topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
The First Sunday in Advent (B)
27 November 05



It’s that time of year again, as Bing Crosby crooned, “
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”  But, with so many things to do and so little time to do them, preparing for the Christmas season can become overwhelming.  Pardon me for sounding like a Scrooge this early in the Christmas season, but just think about it:

·       Christmas shopping: not just shopping, but making the list and checking it twice;

·       putting up and trimming the tree as well as arranging all of the decorations, and then, taking everything down;

·       writing notes in each Christmas cards, sending them out before the last-minute rush, and then updating the list of who’s to receive cards next year;

·       getting ready for the Christmas holidays, the feasts to be hosted, and then, as a consequence, going on a diet because of having over-eaten for nearly six weeks (don’t forget the Thanksgiving dinner); and,

·       let’s not forget the numerous parties and dinners leading up to the holidays that we must attend, and then having to write all of those thank you’s.
 

Just contemplating all of the things we will have to do within the next four weeks, come Christmas day, it shouldn’t prove surprising that we find ourselves tired out and possessing little energy to enjoy all of the festivities and, more importantly, the “reason for the season.”

In reality, this scenario about how many of us spend the season of Advent is a snapshot of something else and, perhaps, something much more critical, namely, the hectic and helter-skelter lives we live during the remainder of the year.  How much we look forward to and eagerly anticipate momentous events and, when they finally do occur, we miss the meaning of these events because we’ve been running around ensnared within a vicious circle of our own making.

The late-songwriter, Harry Chapin, used to end his concerts with a song he entitled “Circle.”  The refrain begins with the words, “All my life’s a circle,” and then proceeds to describe some of the routine cycles we experience.  One line, “The moon rolls through the nighttime till the daybreak comes around” bespeaks the daily round marked by sunrise and sunset.  Later, we’re reminded about the “seasons spinning ’round again” and the years “rolling by.”  Another verse describes two lovers who find and lose each other “a thousand times, just like a child’s game.”  The lyric to this particular verse concludes, “As I find you hear again, the thought runs through my mind—our life is like a circle, let’s go around one more time.”

But, “going around one more time” can have the deleterious effect of dulling our senses and sensibilities about what really is happening in our lives.  Think about it.  It’s not just everything we have to get completed by Christmas, but it’s also:

·       couples who are preparing for marriage: before they know it, it’s suddenly their 25th anniversary;

·       parents who are awaiting the birth of a child: before long, they find themselves watching on as their baby is marching up the aisle to be married; and,

·       students who are eagerly anticipating graduation: before long, they discover themselves immersed in careers and having to make important career decisions that affect not only their lives but also the lives of others, including their spouses and children.
 

All of these situations force us to ask a question Harry Chapin’s song doesn’t ask: “Where did all of the time go?”

It is so very easy to get caught up in anything and everything that time actually does pass us by.  Yet, this experience raises a more substantive question for anyone who is sincerely interested in living a spiritual life, namely, “Where was God in the middle of all of this?”  Whereas Harry Chapin’s closing song reminds his concertgoers of the fitful but earnest effort that involves both “losing and finding” over and over again, the season of Advent and its readings from scripture challenge us to address the deep longing in our souls for God.  While we may wax and wane in our spiritual lives as we sometimes desire to find but more oftentimes lose sight of God, today’s gospel reminds us of something Harry Chapin’s song neglects, namely, the God we so desire is already present in our lives, if we but open the “gates” to let God in!

The gospel for this first Sunday of Advent reminds us that we live in hope because God is going to surprise us by His presence.  And, we are told, we keep this hope alive by being awake and watchful gatekeepers.  We are to be awake, not bored, sleepy, or brain-numbed by our daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly routine.  We are to be watchful, not distracted and running about like chickens with their heads cut off.  We are to be gatekeepers awaiting God’s arrival, not ushers collecting tickets at Six Flags or Disneyland.  This is how we remain focused on today—“This is the day,” the Psalmist says—with hearts full of hope that God will surprise us.

My Uncle Lee recently sent me a story, entitled “The Tablecloth,” relating how hope and watchfulness once met, in of all places, a church.

The new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities.  When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work.  They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.

They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc., and on December 18, were ahead of schedule and just about finished.  On December 19, a terrible tempest—a driving rainstorm—hit the area and lasted for two days.  On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church.  His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.

The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home.  On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity, so he stopped in.  One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center.  It was just the right size to cover up the hole in the front wall.  He bought it and headed back to the church.

By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus.  She missed it.  The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later.  She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry.  The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.

Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle.  Her face was like a sheet.  “Pastor,” she asked, “where did you get that tablecloth?”  The pastor explained.  The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there.  They were.  These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.

The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten the tablecloth.  The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria.  When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave.  Her husband was going to follow her the next week.  He was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again.

The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church.  The pastor insisted on driving her home.  That was the least he could do, he thought.  She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.

What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve.  The church was almost full.  The music and the spirit were great.  At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.

One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare.  The pastor wondered why he wasn’t leaving.  The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall, because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike.  He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison.  He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years in between.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride.  They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier.  He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.
 

We cannot live without hope.  Unlike nonhuman animals, we human animals are blessed—or, some may say, “cursed”—with the ability to contemplate the future.  So essential is hope to our lives that we cannot live without something to live for and to look forward to.  To be without hope, to have nothing to live for, is to surrender to despair.

So, we find all sorts of things to live for.  We also hope for many things, in fact, almost everything.  We might hope for some measure of success or security.  We might hope to realize some more or less modest ambition.  We might hope that our children might be saved from our mistakes and sufferings and find a better life that we have known.  We can hope for a better world, throwing ourselves and our energies into politics or medicine or technology so that future generations might be better off.  This kind of hope is not selfish.  No, it gives dignity and purpose to the lives of countless generations of human beings.

But, the idea proposed by today’s gospel that we are to be awake and watchful gatekeepers is particularly challenging because it requires generating hope by doing something countercultural, namely, stopping and surveying what it is we are doing and asking why we are doing what we are doing.  By being awake and watchful gatekeepers, we remain alert and vigilant for we hope will be of true significance for our souls, for our homes, and for our world.  And, conversely, as we recognize something potentially destructive, we fend off and keep the gate shut so that it does not destroy our souls, our homes, and our world.

Perhaps for some of us the idea of being awake and watchful gatekeepers connotes something negative, for example, focusing solely upon threats, namely, the power of evil manifesting itself.  Parents who do this are likely to say, “You shouldn’t do that!” or “That’s wrong….stop it!”  Young people who do this might say, “You’ll get into trouble if you do that!”  Teenagers put the same experience in these words way: “I’m not so sure….it might be better if….”  Being awake and watchful gatekeepers reminds us about the importance of keeping the power of evil at bay when it tempts us or others to do something that might destroy our souls, our homes, or our world.

At the same time, and not to be overlooked, are the positive aspects of being an awake and watchful gatekeeper.  This means opening wide the gates to that which is of supreme value, namely, God’s presence, Whose advent comes as today’s gospel describes it “at unexpected times.”  This is the God who “surprises” us as He breaks unexpectedly smack dab into the middle of our lives.

One way God comes into the middle of our lives unexpectedly and surprises us is when we fall in love.

We oftentimes don’t think about it but what is beloved—what we find so alluring and seductive in another person—is the God Who dwells in and reveals Himself—is made flesh—through that person.  Think about it: what we see and love in a spouse, what we see and love in our children, friends, and yes, even in our in-laws, is the mysterious and alluring presence of God.

The season of Advent reminds us that we are to be awake and watchful gatekeepers who are ready to open up the gates and to let God into our lives!  It’s when we don’t think about this surprising theophany that we suddenly find ourselves ensnared in dead-end relationships that have no meaning.  Or, we might bolt the gate closed to the people through whom God desires to reveal Himself to us.

That’s the Advent challenge before us.  One way to meet this challenge during the next four weeks is to consider those people whom we’ve used for our own selfish purposes or bolted the gates to, in short, those in whom we’ve refused to recognize God’s presence.  Then, we must ask ourselves: What must I do so that the gates—my arms—can open up and I can embrace these people in whom God dwells?

If we dare to accept this very difficult challenge, then next year—that is, if there will be a next year—we won’t come back with the same old lame excuse. We also won’t have wasted another 365 days of our limited time here on Earth.

Another unexpected coming of God is when families gather for meals, especially daily dinner.  Let the skeptics doubt but, as Jesus’ disciples, let us have no doubt whatsoever: the warmth and affection we can experience through the daily ritual of a family meal is an experience of God’s surprising presence at work in the middle of the domestic church, the family.  Stop to think about it: rather than allowing ourselves to become ensnared in the vicious circle of eating and then running elsewhere, a time where there is little physical nourishment and certainly no spiritual nourishment, dinnertime each Advent day can become a touchstone in a family’s daily life where every member of the family can recognize God’s presence in the tabernacle of the table.

The season of Advent reminds us that we are to be awake and watchful gatekeepers who are ready to open up the gates and to let God into our lives!  It’s when family members—especially mothers and fathers—don’t think about making their home a domestic church where God’s presence is recognized each day that family members suddenly find themselves ensnared in a vicious circle of grazing rather feasting upon the surprising bread of life that God is waiting to offer.

That’s the Advent challenge before us.  We can consciously make dinner the moment in each day where every member of the family recognizes God’s presence.  One way to do this is for each family member to demonstrate their interest in one another rather than gulping down dinner and running off to watch television, to play with the computer, to do homework, or to visit an Internet chat room because those are the people that we’d really rather converse with.

To begin breaking this vicious cycle during Advent, each member of the family—Moms and Dads first, though, because they are the primary educators and chief catechists of your children—can open the gates to God by offering a blessing before the dinner meal and giving thanks to God.  In that blessing, explain how God has made His presence felt today in the life of your family.

If every family accepted this challenge, then next year—once again, if there will be a next year—none of us would come back with the same lame excuse and won’t have wasted another 365 days of our limited time here on Earth.

I can hear it now.  In fact, I’ve heard it already, “Gag me with a spoon!” or “Get real!” or “I can’t do that!”  To which I respond, using St. Paul’s words, “Say only those words that will build one another up as the body of Christ.”

As we progress into our new church year, and as we begin to anticipate celebrating Christmas, it is most appropriate that we think not so much about what the future will bring but what we need to be aware of today as we prepare for the future we anticipate.  While there are many situations that we can allow to make us fearful in the present, such as the threat of a terrorist attack, of crime, or of a pandemic, most of us don’t live in fear and oppression nor do we live in harm’s way.  Our real enemy, then, isn’t fear but complacency; our real enemy isn’t fear but apathy; our real enemy isn’t fear but accepting the status quo; our real enemy isn’t God’s absence but living in a vicious circle within which we exclude God, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Advent is not about starting the vicious cycle all over again, thinking about Santa Claus and all of the gifts I want, the parties and feasts that I need to prepare for, or the diet resolutions I know I will be making once again on New Year’s Eve.  No, Advent literally means “coming.”  For Christians, Advent means “the coming of God into our lives” and especially as we discover the Word made flesh in our lives.  This is the season of creating expectations grounded in the hope that God will surprise us, and, as awake and watchful gatekeepers, we will discover God’s presence in our souls, in our homes, and in our world.  Nothing could be more apostolic, more Christian, more Catholic than if we were to look at our lives and to discover our hope fulfilled in the God Who surprises us with His presence each and every day smack dab in the middle of our lives.

Absent this reflective preparation, we will have wasted much of our lives by leaving the gate closed.  We will have also continued to live within the vicious circles that we’ve created.  But, when we are awake and watchful gatekeepers, God will break open those vicious circles and we will sense something very wonderful and reassuring.  God will surprise us as His Word is made flesh and dwells somewhere smack dab in the middle of our lives.

 

A very brief commercial break...
 

As Catholics, we prepare for Christ's coming by celebrating the season of Advent.  During the coming four weeks, we prepare the way for Christ to come into our own lives each and every day not just on Christmas day.  For Catholic families, let me suggest five practical ways to prepare for Christ's coming:

1. Place an advent wreath in the center of your dinner table.  Each evening before sitting down for dinner, have one member offer a prayer of thanksgiving to God for His presence in the life of your family and light the appropriate candle(s).

2. Use an Advent calendar   Hang an advent calendar on the refrigerator door beginning on December 1st.  Each morning, before everyone scatters for the day, have one member of the family open one door and read the scripture verse or describe the biblical scene behind the door.  This is a great way for family members to keep focused on the coming of Christ for the rest of the day.

3. Make a Jesse tree.  The Jesse tree is the traditional way that Catholics recall Jesus' heritage, coming from the line of King David, the son of Jesse.  Have members of the family make a symbol for each day of Advent that marks an important moment in Israel's history (e.g., Noah's ark, Jacob's ladder, Moses' stone tablets, David's harp).  Then, each evening before everyone goes to bed, gather the family around the Jesse tree, have the family member explain the symbol, and hang it on the tree.

4. Celebrate the Feast of St. Nicholas on December 6th.  One way to "put Christ back into Christmas" is to reclaim the faith-filled life of heroic virtue revealed in the great Christian saint, St. Nicholas of Myra.  Besides sharing simple gifts with family members, like placing candy in shoes that have been left outside of the bedroom door, share some time with people who are alone, in the hospital, convalescing, etc.

5. Celebrate God's mercy.  Advent is a particularly fitting time for every member of the family to welcome the light of God's forgiveness into the dark places of family life.  Gather the family together and go to church to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance together.  Then, go out for pizza to celebrate God's mercy and a new beginning free from sin.
 

By participating in these five practical activities to prepare for Christmas day, Catholic families will not only have contemplated their need for God and God's self-revelation through salvation history.  In addition, they will have experienced God present and active in their family's life.  Then, on Christmas day, when family members greet one another by saying, "Merry Christmas," they all will truly be prepared to celebrate the Mass wherein Christ will strengthen and nourish them with his body and blood to bring Christ to the world. 

 

 

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