I don’t know about you, but I am not great at waking up in the morning. I’m even worse at it in this time of the year, when the morning is still dark and it’s significantly colder on the other side of the blankets. I try to encourage myself by putting my alarm clock (read: phone) across the room. Its soft but insistent tone does indeed awaken me, but I am adept at hitting the snooze button, taking the few steps back across the room, and rolling back under the covers.
John the Baptist played the role of alarm clock in salvation history. His was not a soft, insistent tone like mine, but a startling, uncontrollable ringing like those old metal clocks with the bells and hammer on top, the kind that might cause a minor heart attack first thing in the morning. “WAKE UP! Get moving! There’s no snooze button – it’s time to get to work!” Perhaps, with John the Baptist as Elijah, the first reading today would end, “Blessed is he who shall have seen you and stayed awake.”
John pointed to Jesus the way Elijah pointed to God – with a fiery call to repentance. Still, the first reading prophesies Elijah to “bring an end to wrath before the day of the LORD” and “turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons.” He calls for peace and reconciliation. I find it interesting that the parents’ hearts turn back; in scripture, isn’t it usually the younger generation that is called to remember their ancestors and the works God has done in the past? Elijah calls parents to turn their faces towards their children. In the psalm, we as God’s children respond, “Make us turn to you; show us your face, and we shall be saved.”
Advent is a season when we remember the demands of our past (salvation history) and future (fulfillment of the Kingdom) on the present, calling us to action. This is a season to remember that we are on earth for a particular purpose. We may have fallen asleep to our vocations as baptized members of the Body of Christ – but we need to wake up!
“A Voice Cries Out” (Joncas)
Molly Mattingly
I grew up in north of Chicago with my parents, brother, and sister. My parents led the 5:00pm Mass music ensemble at my home parish while I was growing up, so you could also say I grew up in a church choir! Music has always been a part of my life, through school choirs, piano lessons, and music ministry. I accompanied and sang in choirs in grade school and at Carmel Catholic High School. During that time, I also swam on my YMCA swim team and worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor at a local park district.
After high school, I studied Music Education and Music Theory at Ithaca College, with an emphasis in piano and choral direction. There I was also co-director of our Catholic Community’s music ministry. I graduated from Ithaca in ’09, and like many of my classmates who graduated the year the recession peaked, was lucky enough to find a place in grad school. I got my Masters in Sacred Music from the University of Notre Dame (go Irish!), where I was involved with the Folk Choir and Notre Dame Vision retreat program. Most recently, I spent two years in Wexford, Ireland as a member and House Director of the House of Brigid, a lay community of young adults dedicated to the renewal of the Church in Ireland through catechesis and music. (Check out their website if you want to see other blog posts I’ve written and see beautiful pictures of Ireland.) And now, my music ministry vocation brought me to Creighton University and St. John’s, where I am the music director at the parish and Campus Ministry!
