December 1, 2002

Especially during the Holidays we may look around at our world or our own lives and wonder whether God has abandoned us to our own sinful desires. Yet, today's Advent Scriptures assure us that God has not abandoned the world. Christ has come to save and strengthen us and he will come back again.

Perhaps nothing strikes a deeper cord in us than the voice of an abandoned child crying, "Come back!" We now know that such a child is likely to blame herself for her parents absence and never completely give up hope that they will return. It is a feeling we can resonate with at this time of the year when we are especially sensitive to our human weakness and the plight of those who seem abandoned by society and by God. We wish Christ would come back and help us!

The words of Paul to the Corinthians make us mindful we have not been abandoned at all. Christ has come and is here today to deliver the world from all evil. Through Baptism "the grace of God" was bestowed on us and through the Eucharist we "are not lacking in any spiritual gift" as "wait for revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Every Sunday we are nourished and strengthened to make Christ really present in our world.

In today's Gospel, Jesus says that we who have received the gift of Christ's saving and intimate presence in our lives have work to do. That abandoned child, that suffering and desperate world, need us to show them that God has not abandoned them before it is too late.

SO THE QUESTION: WHEN HAVE YOU FELT THAT GOD ABANDONED YOU?

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