Universal call to pilgrimage (First Sunday of Advent - Year C)

 

Reflections from a consistent ethic of hospitality: pro-life, pro-immigration

First Sunday of Advent

 

The Old Testament reading today, the first reading of this liturgical year (Year C), is from Isaiah 2:1-5. It includes a universal invitation to pilgrimage.

 

“All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.’ ”

 

Who will make this pilgrimage to Jerusalem? Nations, peoples – all nations. Isaiah does not speak of individuals or even families who set out; he speaks of nations, and in fact all nations.

 

Why? So we can think right, and walk in his paths.

 

The universality recalls the plight of Adam and Eve: They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and so they lost access to the whole Garden of Eden, including the tree of life. God “expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life.” Adam and Eve and all their descendants are exiles, “poor banished children of Eve.” But we are all invited to start home, at least as pilgrims who want instruction and are determined to walk in right paths.

 

The universality recalls the words of Psalm 39: “For I am with you like a foreigner, a refugee, like my ancestors.” Or Psalm 119, the plea of a traveler or pilgrim who longs to know what the world and its Creator expects of us: “I am a sojourner in the land; do not hide your commandments from me.”

 

The call to pilgrimage recalls the prayer of St. Ignatius: “Teach me, O Lord, to do thy will: to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and to ask for any reward – save that of knowing that I do thy will, O God.”

 

Thus the words at the opening of the year: all peoples are called to pilgrimage – to learn to walk aright. If you are a human being, descended from Adam, understand your situation, our situation – stranger, exile, refugee, sojourner – and set out on your pilgrimage, our pilgrimage.