The first part of the word ‘adventure’ is ‘advent’. Our Church wisely puts aside this time for us to enter into a faith adventure. The first reading tells us this adventure begins with a shoot that shall sprout from the stump of Jesse. We are privileged to know that this new life, this new sprouting shoot, is a reference to Jesus who will come to establish a peaceful kingdom, one where even animals of different temperaments will play with one another.
And in our gospel, we are privileged to hear Jesus praying to his Father. Then he turns to his excited disciples who are just back from a successful missionary adventure of their own, and tells them how blessed they are. Why? Because they are beginning to recognize Jesus as their Messiah.
Even the 15th century Spanish saint we honor today, Francis Xavier, came to learn about Christ through the tireless persuasion of his friend, St. Ignatius Loyola. When Francis finally accepted his call to follow Jesus, he became a priest who spent the rest of his life doing missionary work in the Far East.
Our readings today, and the saints we’ll celebrate in Advent, then, are all about Jesus. Sr. Ilia Delio, a Franciscan Sister and noted theologian, says this:
Jesus, the Word incarnate, came to us more than two thousand years ago.
His presence and actions continue to influence us.
Jesus, the Christ who saved us by becoming one of us, is still evolving,
transforming us into something new.
That last line is the challenge of this Advent adventure: ‘transforming us into something new’. What a special time to renew our relationship with Jesus and discover the presence of Christ in new ways, like sitting quietly and observing the beauty of the world around us or taking a walk in nature and sharing that experience in prayer with Jesus, or serving the poor and seeing Christ in them. The possibilities are not only endless, but grace filled.
Advent is inviting us to slow down and remember all that we, like the apostles, have seen and heard from Jesus, the lifegiving sprout from Jesse whose roots can blossom anew in our lives.
