Advent is an alluring season. It is a season whose promises are very enticing - not like Clement Moore's famous Christmas Eve sugar plums - but of a world turned upside-down and inside-out. God's promises include blossoming deserts, flattened mountain ranges, filled-in valleys and canyons. Leopards and lambs, lions and kids, infants and snakes will lie down and play together. Blind people will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will dance, the broken-hearted will be healed and the silent will sing with gusto! All the nations of the world will gather together along the way to a home established for them by a shepherd God. Ploughshares will be produced from swords, pruning hooks from spears. As John Lennon proclaimed not so long ago: Imagine!

Advent is a pregnant season as well! Hannah (the "barren mother of the prophet Samuel), Elizabeth (the "sterile" mother of John the Baptizer and Mary the Virgin Mother of God, Jesus. Imagine barren and sterile wombs no longer empty, a virgin with child and greetings exchanged by two baby boys (Jesus and John the Baptizer) while still in their respective mother's wombs.

Elizabeth's husband, Zechariah and Mary's husband, Joseph witness a world turned upside-down because of God's dream for us all!

Imagine fear and darkness put to flight, sin forgiven, compassionate and loving mercy poured out, the lonely lifted up, the hungry filled with good things, the self-centered cast down. Imagine God's dream and promises are more than fulfilled.

With Advent there is no time for anxiety, doubt, or obstinacy. Joseph learned that, Zechariah learned it the hard way. But Hannah, Elizabeth and Mary knew the quiet joy, serene confidence and steadfast patience…………

Imagine a God who in a desperate irrevocable act of unconditional love stoops down to become a human being, who takes shelter in the womb of a young girl and sleeps in an animal's feed box.

Imagine a God-child, born of the Virgin Mary and a kingdom of righteous tax collectors, prostitutes and just plain sinners just like us!

Imagine!

Love and Peace

Father Mike