For Advent, Dream of a New World–And Act to Make It Real

Robert Shine

For the four Sundays of Advent, Bondings 2.0 will present reflections on the Sunday scriptures from writers who represent each of the categories the LGBT spectrum: lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.

Today’s post is from guest contributor Robert Shine (he/him), a bisexual Catholic. Bob is the executive director of the Pax Christi International Fund for Peace, a part of the global Catholic peace movement. He previously served at New Ways Ministry from 2012-2024, including as Bondings Managing Editor, and is a co-author of “A Home for All: A Catholic Call for LGBTQ Non-Discrimination.” 

Today’s liturgical readings for the First Sunday of Advent can be found by clicking here.

Today’s liturgical readings contain beautiful imagery of a reconciled world, one in which Isaiah tells us people will “beat their swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks.” The psalm encourages us to “go rejoicing to the house of [God],” for it is God who grants us a peace from which all good flows. What a hopeful point from which to start our Advent journey.

Scripture, though, is not read in isolation. To paraphrase theologian Karl Barth, we must read the Bible in one hand and the newspaper (or smartphone) in the other. Or in the words of Vatican II, we must interpret our faith according to the signs of our times. 

You may already know that the signs of today’s times aren’t great. In the U.S., people are abducted off the street by masked men. Decades of progress on LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, climate advocacy—nearly every social cause–are being eviscerated in mere months. Internationally, authoritarianism rises and escalating militarism is making plowshares into swords.

The gap between our reality and the reconciled, rejoicing world of Isaiah and the Psalms grows daily, punctuated by nights of fitful sleep. When I started writing this reflection, I was not ready for and, if I’m truthful, I did not want a “period of devout and expectant delight,” as the Church’s universal liturgy describes Advent. It feels incongruous with what is happening in healthcare clinics, detention centers, battlefields, and streets.

Our faith needs constant adjustment. Each period demands different emphases and surfaces different pathologies, in the language of theologian Leonardo Boff. A life-giving practice or teaching can become illness when made too rigid or overarching. Forgotten traditions need new emphasis. We are imperfect people stumbling along, doing our best to get what God is saying, and often falling short.  

Pope John XXIII’s desire for the church to offer “the medicine of mercy,” which at Vatican II revolutionized how we present faith and provide care, moved us away from a church riddled by pathologies. Pope Francis reclaimed this posture after decades of decay, and it has led in small and large ways to a more welcoming, loving church. Certainly, LGBTQ+ Catholics have benefited. All of this is a good, needed correction!

Perhaps now, another correction is needed. In the past, Advent was seen as a more penitential season and included practices like fasting. This year, in a violent world, infusing Advent with some fasting, almsgiving, witness, and advocacy could benefit us.

I am sensitive that encouraging LGBTQ+ Catholics and our loved ones–and really any person harmed by the institutional church–to engage their faith this way is fraught. Penance has been weaponized against us in the confessional, and too often the Cross we’ve been told to carry is our sexual or gender identity. There is truth in the trope of “Catholic guilt.” We must tread carefully.

And yet, I am suggesting a different way of living Advent because ultimately our liberation requires a different approach right now. We must fervently resist all attempts to strip us of gender-affirming healthcare, marriage equality, non-discrimination protections, and even the legality of homosexuality. To do so will require going deeper into the riches and depths of our faith, to give us the courage and fortitude this moment demands. 

Advent’s marks are hope, joy, peace, and love. If we are not careful, these can become caricatures. Hope becomes false optimism, joy becomes upbeat positivity, peace becomes a nice ideal, and love costs nothing. But being more penitential—by which I mean paying attention to the world’s suffering and responding courageously—grounds us in what these marks truly mean for Christians.

Hope is not optimism. It is a choice to act for a better world despite all evidence to the contrary. Joy is not happiness. It is a deeper consolation, detached from emotion, that trusts in God’s promise to us. Peace is not a nice ideal, nor simply the absence of violence. It is the conditions where every person can flourish, free from discrimination and hate, fed by basic needs being met. And love is not a sentiment. It is the costly love which Jesus’ demands of us: to love one’s enemy, expand who we think our neighbor is, and take up the Cross of the oppressed.

I don’t know how we can arrive at the reconciled, rejoicing world envisioned in our readings today. There will be much pain on that road. But Advent points us towards that world, because Jesus broke into history once to help us glimpse it, and he promised to come again. In God’s promise, then, I think I can find this season to be “a period of devout and expectant delight.” Or at least I hope to try.

–Robert Shine, November 30, 2025

ADVENT RESOURCES

To enhance your Advent journey, consider looking into two New Ways Ministry resources:

1. Journeys: A Scripture Reflection Series for LGBTQ+ people and Allies:  This series is a collection of reflection exercises on a wide variety of scripture passages. These exercises are appropriate for individual or communal reflection, and many parish LGBTQ+ ministries have used them for disccussions. For the exercises for Advent Sunday liturgical scriptures, click on the links below:

Up to the Mountain – Isaiah 2:1-5 (1st Sunday)

Down to the Roots – Isaiah 11:1-10 (2nd Sunday)

Out to the Desert – Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10 (3rd Sunday)

Into Your Home – Matthew 1:18-24 (4th Sunday)

2. The Word Goes Out: LGBTQ+ Scripture Reflections for the Liturgical Calendar: This brand-new resource is an archive of all of Bondings 2.0’s Sunday scripture reflection posts.   Check out the ones for the four Advent Sundays.   Additonally, check out general reflections on the Advent season to spark your prayer and reflection.  You can also find short reflections by Bondings 2.0 readers for The Isaiah Project, a series or responses to passages from the Book of Isaiah that we ran during Advent 2019.