia Rev. George G. Brooks Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth Stephen Vincent Tara Jernigan Ursula Hennessey Victor Lee Austin Vincenzina Santoro W. Ross Blackburn Wesley J. Smith William Murchison

Pages

  • Issues
  • Human Life Foundation Blog
  • About Us
  • Free Trial Issue
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Planned Giving
  • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER

Follow Us On Twitter

Tweets by @HumanLifeReview

Find Us On Facebook

Human Life Review/Foundation

Search our Website

Contact Information

The Human Life Foundation, Inc.
The Human Life Review
271 Madison Avenue, Room 1005
New York, New York 10016
(212) 685-5210

Copyright (c) The Human Life Foundation.