I hope that you all are entering into the season of Advent and heightening your awareness of Christ's coming (his second coming, that is). Be a witness to Christ's advent this season so that we all will celebrate Christmas' true joy: the Incarnation of Christ the Lord!
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Homily:
2nd Sunday of Advent – Cycle A
Going back to time immemorial (i.e. to my earliest memories
from childhood), I find very little to remember of the season of Advent. Depending on how late Thanksgiving fell in
November, the decorations in the Petan household would switch from the fall harvest
motif of Thanksgiving into the bright lights, sights and sounds of Christmas
within one to two weeks, which was great, because for many years, my mom either
owned or worked in a Hallmark store and that meant that we often enjoyed the
latest light-up or animated-motion ornaments that the store had in its
collection. Santa going back and forth
from one side of a room to another to light and relight a Christmas tree:
wrrr-wrrr-wrrr-wrrr-wrrr-wrrr… and the Christmas popcorn popper that always
seemed to pop in rhythm with Santa:
wrrr-wrrr-wrrr-wrrr-wrrr… pop, pop, pop… wrrr-wrrr-wrrr-wrrr-wrrr… pop,
pop, pop…
Oh, we had an Advent wreath, though I never remember us
doing much with it. I remember lighting
candles once or twice, but otherwise, it just sat on the end table, looking
awkward among all of the Christmas decorations.
As I grew older, the magic of it all began to fade as the decorating and
preparations (even the gift-giving) started to feel more like an obligation—a
duty to be performed—than an invitation to enter more deeply into a
celebration. It wasn’t until I was in my
mid-twenties that I came to understand that Advent had more to teach me about
the meaning of Christmas than the “Christmas” I had celebrated for all those
years.
Saint Paul, of course, never celebrated Christmas (at
least, not in any way that we might recognize).
But he did, I think, celebrate Advent.
You see, Saint Paul (and just about everyone in the Early Church, for
that matter) was convinced that Jesus was going to return soon. After his encounter
with the Risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was convinced that the time of
fulfillment—the time that Isaiah and the other prophets spoke about—was already
here and so he urgently went off to bring this good news to everyone whom he
could reach and who would listen. And
when he wrote letters to these communities that grew up out of his
evangelization he often reminded the people that the time of fulfillment was at
hand and he instructed them how to live in this “liminal state”: that is, this
state in between Christ’s first and second coming.
This is what he’s speaking about today. To the Church in Rome he’s saying “look back
to the Scriptures, because it tells us about Christ, and find there
encouragement because the time of great peace and harmony that Isaiah spoke of
is at hand, we only have to endure in proclaiming it to realize it. In fact,” he seems to say, “your community
ought to be a place of encounter with this fulfillment.” Thus, he prays that God will give them the
grace to “think in harmony with one another” so that “with one accord [they]
may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, if they are truly to be a
people of this fulfillment, then they must live as if they are in the time of
fulfillment by living in harmony with one another and welcoming one
another. Then they will be the “signal
for the nations” that “the Gentiles shall seek out”, which Isaiah spoke of in
the prophesy about this time of fulfillment, and God’s salvation will be
extended to all people.
This was Saint Paul’s singular focus: prepare the way for
Jesus’ second coming by evangelizing all peoples. In other words, Advent was his singular focus. For us, nearly two-thousand years later,
Advent is relegated to four weeks of the year and most of those are obscured by
our focus on Christmas. But Advent, like
it was for Saint Paul, ought to be our focus throughout the year; because we
ought to always be looking towards his second coming. You know, we only celebrate the birthdays of
people who are still living, right?
That’s because in part we believe that, as long as they are living, they
have hope of joys yet to come and we want to wish that for them. And so, in Advent, as we prepare to celebrate
the birthday of Jesus, we remember that he is still living and we anticipate
the joy that will come when he returns.
“Living Advent”, therefore, means living in this time of
fulfillment. It means living in harmony
with others, as Saint Paul instructed the Romans, which often means that we
must first repent, as Saint John the Baptist calls us to do today, and to be
reconciled both with one another and with God.
Saint Paul makes it clear that if we are to be a people of the
fulfillment, then we must live like it by living in peace and harmony with one
another.
Living Advent also means that we must share the knowledge
of God with others. In Isaiah’s image of
the final peace of the end days, he states that “no harm or ruin shall be on
all of God’s holy mountain on account of the fact that the earth shall be
filled with the knowledge of the Lord.”
This, I suspect, is what gave Saint Paul such urgency in spreading the
Good News of Jesus, so as to usher in this time of peace. Therefore, like Saint Paul, we must proclaim
Jesus in all that we do—most especially in our acts of mercy; for when we make
Advent our focus, then our celebration of Christmas (quirky ornaments and all),
along with everything else, will serve to make this prophesied fulfillment
come.
May the encounter with the Lord that we experience here in
this Holy Eucharist fill us with the joy of the Gospel and so compel us to go
forth from here and make that fulfillment a reality.
Given at All Saints Catholic
Church: Logansport, IN – December 7th & 8th, 2013
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