On the Monday before Thanksgiving I was blessed with the opportunity to help my parish with their annual turkey and food collection. We set up early in the church parking lot. People drive through on their way to work and drop off a frozen turkey. Later in the morning folks in need come by to receive a turkey and a basket of food.

At one point a woman pulled up in her car. She looked fairly "normal"; her clothes were not torn and tattered, her car though not brand new was in good shape. She had an infant probably around two with her. Although I recognized her from church I did not really know her. I knew that in the past she had helped on various social justice projects. When I approached her she looked apprehensive. In a very quiet tone she asked if it was possible to get a turkey and a basket of food.

As I was loading the turkey and basket of food into her trunk she said, "You know every year my husband and I have donated a turkey and a basket of food. I never dreamed that at some point I would be receiving one back. Last year, through no fault of his own, my husband lost his job. As a result we also lost our health insurance now we are struggling to keep our home and feed our three children." She than looked at me and asked, "You work in D.C.: do you think any of our leaders, all whom claim to be people of faith, actually ever read the Gospels?"

I looked at her and asked her which leaders she was referring to. She replied: "Our members of Congress, do they realize that at some point they will have to stand in front of God and God will judge them not based on what they did for the wealthy, or for corporations or for America but what they did to the least of God's children? If Jesus were to stand in front of them today and ask 'when I was hungry, did you feed me?,' how would they respond?"

As we continue our journey through Advent and ready ourselves for the coming of the Messiah we reflect on the readings for the second Sunday of Advent. In the first reading we are told to "prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God" (Is 40:3). The second reading continues this theme. Peter tells us that we await "a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Pt 3:13). The letter continues by warning us "to be found without spot or blemish before him" (14).

During this Advent season are we preparing the way as we are told to in the Book of Tobit? "Give to the hungry some of your bread and to the naked some of your clothing. Whatever you have left over, give away as alms; and do not begrudge the alms you give" (Tob 4:16). Or in the Book of James: "What good is it if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,' but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also, faith of itself, if it does not have works, is lifeless" (Jas 2: 15-17).  

Are the laws on immigration that have been passed in places like Alabama and Arizona helping us prepare for way of the Lord? As Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi of Mobile recently stated, "The law attacks our core understanding of what it means to be a church." Take a moment and reflect on the words from Psalm 85:11-12: