“I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.”
Archbishop Emeritus Elden F. Curtiss
This promise of Jesus is the reason we are able to be hopeful this Advent 2024, despite many reasons to the contrary. One of the gifts that comes with faith in Jesus is the ability to recognize and celebrate all the blessings that are ours, no matter how many things have gone wrong for us this past year.
The reason for our optimism, despite all the negativism around us, is that we have a Savior who shares our human condition. He knows what it means to face one disappointment after another, one failure after another – to experience rejection and misunderstanding and physical suffering. And yet Jesus never lost His sense of purpose, or His focus, to help the human family understand the amazing love He and His Father have for each one of us.
This is the reason Jesus never succumbed to defeat or let the rejections he experienced, even when dying on the cross, overcome him. During the three years of His public ministry, people were attracted to Jesus because of His teaching and His healing power, and because of His love for them, whatever their condition. This is what attracts people to Him today, and to His mission in our world.
So this Advent, let us put aside all the turmoil and negativity we have experienced this past year, and let us once again rejoice in all the blessings that are ours as Catholics and Americans. We need to reflect on the messages of hope that have come to us from Pope Francis, in his writings and ministry, in his optimism in the midst of the world’s problems and tensions. He reminds us that, as disciples of Jesus, we should be able to reflect the hope and love, and even the joy that comes from our identity with Him and His words to us.
Jesus knows our human condition – that we fail at times despite our good intentions – that we are sinners and sometimes find ourselves caught in habits of sin. And yet Jesus continues to love us, even in our sins, while gently urging us to be cleansed and renewed by His forgiveness and love.
The wonderful thing about Jesus, as we contemplate His coming among us once again, is His ability to share His love with us in the midst of our human condition. He never stops trying to love us and heal us. This is the reason we are able to live in this mixed-up world of ours with hope, and even joy at times. Our increasingly secular society lacks the spirit of joy that comes only from faith in God. But we who have come to know and love Jesus have gradually absorbed His sense of peace that the world cannot give us, only Him. Of all the people on this earth, and especially in this country of ours, we should be the most grateful for all the Lord has done for us.
So may this Advent be a special time for us to rejoice in all the blessings that are ours because of the Savior who has been given to us.
May Mary, the mother of Jesus, help us prepare once again for His coming.
Commentary
Advent 2024 – We Welcome a New Beginning
November 26, 2024
“I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.”
Archbishop Emeritus Elden F. Curtiss
This promise of Jesus is the reason we are able to be hopeful this Advent 2024, despite many reasons to the contrary. One of the gifts that comes with faith in Jesus is the ability to recognize and celebrate all the blessings that are ours, no matter how many things have gone wrong for us this past year.
The reason for our optimism, despite all the negativism around us, is that we have a Savior who shares our human condition. He knows what it means to face one disappointment after another, one failure after another – to experience rejection and misunderstanding and physical suffering. And yet Jesus never lost His sense of purpose, or His focus, to help the human family understand the amazing love He and His Father have for each one of us.
This is the reason Jesus never succumbed to defeat or let the rejections he experienced, even when dying on the cross, overcome him. During the three years of His public ministry, people were attracted to Jesus because of His teaching and His healing power, and because of His love for them, whatever their condition. This is what attracts people to Him today, and to His mission in our world.
So this Advent, let us put aside all the turmoil and negativity we have experienced this past year, and let us once again rejoice in all the blessings that are ours as Catholics and Americans. We need to reflect on the messages of hope that have come to us from Pope Francis, in his writings and ministry, in his optimism in the midst of the world’s problems and tensions. He reminds us that, as disciples of Jesus, we should be able to reflect the hope and love, and even the joy that comes from our identity with Him and His words to us.
Jesus knows our human condition – that we fail at times despite our good intentions – that we are sinners and sometimes find ourselves caught in habits of sin. And yet Jesus continues to love us, even in our sins, while gently urging us to be cleansed and renewed by His forgiveness and love.
The wonderful thing about Jesus, as we contemplate His coming among us once again, is His ability to share His love with us in the midst of our human condition. He never stops trying to love us and heal us. This is the reason we are able to live in this mixed-up world of ours with hope, and even joy at times. Our increasingly secular society lacks the spirit of joy that comes only from faith in God. But we who have come to know and love Jesus have gradually absorbed His sense of peace that the world cannot give us, only Him. Of all the people on this earth, and especially in this country of ours, we should be the most grateful for all the Lord has done for us.
So may this Advent be a special time for us to rejoice in all the blessings that are ours because of the Savior who has been given to us.
May Mary, the mother of Jesus, help us prepare once again for His coming.