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3rd Sunday in Advent, Year B
December 13, 2015
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, Chestnut Hill MA
Joseph M. O’Keefe, S.J.
“Yesterday, tomorrow was better.” When I was in Poland in the mid 1990s,
this was the headline of a major newspaper. The Soviet era had ended earlier in the
decade and Poles were thrilled as they breathed the air of freedom and democracy.
After several years, however, reality set in. They came to know the challenges that
come with the politics of democracy and the divisions that capitalism can bring. The
optimism of an earlier time was displaced by disappointment and disenchantment.
What about us, here and now? Was tomorrow better yesterday? As we look
to tomorrow, these are some of the challenges we face:
 Ominous warnings from the United Nations Climate Change Summit that
ends today
 The intentional taking of innocent human life by sociopaths in Colorado
Springs, Paris, and San Bernadino
 Mounting evidence that racism is not a thing of the past from Ferguson,
Staten Island, and Baltimore
 The decline of civility in civic life: political gridlock, dirty politics, the rise of
xenophobia and jingoism
 The total collapse of the peace process in the land of Jesus’s birth
 The dying of the American dream, evidenced by last Wednesday’s Pew
Research Center Report that the middle class is vanishing because of
widening income inequality
 The precipitous decline in the practice of faith, especially among the young
 The rise of fundamentalism across religious groups
 Fractured families and the disintegrating social fabric of neighborhoods
 Yesterday’s Globe article about a company responding to market demand for
bullet-proof backpacks for kids in school
What is the world coming to?
In this season of holy waiting and watching for Christ’s coming, it is easy to
be overwhelmed by bad news. It is easy to settle into a smug cynicism about the
world and its future. “Yesterday tomorrow was better.”
But there is another way to look at our reality. I suggest three guidelines for
our reflection.
First, and especially during the sugar-coated commercialization of this
season, let’s not get caught in what Atlantic magazine contributing editor Wayne
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Curtis called the “nostalgia trap,” where “the future loses to the past.” 1 And instead
of an idealized Currier and Ives version of the holiday season, let’s take stock of the
insights of scholars like Stephanie Coontz, who painted a realistic picture of the
American family in her landmark book The Way We Never Were. And let’s heed the
advice of people like psychologist Hal Storey who wrote in the Wall Street
Journal: “Learn to separate your real family from your idealized vision and accept
them in all of their glorious imperfections.” When we are tempted to find
consolation only in yesterdays, let’s remember the words that Jesuit scholar John
O’Malley told me when he was directing my licentiate thesis in church history,
“Remember, Joe, memory sweetens the past.”
Second, when reading a biblical text, pay attention to the context in which it
was written. Zephaniah wrote about God rejoicing in His people in deeply consoling
language: “Shout for joy,” “sing joyfully,” “be glad and exult with all your heart.” He
told the people, “fear not,” “be not discouraged,” “God is in your midst.” Did he
write these words in a golden age? No, he wrote them at a dark time in Judah’s
history, when their worship of idols and other infidelities would eventually lead to
their destruction. Centuries later, Saint Paul described a future full of hope to the
people of Philippi. He told them to rejoice always, to have no anxiety, to let the
peace of God guard their hearts and minds. Where was Paul when he wrote these
words of hope and consolation? In prison. My point: Even, and especially, in the
midst of darkness God promises that tomorrow will be better, that God’s plan for us
is blessing, not curse. In the midst of woes and worries, let us keep in mind the
lyrics we will sing at the end of this liturgy: “O come, divine Messiah! The world in
silence waits the day when hope shall sing its triumph, and sadness flees away.”
Third, when we think that the world is going to hell in a hand basket and we
say “What then shall we do?” let us remember John the Baptist’s answer when the
crowds, the tax collectors, and the soldiers asked that very same question. Here and
now, when we are weighed down by the world’s woes, let us heed the Baptist’s
advice in today’s gospel: Share clothing and food with those who have none, treat
people with fairness, and never take advantage of another’s vulnerability.
On December 8, with five pushes at the heavy Holy Door of St Peter’s
Basilica, Pope Francis inaugurated a year-long drive to rediscover God’s mercy as
the Church’s primary offer to humanity. He has invited you and me to strike out on
a yearlong spiritual journey to recognize a loving God who's already knocking on
our door. Why the Jubilee Year of Mercy? He said, “It is obvious that today's world
is in need of mercy and compassion, or rather of the capacity for empathy. We are
accustomed to bad news, cruel news and the worst atrocities that offend the name
and the life of God. The world needs to discover that God is the Father, that there is
mercy, that cruelty is not the way…It is time for a revolution, a revolution of
tenderness.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/05/the-nostalgiatrap/308444/
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Today, tomorrow will be better.