RBWords

     As the days of Advent push toward the fulfillment of the prophetic promises, the practical demands of the season can become a frazzling task.  Finding a moment to contemplate on the meaning of the Advent and Christmas season is very difficult when the loudness of the secular "holiday season" seems to drown out anything except "buy, decorate, bake!"  The line, quoted above from Sirach, in the first scripture for today offers a wonderful moment for contemplation.  This is all the more appropriate because today is the feast of St. John of the Cross, the co-founder with St. Teresa of Avila, of the Discalced Carmelites, one of the more contemplatively oriented religious orders in the church.

     Ben Sirach is referring to Elijah, one of the great prophetic figures of the Old Testament, who was believed by some Jews to come again before the Messiah.  Jesus says that John the Baptist is that second Elijah.  But the line from Sirach is one that we can use to contemplate the great gift of friendship with God and our earthly friends.  It is a wonderful feeling to "fall asleep in someone's friendship" - to know at the end of the day that we are loved!  Friendship is one the greatest gifts the Lord can bestow.  St. Thomas Aquinas OP speaks of friendship as the best analogy for our relationship to God.  

     Perhaps at this point, near the middle of Advent, we could steal a few moments from the frantic pace of the holiday season, to contemplate the friendship(s) with which we are blessed and to realize that in these, we are experiencing God's love as well.  AMEN