In his letter to the Romans for the Second Sunday of Advent, St. Paul declares that our God is a God of endurance and encouragement. How does this help us in this Advent season?
            God of endurance. Our lives are long, if not in actual years then often in terms of the challenges that we face. Some of our parishioners struggle with mental illness. Others struggle with severe financial hardships. Many of our parishioners suffer the hardship of being undocumented immigrants whose only desire is for a safe and secure life. Some of our parishioners suffer from chronic disabilities. Yes, life can be long! And life seems longer when we have to bear our hardships and sufferings alone, without support. The good news of Advent is that God came to us in the person of Jesus to share fully in our human experience. God, therefore, knows the hardships that we suffer. God knows the sufferings that afflict us. God, therefore, wishes to be our source of endurance. God wishes to be the strength that we need to endure the hardships that are ours and to find a measure of peace, perhaps even joy, in the knowledge that God is with us in all aspects of our lives, but particularly in our suffering.
            God of encouragement. If life is long, then we need encouragement to persevere in our faithfulness to God and to the ways of God. God came to us in Jesus to show us the way that we should live if we want to share in God’s life now and come to share in the fullness of his life after death. Jesus encourages us to make his way of selfless, generous, compassionate love our way. He encourages us to conform our lives to his truth that we are all brothers and sisters to each with other and so we all are really responsible for each other. Finally, he encourages us to make his life our own by the ways that we consciously and deliberately seek to incarnate in our lives his love, his mercy, his compassion, his generosity and his openness to all. Living in this way, we live in the sure and certain hope that our long lives will end in glory.
            Find joy and strength this Advent season in the God who came to us in Jesus!
 
                 Fr. Mark Hallinan, S.J