Tuesday, II Week of Advent
(Isaiah 40:1-11, Matthew 18:12-14)
When God calls the prophet to comfort His people, He is referring to the many exiled Jews in Babylonia. After the Babylonians conquered the kingdom of Judah, they carried off a portion of the population to what is now eastern Iraq. There the people languished many years until God sent a liberator in the person of Cyrus of Persia.
Like the Jews in Babylon, forty-five million people today live outside their native areas because of violence or threats of violence, according to the United Nations. Fourteen million of these are bona fide refugees residing outside their native lands and twenty-one million are internally displaced persons dwelling away from their homes but still in their countries of origin. We may know refugee families in our neighborhoods who have a house and access to social services. Most displaced people are not so fortunate. Many reside in camps which provide little opportunity for productive lives.
Perhaps we know another kind of refugee. In wealthy countries like the United States many men, women and children live on the streets. Perhaps drugs alienated some of them from their families. Maybe not having grown up in a conducive environment allowed many of them minimal education so that many are virtually unemployable. These people too are included in God’s call of comfort.
Jesus answers God’s call when he brings comfort to the nations living under the captivity of sin. In the gospel today he instructs his disciples to search out still another kind of displaced person. He wants them to bring back Christians who have strayed from the practice of the faith. We too should assist former Catholics return to church by our example, prayer, and encouragement. Just as important we could support relief efforts to the many refugees and displaced persons in the world. And we should not neglect the street people in our communities often struggling to survive.
