Promises to be fulfilled

During the past year in the United States and many places, people heard many politicians making many promises about justice and security.

In today's first reading (Jeremiah 33:14-16), we hear still more promises about justice and security, albeit from an infinitely more trustworthy source.

The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will fulfill the promise
I made to the house of Israel and Judah.

In those days, in that time,
I will raise up for David a just shoot;

he shall do what is right and just in the land.

In those days Judah shall be safe
and Jerusalem shall dwell secure...

Whether the politicians will fulfill their promises is anybody's guess.

That God will fulfill his promises is absolutely certain.

But what about us? What about you and me?

Nearly a year ago many of us made New Year resolutions. As that year approaches its close, how have we done in fulfilling those resolutions?

When we were baptized, promises were made, promises we have renewed many times since: How well have we been fulfilling those promises?

And perhaps there are other solemn promises and vows that we made before God that we have not perfectly fulfilled and perhaps have even broken.

May the Almighty Lord have mercy on us all.

As for any failed New Year resolutions, 2006 is not yet over: perhaps we still have time to take these resolutions up again and be in better stead for next year's round of resolutions.

As for the solemn promises we made before God, this first Sunday of Advent is itself the beginning of a new liturgical year: a time of preparation and of fresh beginnings.

We may think this is impossible. We may think that we have tread too far on the paths of selfishness and broken promises, that we have bound ourselves too closely with the empty promises of sin, that we have burned bridges irreparably, or that we have committed sins forever unforgivable.

The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will fulfill the promise...

We may fail, but God will never fail.

We may break our promises, our word, our faith, and everything else in our lives, but all things can be healed and made anew by the loving power of our Eternal, Omnipotent God in his time and in his way.

With God's help, we should take the opportunity of this Advent to pick up again the broken pieces of our promises and the blank pages of our unfulfilled lives and to move forward: humbly seeking the grace of our Lord to amend our lives and, as much as possible, to fulfill the life mission to which the Lord calls us.

As St. Paul says in today's second reading (1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2)

May the Lord
make you increase and abound in love
for one another and for all,
just as we have for you,
so as to strengthen your hearts,
to be blameless in holiness
before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus
with all his holy ones.
Amen.