Sunday reflections

What are you like at waiting? As one person said: “I’m no good at waiting, but one day as I stood in line at a local supermarket I realised I was waiting. Waiting! I was doing what Advent is all about.”  

John the Baptist was quite a celebrity around Jerusalem. People came from everywhere to see this strange man who lived on locusts and wild honey, dressed in camel hair, and preached the need for repentance. He even instituted a new ritual of baptism – pouring water on people’s heads – as a sign of forgiveness for those who confess their sins and genuinely seek a new way of life.

The opportunity to make a fresh start is something that we all value, especially if we have been struggling with problems which have weighed us down. The tradition of making New Year resolutions illustrates this deep desire to put the past behind us and move on. 

We often associate the word ‘king’ with power and majesty. Also, a king’s position is often not dependent on his personal abilities, virtues or goodness, but on family lineage: power and status through inheritance.  But Jesus never displayed that kind of power or majesty; after all, he was born in a stable!  

Jesus’ disciples would have had the words of prophets like Malachi in today’s first reading inscribed onto their hearts. Malachi, speaking centuries before the birth of Jesus, describes the day of God’s judgement when “all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble” and, for God’s people, “there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.” 

What difference would it make to the way we live if we embodied in our lives the reality of the resurrection. The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, tried to trap Jesus into a flawed answer in today’s Gospel reading. Their focus was limited to the framework of traditional laws which prescribed the rules of marriage at that time. 

Today’s readings focus on the theme of “mercy”. The author of the Wisdom of Solomon reflects on the expansive nature of God’s mercy, which is extended to all creation. The Psalmist sings of the divine being’s graciousness and compassion: “slow to anger and abounding in mercy” (Ps 145:8).

Today’s reading from Luke’s gospel continues Jesus’ teaching on prayer. It relates one of Jesus’ best-known parables, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. As with all of Jesus’ parables, it turns our expectations upside down! 

The Amalekites were a fierce desert tribe, unhappy about strangers coming into their territory and they became one of Israel’s enemies in the early periods of their history. After the lengthy Israelite Exodus from Egypt, and as they prepared to enter the promised land the Amalekites attacked Israel, but Israel repulsed the attack. The battle took place at Rephidim – the last stopping-place of the Israelites on the Exodus from Egypt before they reached Mt Sinai.

Have you ever memorised a song, a hymn, a saying, or motto? Advertising companies are paid huge dollars for jingles that stick in the minds of potential customers.