Monday, December 8, 2014

It's time to get personal

          What?  You're not excited by the idea that Jesus would return tomorrow?  Perhaps you should examine what kind of relationship you have with him.  Is it like the relationship that you have with your garbage collector, whose absence you hardly notice?  Or is it like the relationship that you have with your best friend or your spouse, who you hate to be away from?  If it's more like the former, then it's time to get personal with Jesus.  Take this time of Advent to get to know him more.


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Homily: 2nd Sunday of Advent – Cycle B
          On the surface, Alma and Riley seem to be like many other young couples who are preparing to get married.  They happen to be of the high school sweetheart kind.  They met in high school and weren’t really interested in each other at first, but when they got to know each other a little better found that there was a spark between them.  Five years later and that spark has grown into a warm fire of love, so much so that they feel called to go “all in” and make their love permanent in the bond of marriage.
          This is where the “normal” in their relationship ends, though.  After high school, Riley joined the Coast Guard and so, for a little over a year and a half now, Riley and Alma have spent most of their time separated from one another (and we’re not talking just a couple of states here: currently he’s stationed in Alaska).  Thus Alma has spent a lot of time waiting for Riley’s return.  They have a wedding date, though, and they will be married soon; and because of this, Alma has been working hard at making preparations for that day.  She’s focused and this has made her waiting purposeful, even joyful, in spite of the fact that, when Riley returns, her whole world will dramatically change.
          What Alma is experiencing in anticipation of her wedding day is exactly what the Church is inviting us to experience during the season of Advent.  Our Lord Jesus, when he ascended into heaven, promised that he would one day return to bring us to be where he is.  And so, we are now separated from him for a time and must wait for his return.  This waiting is not a “doctor’s office” kind of waiting, however, in which there is nothing to do, but rather it’s a purposeful waiting: a waiting in which we are constantly preparing for his return; a joyful waiting, in spite of the fact that when he returns our whole world will dramatically change.  Advent is the time of year in which we re-focus ourselves on that reality.
          But what kind of preparations should we be making?  Well, like Alma preparing for her wedding day, we need to be about putting everything in order for the day of his return; and John the Baptist shows us where we are to begin: repent, acknowledge your sins, and have your sins forgiven.  Then, as Saint Peter tells us, we must “conduct ourselves in holiness and devotion … awaiting a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”  In other words, we must live lives of holiness in which we strive to bring forth justice so as to hasten the coming of the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness, that is, justice, will dwell.  Yet, we struggle to do this.  Why?  I think that it’s because, for too many of us, we’ve put “the cart before the horse”, so to speak.
          You see, Alma anxiously awaits Riley’s return because she’s deeply in love with him (and he with her).  In other words, they have a deep, personal relationship which thus inspires them to go to great lengths to end any separation between them.  Alma is not making all of these preparations for any personal reward that she expects to gain for herself, save that of being united—permanently united—to this person that she is in love with; and she knows that every hour spent making preparations for their wedding day is an hour closer to that moment when Riley will return—that, in fact, each hour thus hastens his return—and thus they will be separated no longer.
          We, however, are apathetic about—perhaps even afraid of—Jesus’ return to us.  And this is precisely because we don’t have a personal relationship with him.  I mean, you don’t get excited to celebrate the coming of your garbage collector every week, do you?  No.  Why?  Well, probably because you don’t even know who he or she is and so you don’t have a personal relationship with him or her.  Thus, your separation throughout the week causes you no great concern and his or her return each week you could equally take or leave.  In fact, the return of your garbage collector each week is only important to you because of what he or she provides to you when he or she comes: the fact that he or she is present there with you once again doesn’t really matter to you at all.  This, I would venture to say, is how we view Jesus: the garbage collector who one day is going to come and clean up our trash, but then leave us to go about our business.
          My brothers and sisters, if our attitude towards Jesus’ second coming is anything like what I’ve just described—or if we just feel a general malaise about his coming—then Advent for us is about waking up to the possibility of entering personally into a relationship with him: because it is only in a personal relationship with him that we will discover a sense of excitement and anticipation for his return.  If we already have it, then we’re inspired, like Alma, to wait expectantly for his return; and we make preparations for it by being cleansed from sin and by enacting works of justice as if we both welcomed his coming and were sure that it was going to happen soon.  If we don’t have that personal relationship, however, then our lives lose focus and, instead of preparing for something, we begin to chase after anything that seems to generate excitement for us.
          If you find yourself in this latter category (and the statistics say that most of us here do), then I want to invite you to ask yourself this question: “Is my life really so good that Jesus can’t offer me anything better?”  My guess is that the answer for all of us is “no”, and that we do wish for more out of life.  If so, then this time of Advent is our time to begin to seek (or to renew) a relationship with Jesus that will give focus and purpose to our waiting for his return.
          My brothers and sisters, in the second letter of Saint Peter we heard good news: that the delay of the Lord’s return is not a delay in the fulfillment of his promises, but rather it is a merciful delay, allowing time for each of us to repent and to prepare for his coming.  But he won’t wait forever!  Therefore, let us turn to Jesus now and seek to know him more deeply and more personally—most especially by carving out time each day to spend with him in quiet reflection on the Scriptures—so that the best present that you receive this Christmas will be the joy of knowing the Lord, deep in your heart.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – December 6th & 7th, 2014

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