Advent Hope: A Work In Progress

 - December 2, 2015

 

“Be patient.  God isn’t finished with me yet!”  Whenever I am tempted to get impatient with myself, this saying brings me comfort – and hope.   If, as St. Paul suggests, we are “God’s work of art”, we are still very much a “work in progress.”  This is why we can be grateful for all that God has already accomplished in us, yet humble in regard of our real limitations.

This is reflected beautifully in today’s second reading.  Paul is bursting with pride in the church of Philippi, a Christian community very dear to his heart.  Writing from his prison cell, his joy rings clear: “I am confident of this: the One who began this good work among you will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ.”  How will this happen?  Through continued growth in compassion and love, knowledge and insight, wisdom and discernment; through lives dedicated to right conduct and justice, to the glory of God. 

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist comes proclaiming a baptism of repentance: “prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths!” This week, on December 8th, Pope Francis will solemnly inaugurate the Holy Year of Mercy by opening the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica. He has invited all the faithful to drink deep of the Lord’s mercy by experiencing it in the healing power of the sacrament of reconciliation, which we will be celebrating as a community this coming Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Please come and join us!

What are your concerns about your future? Are you ready to trust that God is already at work in you, and that God desires to bring this good work to completion? Let us bring these questions to prayer as we continue our Advent journey, deepening our trust in the “slow but steady” work of God. Through God’s grace, and through our active cooperation with that grace, may we become the “masterpiece” God has created us to be.