Fourth Sunday of Advent - C2

Year C
Luke 1:46b-55
or
Psalm 80:1-7

Merciful restoration in the face of all that has gone wrong is a dream worth chasing. Ahaz is not the only one who won't ask for either mercy of restoration. The proud of thought, the enthroned powerful, the simply rich, and more rely on their wealth, strength, and entitlement. And, in one way or another, that includes me. And you?

Even our prayers, ever so humble they may be and well-crafted to our need, are embued with unacknowledged and denied anger. Crocodile tears of false sorrow cleanse not even shallow scrapes, much less deep wounds. Our fears lead us to scorning the least source of hope, words and actions from good samaritans or regular, run-of-the-mill aliens.

Merciful restoration is measured the same way every good is, by strength beyond our strength to continue, a lifting of darkness by small lights of kindness, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, releasing the imprisoned, taking in the exiled, etc.

Merciful restoration is not yet present. We wait. We yearn, We walk toward.

= = = = = = =

magnificent soul
rejoicing spirit

ancestral promises
echo within

beauty buds
generosity blossoms

and then
anger surfaces

petty prayers
tears aplenty

slightest mars
entirely disfigure

where soul
when spirit

neighbors scorn
enemies triumph

promises emptied
faces collapse
where mercy
when restoration

lowly favors
enthroned shepherds

enough magnificence
restore mercy

merciful restoration
obsession enough