Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Shipboard Sunrise

Holiday Returns

About 30 per cent of this year’s Christmas gifts will be returned to the store because their recipients decided they were the wrong size, the wrong color, or wrong style. From the crowds I saw making returns in the stores last week, I think the percentage is higher than that.

Taking things back may common today, but when I grew up, gifts were simply accepted. If they weren’t what you wanted, you adapted and found a use for them anyway, especially if they came from close relatives. Taking them back showed a lack of appreciation not just for the gifts, but for the givers.

What about the biggest Gift of the season — Jesus himself? Do we secretly wish we could exchange him for something we like more, something that fits our taste or style better? Is he a gift we accept and treasure, especially as we come to understand what he teaches and asks of us — or is he part of the 30 per cent that goes back?

Time to Relax

Advent Cousins

Cousins in preaching as well as blood, John the Baptist and Jesus shared the expectation that the Kingdom of God was quickly coming and that people needed to prepare for it. But they seemed to have had different ideas of what the Kingdom would be like.

John the Baptist’s words indicate that he thought the Messiah would be very much like himself and the other prophets of Israel. That is, the Messiah would announce God’s judgment and punishment on Israel’s oppressors and those Jews who had failed to be faithful to God. As John put it, when he came the Messiah would “baptize with fire.”

Jesus, on the other hand, seldom talked about punishment, and when he did, as in his parable of the Last Judgment, the criterion of judgment was whether a person had been compassionate to others. Instead, Jesus preached more about God’s forgiveness and told his followers that they should try to be like God by being forgiving of others, too. He was gentle enough that little children felt easily at home with him and he even said of himself that he had come to serve others and not be served.

As we enter the second week of Advent, we might want to spend some time asking ourselves which kind of Messiah we are drawn to and why.

My “City by the Bay”