|
 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Happy
Advent! Hopefully all of us had our fill of turkey and pumpkin pie for a while,
and now it is definitely time to start preparing for Christmas! Welcome to our
celebration of the First Sunday of Advent. Advent is our season in which we
prepare for the great celebration of Jesus’ birth, His Incarnation, at
Christmas. Before we dive straight into Christmas, as Catholic Christian we
take these next four weeks, kinda three and a half this year, to prepare our
hearts and our lives for this Feast. During these days, we are invited as
Church to contemplate the richness of God’s love, given to us in Jesus Christ.
And so we wait, we hope, and we allow God’s great love to change our hearts and
our lives this Advent.
WE WAIT!
It’s no
secret that the rest of the world has already moved on to Christmas. The
Christmas candy has been out since the day after Halloween. I saw my first
Christmas-themed commercial on TV three weeks ago. It was the one with the
Hershey’s kisses pretending to be a bell choir, and playing “We Wish You a Merry
Christmas”. That radio station that only plays non-stop Christmas music, until
Christmas, is already on the air and advertising in the newspaper. Some people
already have their Christmas trees up! Clearly, Catholic Christians are already
not “with it”. As we wait and prepare for Jesus’ birthday, we’re going to be
even more “not with it”. It’s not time for Christmas yet. It’s time for
Advent. This is a beautiful season of preparation, and prayer, and silence, and
WAITING. What a shame it would be for us to miss out on it, because we too had
already moved on to Christmas. Take advantage of this waiting time. We’re not
supposed to be doing nothing during this time, we are supposed to busy preparing
everything, most especially our hearts, for Christmas. My fear is that too
often, that we as Catholics pay lip service to Advent, and then stand around
gawking at our non-Catholic friends, wishing that we too could start the party
early! That’s not celebrating Advent. And let’s admit it, we hate to wait for
anything. David Niven was right in those old commercials, we hate to wait.
People who make soup in a microwave in 45 seconds, and who can stop heartburn
from happening even before it begins, and who can get instant relief from
athletes foot at the spray of a can, aren’t going to have a great appreciation
of waiting! We don’t even have to wait at the license branch anymore! And I’m
telling to wait for Christmas? Well, yes I am. Actually, the Church is asking
all of us to wait. Waiting is not always a bad thing. Waiting builds
anticipation. Waiting helps us to think about what we are doing and what we are
looking forward to celebrating. Waiting can buy us the time to get it right.
And wouldn’t it be sad to get to December 25th
and NOT get it right? And I’m not talking about the food, or the decorations,
or the presents. I’m talking about our hearts. Advent AND Christmas are about
our hearts.
WE HOPE!
We’re going
to spend a lot of time in our readings and our prayers at Mass in these next few
weeks, recalling how God has always fulfilled His promises. The ultimate
fulfillment of God’s promises is the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. We can have
hope, because the same faithful God who has been so good to us in the past, has
promised to take great care of us in the future, in this world and in the world
that is to come. Hope is a rare commodity in our world today. Many have lost
hope all together. Advent reminds us that there is more than just the
headlines. A good way to build hope is to read the daily Mass readings every
day, even if, especially if, you can’t come and join us at daily Mass. The
Advent daily Mass readings are fantastic. They build on one another. They give
us more and more hope the closer we get to Christmas. The daily Mass readings
for every day are listed in the bulletin. Get out your Bible and read along
with us!
AND FINALLY, WE CHANGE OUR HEARTS AND OUR LIVES!
Every Advent,
the entire Church examines our lives and listens to the call of John the
Baptist: “Repent and believe, the Kingdom of God is close at hand!” Repenting
means that we turn back to God. We get rid of our sins. And we move on and
become even better! This is the time for forgiveness, mercy, and love. We go
to Reconciliation. St. Maria Goretti’s Advent Penance Service is coming up on
Thursday evening, Dec. 11th.
Let’s mark our calendars now and plan to attend. We share our blessings with
others, especially those in need, for Advent and Christmas are both not about
what we get, but are about what we give to others. Jesus said that it was best
to give to those who couldn’t give you anything back. Think about that this
Advent.
This
is a great season! Don’t miss or skip Advent. This is what we do to make
Christmas mean that much more! Have a great first week!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Many
Christmas shoppers are people with the spirit of brotherly shove. |
