Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator
The Feast of St. Lucy, December 13, focuses our attention once again on the issue of light. The name "Lucia" means "light." In Sweden the Feast is kept by adorning young girls with crowns of lit candles. Songs of St. Lucy's holiness and her martyrdom remind them that she was following the example of her Savior who was the Light of the World. She is certainly an apt Advent Saint.
Our readings for Mass today focus on the creative and recreative power of God as well as on the figure of John the Baptist. God promises to restore the wasteland to an idyllic garden, reminding us of our origin. We were created for life in the Garden of Eden, for life in paradise. Sin has driven us out of the garden and replaced it with the howling wasteland, the salt marsh and the desert. However, God promises to restore the garden, to replant the orchard, to undam the rivers and streams that have been dried up by sin.
John the Baptist is declared as the herald of the Messiah. St. Matthew casts John in the image of Elijah, the prophet who worked so many miracles in his own time, miracles that prefigured and foreshadowed that which Christ himself would do.
The natural darkness will begin to recede for those of us living in the northern hemisphere in just a few days. Spiritual speaking, we look for the coming of the one who is our Light, our Salvation.