We feel new life growing within us and want to be guided by peaceful people from our past who have shaped us. The prophet Isaiah writes about a past patriarch, King David. King David is a warmaker who teaches us to “strike the ruthless” and “slay the wicked” erroneously believing peace will follow. The Old Testament lauds warriors and shapes the U.S. Empire so that it lauds warriors too. Thus, warrior killers of men hanging on the side of ships blown up in the Caribbean are lauded. Lauded too are warrior killers of women and children at Wounded Knee who will retain their Medals of Honor. Military bases, many located across the South are reverting back to their original names to laud warrior killers who fought for the Confederacy. A different prophet, native to the South, Flannery O’Connor, teaches us to realistically consider our violent past. She asserts the foolishness of our attaching sentimentality to the past rather than facing its reality. In her book, A Good Man is Hard to Find, she tells the story of a woman lamenting the changes happening in the South. She is nostalgic for the past when people were polite – as she unconsciously dehumanizes a Black person standing right next to her. O’Connor rejects a picturesque past that we invent to comfort ourselves about a God we invent to comfort ourselves. She lives for an honest present that confronts what is true and is thus authoritative. O’Connor is an author of truth and wants us to be authored by truth. She knows we are instead shaped by “those who have no absolute values,” certainly not values that are Christ-like. Thus, we are mired in bloodshed from the past to the present as if it is Christian. O’Connor offered that “human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.” The changes of Advent may be painful, but they are the pains of labor. We feel new life growing within us and want not to be guided by warrior killers like David and current kings. We want to be guided by peacemakers like Jesus.
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, guide us in bringing peace to birth.
Question: What is the painful labor I am enduring this Advent season and the new life I will bring to birth?
December 07, 2025 Gospel Matthew 3:1-12 Second Sunday of Advent