The King's Corner

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared.  Thus we know this is the last hour.  They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us.  Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.  I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth. (1 John 2: 18-21) This is our reading today, and it occurs on the last day of 2019.   It’s scary and gives us a stark warning: “Now many antichrists have appeared.”  And, “… this is the last hour.”  We hope John’s characterization is correct: “they were not really of our number.”  Of course, they are of our number, and we may count ourselves as one of those antichrists meaning we lie.  According to John and our own consciences: “every lie is alien

I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name's sake.  I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.  I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered the Evil One.  I write to you, children, because you know the Father.  I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.  I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God remains in you, and you have conquered the Evil One. (1 John 2:12-17) Today’s reading has an emphasis on the “Evil One.”  Who is this Evil One?  Pope Francis gives us the answer in his new book “Rebuking the Devil.” Never has anyone said so much about the devil than Pope Francis, or so it seems.  I’m a bit surprised at the Pope’s emphasis.  Then again, considering all the verbal attacks on him from within the Vatican, perhaps reference to the devil makes perfect sense. Have we conquered the Evil One?  I prefer to think of evil as that which

December 29, 2019, The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph Readings for today's Homily  To watch Mass in its entirety click The Mass

I use today’s second reading (Col 3:12-17) as a special prayer for all our families on this important day: The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Brothers and sisters: Put on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.  And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.  And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body.  And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.   Families help stay together when they pray together.  Nex

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs, (1 John 1:5-2:2) when we hear Jesus tell us through his followers: “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.”    It then follows: “If we say, ‘We have fellowship with him,’ while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth.  But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another…If we say, ‘We have not sinned,’ we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” Speaking of having fellowship with one another, I’m reminded of a Boston Globe article “Evangelicals tussle over Trump editorial” (December 23) describing “more than 100 conservative evangelicals closing ranks further around Trump.”  These evangelicals wrote a letter to the editor of Christianity Today saying: “Your editorial [anti-Trump] offensively questioned the spiritual integrity and Christian witness of tens of millions of believers who take serious their civic and moral obligations.”   The letter c

"On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him…” (John 20:1A and 2-8). Today’s Gospel celebrates the apostle John as the “Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist.” The beginning of today’s reading mentions Mary of Magdala (Mary Magdalene).  Her introductory remark to Peter and the other disciples is brief but important because what she witnessed and then did made her the apostle to the apostles.  She is the first apostle.  That’s made clear later on in John 20:11-18 that reads: But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “W

"Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.  As they were stoning Stephen, he called out "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Today is the Feast of Saint Stephen, the first martyr.  Our reading (Acts 6:8-10, 7:54-59) speaks of stoning and Stephen’s death.  Our Gospel (Matthew 10:17-22) speaks of hate: “Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.” Hate can lead to stoning – verbally or with stones themselves representing spiritual and physical violence against others.   “Stick and stone may break my bones, but words will never hurt

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man's decision but of God. And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth. Our Gospel reading this Christmas Day is profound (John 1:1-5, 9-14

"Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; for he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David. Through his prophets he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hand of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.  You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace" (Luke 1:67-79).   So said Zechariah, father of John the B

Thus says the Lord GOD: Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner's fire, or like the fuller's lye. He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD. Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD, as in the days of old, as in years gone by. Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the day of the LORD comes, the great and terrible day, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with doom. Quite foreboding is our first reading from Malachi (3:1-4, 23-24) as the prophet

According to preacher and well-known author Jim Wallis in his 2019 book Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus: “Many Christians today don’t know or fully realize that racial and cultural integration was an original and primary mission of the first disciples of Jesus.  Galatians, and similar passages in the epistles of Ephesians and Colossians, were culminations of earlier biblical commands about how the children of God should always be welcoming to ‘outsiders.’  The early church was making a public statement, because baptism was a public and not a private event.  This was the statement: In this community we will overcome the divisions between Jews and Greeks, men and women, slaves and free.  If you don’t want to be part of the kind of community whose purpose is to bring people together, don’t join this community…” If only today – and tomorrow – we could see the same attitude applied to those claiming to be members of the Republican and Democratic parties: overcome divisi

Hark! my lover–here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills.  My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.  Here he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices.  My lover speaks; he says to me, "Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!  "For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come! (Song of Songs 2:8-14) Such a strange reading on this Saturday before Christmas!   Then again, perhaps not.  Today is the 21st of December and the Winter Solstice – the beginning of winter.   For Zodiac fans it’s the last day of Sagittarius, the Archer.  People born on 21st December belong to the Sagittarius-Capricorn Cusp. It is also referred to as the Cusp of P

This Gospel reading is the same as the one for last Thursday.    It reads: “…But Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?’ And the angel said to her in reply, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1:26-38). The word “overshadowed” is rare in the Bible.  One place we find it is in the Book of Exodus where we read of a strange cloud that overshadowed the tent when Israel placed the ark of the covenant in it – the ark containing the tablets of the commandments.  As soon as the cloud overshadowed the tent, “the Lord’s presence filled it” (Exodus 40:34).  Luke’s choice of the rare word “overshadowed” is deeply symbolic. Mary’s body (new tent) houses her womb (new ark).  When the Holy Spirit overshadows Mary, she is filled with the Lord’s new presence, Jesus.  God now lives among his people, not just in the symbol of the

Going through old magazines, I found the December 2010 issue of Sojourners magazine that is devoted to “faith in action for social justice.” It had the article, “Advent in a Crumbling Empire” written by Catholic worker Shelley Douglass who lived and worked at Mary’s House in Birmingham, Alabama, providing emergency safe shelter for families, among other things. She concluded that the real Advent message “isn’t pretty, but it is powerful.”   She highlighted the little read or quoted prophet Nahum (meaning comfort).  Occupying just two pages of the Old Testament, Nahum wrote just before the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C. – the hated city of the Assyrian empire. Douglass wrote: “…His message is simple and direct: Be comforted – the powers of this world stand under judgment.  God hears the cry of the poor.  In Advent, Christians remember that God not only heard the cries of the poor, but God was born one of the oppressed.  Like Nahum, and all the greater prophets, Jesus lived among suff

The angel of the Lord said, "…Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins…" (Matthew 1:18-25). What does it mean to “save his people from their sins?”   One interpretation, apart from Jesus being our scapegoat on whose back our sins have been placed – like the goats released into the desert with the sins of the Jewish people symbolically placed on their backs – is Jesus helps us recognize our sins so we may address them.  Some of those sins are ignoring the poor and the destitute; lying to justify our wrongdoings; bullying on-line; behaving as racists; and purposefully discrediting the truth such as in political contests for power. Our Gospel insists: “God is with us.”  It states, according to the prophet, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, a

Today’s Gospel passage about the detailed genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-17) is explained by Father Richard Rohr in his 2008 book "Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent.”  I cite part of his December 17 meditation here entitled: “The Authority of those who have suffered.” It begins: “The artificially created family tree for Jesus is a brilliant theological statement much more than anything even remotely historically accurate.  But the amazing thing is the deliberate inclusion of four foreign, non-Jewish women, of whom at least three were of easy virtue, or even public ‘sinners.’  Why would the Gospel risk saying there were ‘horse thieves,’ as it were, among his ancestors?  It clearly wanted to say that he came from the ordinary, the human, the broken, the sinful, suffering world, as all of us do.  His birth accepted the human condition, which becomes his first step toward the cross.  It is that full and transformed humanity that gave Jesus authority in his

Today’s Gospel reading mentions the “crowd” regarding John the Baptist as a prophet.   I’m reminded of the article “The Voices of Advent” written by Jeffrey Essmann in the December 9 issue of the magazine America.   Essmann wrote: “We live in a world in which prophecy has been swamped by prediction: the weather, elections, the stock market.  But John the Baptist did not conduct polls; Isaiah’s accuracy did not have a margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.  Prophets simply tell the truth.  And we focus on them during Advent because it is the season leading up to the greatest truth of all: God is with us.  He is here, now.  We are saved.  It is an extraordinary message that all of us utterly ordinary Christians – parents, teachers, parishioners, pals – are supposed to pass along.  At baptism we were anointed to be prophets to one another and to the world, to bear witness to the great light, to burn with the Spirit and fire and to echo the voice of God at the heart of us.  And,

Today is Gaudete Sunday.  We wear rose vestments, and we lit the rose candle. The rose-color symbolizes joy. Pope Francis called Gaudete Sunday the "Sunday of joy.”  He said instead of fretting about all we still haven't done to prepare for Christmas, we should think of all the good things life has given us. In other words, we should be thankful, but of great importance, we must remember that many people still wait for those good things.  Perhaps that long wait has been caused by poverty, illness, loneliness, abandonment, or guilt. They are joyless. For many people the second reading from James rings hollow.  It reads: “Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord.  See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You too must be patient.  Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

Our Gospel omits the earlier text describing Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain where he saw the Prophet Elijah and Moses.  Instead we hear what happened afterwards: “As they were coming down from the mountain, the disciples asked Jesus, ‘Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ He said in reply, ‘Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased.  So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.” Recall that John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod Antipas.  He was the forerunner of Jesus in death as well as life.  Jesus had his suffering and death on his mind before he went up the mountain where he was transfigured, and his suffering and death were still on his mind as he came down the mountain, so says Matthew. This reading is accompanied by the one from the Old Testament

Jesus said to the crowds: "To what shall I compare this generation?  It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, 'We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.'  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, 'He is possessed by a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, 'Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'  But wisdom is vindicated by her works” (Matthew 11:16-19). They just cannot be satisfied.  Writer George Martin says it best: “Those who reject John [the Baptist] and Jesus are like petulant children in the marketplace.  They will neither mourn with John nor dance with Jesus the bridegroom.  No matter whether the message is coming judgement or God’s mercy, they will not respond.”  In fact, they claimed John was possessed by a demon, and Jesus was a glutton and drunkard friendly with tax collectors and si

“…But Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?’ And the angel said to her in reply, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1:26-38).  Today’s Gospel is about the angel Gabriel’s visit with Mary – the betrothed of Joseph.  We all know the story of the virgin and her fate. The word “overshadowed” is a bit confusing but Mark Link, S.J. gives clarity.  He said: The word which we translate into English as “rest on” or “overshadow” is rare in the Bible.  One place you find it is in the Book of Exodus.  There it describes a strange cloud that overshadowed the tent when Israel placed in it the ark of the covenant, containing the tablets of the commandments.  As soon as the cloud overshadowed the tent, “the Lord’s presence filled it” (Exodus 40:34).  Luke’s choice of the rare word “overshadowed” is not accidental; it is deeply s

“Do you not know or have you not heard? The LORD is the eternal God, creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint nor grow weary, and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny. He gives strength to the fainting; for the weak he makes vigor abound. Though young men faint and grow weary, and youths stagger and fall, they that hope in the LORD will renew their strength; they will soar as with eagles' wings. They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint” (Isaiah 40:25-31) Our first reading reminds us that the LORD is with us, renews our strength so we won’t grow weary – that we will run, not walk.   We need this support (and speed) during our busy Advent season when we are overtaken by crowds (and traffic) vying for the bargains and finishing our Christmas shopping list. However, our Gospel message is the one we need to hear and know.  It reads: “Jesus said to the crowds: ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon yo

Jesus said to his disciples: "What is your opinion?  If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost" (Matthew 18:12-14). Jesus’ parable reminds us of Ezekiel (34:12, 16) who prophesizes that God promises to shepherd the flock of his people: “I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered…The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back.” Our first reading from Isaiah (40:1-11) says much the same: “…Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, Carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewe

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.   I admit I have trouble connecting the first reading to the Gospel.  The first begins: “After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree, the LORD God called to the man and asked him, ‘Where are you?’  He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.’ Then he asked, ‘Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!’ The man replied, ‘The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.’ The LORD God then asked the woman, ‘Why did you do such a thing?’ The woman answered, ‘The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”  Quite the conversation! The reading continues: “Then the LORD God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; on your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days

Our Gospel begins with: “John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’ It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths...” (Matthew 3:1-12).  How do we make straight the Lord’s paths on this second Sunday of Advent?  Our first reading from Isaiah gives us that instruction (Isaiah 11:1-10). “Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land's afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.  Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.”   Our path is crooked when we judge people by their appearances, not by whether they love and are compassionate.   When we judge based on hearsay and not by our own

“…The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst.  No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher.  While from   behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: ‘This is the way; walk in it,’ when you would turn to the right or to the left…” (Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26). No wonder in previous readings we’re told the deaf will hear and the blind will be.  With our own eyes we must see our teacher.  We must listen to the voice telling us, “This way.”  To follow Jesus’ way then, we need him to guide us – to speak to us, to sound in our ears.  Such sounds are: “The troubled and abandoned are like sheep without a shepherd…Go to the lost sheep” (Matthew 9:35-10:1, 5A, 6-8).   These sounds remind us of the baby Jesus in the manger surrounded by shepherds.   We are all supposed to be shepherds finding and healing the lost.  Who are they?   For many of us they are family members needing to be forgiven this Christmas.  For m

“Thus says the Lord GOD: But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest!  On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. The lowly will ever find joy in the LORD, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.  For the tyrant will be no more and the arrogant will have gone…” (Isaiah 29:17-24). Isaiah continues to speak about the poor, the lowly, and tyrants.  It seems logical considering what was happening during his life and the lives of the Gospel writers who had his words to help them describe Jesus and what he meant to the poor, outcasts, dispossessed, and Roman-dominated Jewish population.  In fact, today’s Gospel (Matthew 9:27-31) is quite direct: “…Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘Let it be done for you according to your faith.’ And their eyes were opened…” Isaiah’s passage reflects hope for better times: the orchard will become a for

Our first reading is: “ A strong city have we; he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us.  Open up the gates to let in a nation that is just, one that keeps faith.  A nation of firm purpose you keep in peace; in peace, for its trust in you."  Trust in the LORD forever!  For the LORD is an eternal Rock.  He humbles those in high places, and the lofty city he brings down; he tumbles it to the ground, levels it with the dust. It is trampled underfoot by the needy, by the footsteps of the poor” (Isaiah 26:1-6). Those in high places and found in lofty cities are “trampled underfoot by the needy, by the footsteps of the poor.”  They are leveled with the dust.  These are the proud and unjust according to Isaiah that are tumbled and trampled.  If we trust these people, we are like fools who have built their houses on sand, so says Matthew (7:21, 24-27).   When the rains fall, the floods come, and the winds blow and buffet our houses, they collapse and are completely ruined. Do w

Jesus summoned his disciples and said, "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.  I do not want to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way" (Matthew 15:29-37). Advent is the time for us to remember those who are without.  It’s the time for us to have our hearts moved with pity and not send them away hungry for fear that they may collapse.   And there are many who have collapsed already.   Their faces have tears we are supposed to wipe away with Advent generosity. We await the birth of Jesus and Christmas Day.  That’s when we have feasts of rich food and choice wines, as described in Isaiah (25:6-10A).  But not all of us; far from it.  Too many families are without.

“Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra's den, and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea.”  So says part of our first reading from Isaiah (11-1-10). Today’s political discourse with impeachment hearings having taken place with politicians at swords’ points, reveals none of the above.  The lion desires to eat the lamb; the cow and bear are not neighbors, and the cobra threatens to strike the baby.   Will opposing political sides let a little child by the name of Jesus lead them?  Seems unlikely even with Christmas on their doorstep. Contrary to the way our

Our Gospel reading begins: “ When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.’  He said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’  The centurion said in reply, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” We recognize the centurion’s response as our response during Mass just before we receive the body of Christ.  Some have asked why we must claim we are “unworthy.”  Aren’t we made in the image of God?  Should we approach the altar as an unworthy person to receive with our heads down instead of with eyes up to see the host raised before us? We can assume the Roman centurion was not a Christian, so he insisted he was not worthy; that is, he did not merit Jesus’ attention.  However, he clearly recognized Jesus’ power to heal, and he certainly had compassion for his servant.  One would think that made him worthy as we all are

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”    This is what Isaiah (2:1-5) tells us in our first reading.  However, in today’s world full of rancor and hatred, it seems just the reverse: men beating plowshares into swords and pruning hooks into spears.   Training for and engaging in war is the norm. If only world leaders and merchants of war would heed Paul’s advice.  Paul continues in our second reading (Romans 13:11-14): “Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy.”   On this first day of Advent let’s listen to Matthew (Matthew 24:37-44): “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house