We begin the Season of Advent with a simple message from the gospel of Mark : “ Stay awake for the Lord! ” Jesus urges an attitude of attentiveness and hope that God will come to set right a world gone awry .
The four watches of night named by Jesus symbolize moving deeper into despair , until an all - consuming fear induce s a "sleep," a loss of one’s sense of purpose .
Not only do we not know when the Messiah will return to judge the living and the dead we also do not know where to expect it. The Advent scriptures focus our attention on these stark realities and remind us that we are called to wait and watch, not passively, but with a hope that comes from faith rooted in a God of love and in the goodness of humanity. For the 11 million undocumented people living the shadows in the United States, and especially fo r the nearly 800,000 young immigrants who lost their protection from deportation when the Trump administration rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, it may be difficult to feel hopeful this Advent. The long night of the watch may resonate more easily.
Questions for Reflection
When have you felt like Emmanuel, vulnerable and powerless ?
In what ways can we be “community” for each other and offer hope?
Prayers for Encounters with Strangers
“I was a stranger and you welcomed me. ” (MT 25:35)
In earlier times, perhaps we found it easier. The brokenness of our modern world has released an unending tide of humans in migration. By land and by sea they come, from Sudan, Syria, through treacherous waters to Lampedusa, across parched deserts to the Mexican border.
From the rubble of Aleppo a seven-year-old girl tweets, “Can we build a country called Republic of Refugees? It will be the most peaceful country in the world.”
Our brother Francis implores us to open our hearts wide to God and says:
RESPONSE: “Every stranger who knocks on our door brings an opportunity for encounter with Jesus. ”
How to understand? How to welcome, when this migration touches our own exile? We the receivers ; they the strangers. Their lives disrupted and now ours disrupted. But you, O God, call us to be a Eucharistic community in which all are WE and none are strangers.See the Full Reflection in A Season to Welcome the Stranger
Help us to remember, O God, that you call us to welcome, protect, promote and integrate. “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2) Touch our hearts with courage as you have provided our br others and sisters in Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Ethiopia and Uganda who have opened their doors widely to your searching and migrating people.
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