psalm 122: advent reminds us that we are not yet complete. 1st sun advent A

Today as we begin advent and as we begin the first day of the triduum to our Lady of the Miraculous Medal whose feast we will celebrate 3 days from now, I would like to reflect with you Psalm 122, our responsorial psalm today.  Yesterday I have already reflected with you on the first stanza when the pilgrim received with gladness the news that he will go up to the temple of God.  Now this pilgrim enters the gate and contemplates this beautiful and holy Jerusalem and he praises it for it was built as a city strongly compact – it is secure, it is stable, it is the symbol of their unity as a people, the unity of the twelve tribes of Israel.  For the Jews Jerusalem is not just a place of communion with God.  It is also a place of communion of brothers and sisters from the different tribes - a communion with one another.  This is what it also means when the pilgrim says Jerusalem is built as a city strongly compact.

In one of the writings of St. Gregory the Great he speaks of this holy city Jerusalem as the symbol of the church, the community of God's people, our community.  Built as a city strongly compact this community is built of stones fitted together one on top of the other, and one stone hemmed by another from one side, and the other hemming the same from another side – strongly compact.  The one that supports another is in turn supported by another.  Thus each one of us is sustained and sustaining, each one of us is supported and supporting.  The closest support one another.  Strongly compact.

Is this our experience of community - supported and supporting?  Is this our experience in our class - sustained and sustaining?  Ginasuportahan ikaw sang iban pero ikaw nagasuporta man sang iban; ginasustain ikaw sang iban, pero ikaw nagasustain man sang iban.  Amo bala kita sini as a community? 

In a city strongly compact the strength of one stone on this side of the city wall can be affected even by a stone a mile away.  Yes it can.  But remember it is the closest stone that support and sustain.  The closest.  But how is it that some people love Asilo de Molo ukon nakalab-ot na kita sa Caingin ukon sa prisohan sa pagbulig sa iban but find it difficult to love, to support, to sustain the person in the same dorm, in the same class?

St. Gregory said, “Indeed, if I do not make an effort to accept you as you are and you do not strive to accept me as I am, the building of love between us can no longer be erected."

More and more I hear classmates giving up on classmates without even an expending an effort to help him in his academics or making any effort to discipline.  More and more our community is becoming just an aggregation of individuals, to each his own, rather than a band of brothers bonded by mutual concern.  More and more I hear of cover-ups and plots to gloss over an offense not so much to spare the individual but to avoid confrontation, to avoid conflicts, and to avoid the inconvenience of caring for one another.  Yes we can be like this, in many instances we have acted like this.

But in so many ways too we have become brothers.  Kis-a init lang ulo ninyo sa inyo older brothers pero many times it takes also so much courage, so much inconvenience nga manaway sa inyo.  Tani gusto na na nila magtulog, gusto na nila magpatawhay agod sila man makatuon, but they have a responsibility and they know from experience that there is a bigger regret when you are sent out because you did not pass than being made to kneel so that you will make greater effort to study.  Bal-an ko kis-a sobra man sila mangakig, sobra man sila manginit sa inyo, but always appreciate them for their good intentions.  Sa mga higher years tudloi inyo manghod, pero indi ninyo sila pagpaakiga sa bagay nga indi na sila magtuon ukon magpati sa inyo.  Remember you were once small like them, exuberant like them, ka-ulugot like them, but you were also supported, you were sustained.  Now it is your turn to support and to sustain.

Today is advent, a time of the year when the church wants us to realize that we are not yet complete, we are not yet a finished product, we have yet to reach our goal.  Advent is a reminder that we still need to long for better things, we still need to yearn to become whole, we still need to work together to become the best.  We can only do this when we built ourselves into a community strongly compact aware that each one of us is supported and supporting, each one of us is sustained and sustaining.