“O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands.” This is “Year B” in our lectionary, when on Sundays we read largely from the Gospel of Mark. Mark has no stories about Jesus’ birth like the Gospels of Matthew and Luke have, and no prologue like John’s Gospel. But the selection of readings during Advent are themselves an introduction or prologue to the life of Jesus. Today we meet The Father, who has prepared a world and a people for the incarnate Son. This purposeful Father we meet a second time this week in the readings for the holy day of Immaculate Conception. In the first reading for that feast, the Lord God remedies the rent in creation made by Adam and Eve; in the second reading we hear of God’s inexorable plan to save: “… he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world … in accord with the favor of his will ….” Our Gospel on the first Sunday of Advent is like the overture to a dramatic presentation. Everything is in readiness: When will it happen?
– Blog entry bu Sister Mary Garascia