Homily: 1st Sunday of Advent – Cycle B
My
dear brothers and sisters, we have entered into this holy season of Advent: a
season that we can often overlook in our exuberance for the upcoming
celebration of Christmas. This year, I
imagine, Advent will feel different for us, as the threat of the pandemic hovers
over our heads and makes us question what kind of a celebration we will be able
to have when Christmas comes. As God’s
providence would have it, I think that today’s readings give us a good sense of
how to begin this familiar time of preparation in the midst of what is a very
unique situation in our lives.
The
reading from the book of Isaiah is what is known as a “lamentation”. These are the types of prayers made when
things have gone wrong for an individual or for a people. A lamentation is a prayer made out of a place
of pain and suffering that cries out to God to ask, “How long, O Lord, will you
leave us to suffer?” In the reading from
the book of Isaiah, we heard the prophet lament that God had permitted the
Israelites to wander from his ways and so be taken into exile. He cries out from this place of pain and
suffering and begs God to come and rescue them from it.
Friends,
if there has ever been a year in recent history in which, collectively, we
could raise a cry of lament, it is this one!
The threat of the pandemic to our health as well as to our social,
spiritual, and economic well-being, the loss of Father Christopher, the
volatile political climate… these are all reasons that each of us has to turn
to God and cry out, “How long, O Lord, will you leave us to suffer?” And this we should do. Because turning to the Lord in this time of
lamentation is both a deep act of faith as well as a way to prepare for the
celebration of his coming.
Isaiah
recognized that the people were both lost in exile and mostly unprepared to
meet God. Nevertheless, in faith he
called to God to come and save them, much the way a wayward child calls his
parents to come and rescue him when he finds himself lost and in trouble. Recognizing that we, too, are lost in exile
in this world and mostly unprepared to meet God, we must call out to God to
come and save us. This Advent season is
a great time to do this. And just as
Isaiah called out and then waited with hopeful expectation, so too do we “wait and
watch” with hopeful expectation throughout this holy season: knowing, of
course, that God has already come and saved us in his Son, Jesus Christ, and
that Jesus will return again soon to welcome his faithful ones into the glory
of heaven.
Friends,
this is what gives me hope as we enter into this holy season. If I hold on to the promise of Jesus’ return,
begging for it to come soon, even while I busy myself with the work to which I
have been called, I know that, at a time I do not expect, he will come, look on
me with mercy, and then lead me into his eternal rest. Advent is the time to nourish and strengthen
my hope: that is, to cry out to God in the midst of my difficulties and to look
for his triumphant coming that will save me from them. I urge each one of us to use this time to do
the same.
Let
us, therefore, allow our lament rise to the Lord in these coming weeks and then
watch with hopeful expectation for his coming.
This will give us strength to endure these uncertain times and will keep
us vigilant so that we will be ready when he comes. Our Blessed Mother Mary is both our example
and help. Let us turn to her, especially
through the rosary, and she will make our prayers her own: leading us in faith
and preparing us to see the full glory of her Son when he returns, the glory
that we approach in mystery here at this altar.
Given at Saint Paul Parish: Marion, IN – November 28th,
2020
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