Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
Hinge
Think of a hinge. Think how it works, or better, think how a hinge allows something to work or move.
Simply put a hinge allows two things to move or to work in relationship with each other. A door opens and closes in relation to a stationary wall. Flanges of a hinge attach to two things so they can work together.
Our Messiah Jesus is our hinge. Fully human and fully divine, Jesus bridges humanity and divinity for us. As our hinge our Messiah Jesus allows us to open to the world and to embrace the world as it is--as Jesus embraced it--in order to draw it closer to us and to God in Jesus by their Spirit. Like a hinge we allow the world and its peoples to revolve around God. That expresses our servant leadership, which extends and continues the mission and ministry of Jesus in our time and place.Some times it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we fulfill our mission to extend and continue Jesus’ mission together, as a people, as a community of faith.
From the beginning God liberated a people and gave them the vocation to make him more present to people in the world. Isaiah’s vision of God speaking was God speaking to people gathered in a worshiping assembly. Comfort...my people and speak tenderly to Jerusalem are in the plural in the original language of the prophet's book: all of you worshiping me, God said, all of you give comfort.
Jesus spoke to his disciples not to one person the image of an individual shepherd finding a lost sheep. We disciples of Jesus, all of us, are to seek and to care like that. Advent invites us to open our hearts and to see more clearly how we already revolve around God, and how we might revolve around God more closely.
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Flickr-image by Baltimike used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.o license.
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