My hometown of Cincinnati has a German flavor, thanks to thousands of immigrants who arrived in the nineteenth century. Their homeland was undergoing many changes as factories and industry grew. The dignity of workers and the sanctity of family were threatened. In the late 1840s, a German priest, Father Adolph Kolping, began a society that soon spread around the world and still flourishes today, with many thousands of members.
The “Kolping Society,” as it is popularly known, seeks to emphasize the dignity of human work and support family life. It envisions a world based on God’s heavenly reign, described in today’s first reading.
In Isaiah’s beautiful description of God’s dream for the world, God’s sevenfold gifts are given to the Messiah. We see these traits of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, wonder, and awe as the “Gifts of the Holy Spirit,” present in Jesus. These gifts are promised to us by Christ; we celebrate the gifts of the Spirit in the sacraments. In today’s Gospel we are invited to share the life he has with the Father and to be part of their intimate relationship. Adolph Kolping sought to promote the benefits of that life-giving relationship in human society, where God’s dream of a peaceful, harmonious world, can come true.
—adapted from the book Advent with the Saints: Daily Reflections
by Greg Friedman, OFM
