Third Sunday of Advent 2024
Rejoice! Your Kindness Should Be Known to All
December 11, 2024 By Sr. Eilis McCulloh, HM
This is the third reflection in NETWORK’s 2024 Advent Series.
This is the tension of this season of Advent. We are simultaneously awaiting the birth of Christ while also preparing for the transition of power.
It is easy for us to get bogged down in the despair of our world, to get caught up in the worry and fear of what is to come. What programs will be cut? What will happen to the safety of an asylum seeker? What will happen to our kids? What will happen to those who live in poverty and who are already oppressed by systems? These are all real questions. But, this weekend, we’re told to “have no anxiety at all, but by prayer and petition, make your requests known to God.”
This is what we do. As we are preparing for what is next, we get ourselves ready. This is us putting our petition and our prayer into action. We are ensuring that kindness is known to all. As the Gospel author writes, if you have two tunics, you give away one. So, we prepare by sharing of what we have.
This is how we build and cultivate vibrant and thriving communities. During NETWORK’s recent Nuns on the Bus & Friends “Vote Our Future” tour, we saw this sharing alive and well at Saint Francis Center in Redwood City, California. We were welcomed into a community with a party, where many people joined together to help celebrate and send the eighth graders on a class trip to Washington, D.C. In the midst of the celebrations, we also heard about the anxieties and the hardships that people face each day. We witnessed the great gift of people sharing of what they have to help make the community stronger.
I cannot help but think that this reflects the spirit of Liberation Theology, and the late Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez. We call this the preferential option for the poor. This is not a preferential option for the wealthy. This is a preferential option for thriving communities in which there is equal distribution of resources, racial justice, and tax justice. This option calls for those who have greater resources to contribute more than those who have fewer financial resources. It is communities that share their food and clothing with each other. And, it is communities that care for one another and that see each other’s inherent worth and dignity.
This Advent season, we are called to celebrate and rejoice in the places where we witness the kindness of others and to prepare ourselves for what is next.
