Homily: 4th Sunday of Advent – Cycle C
“Haste makes waste…” or so they say. And what does that mean? Well, this saying—or ‘proverb’, if you
will—is simply stating that, for most people, most of the time, when one moves
too quickly from thought into action it often times results in something being
left undone or forgotten, and that one then must waste time and energy either to return to do what wasn’t done or to
return to retrieve whatever was forgotten.
Now I know that I’m not alone when I say that I can speak to the truth
of this, for I often find myself making haste to leave the office or the house
because I’ve tried to do one too many things before leaving and then realize
that I’ve either left something undone that should have been done or forgotten
something that I needed. And so I waste
time (and make myself late) because I left in haste instead of taking some
extra minutes to think about what I needed to do or retrieve before I left.
Yet, in spite of the truth that rings out from this saying,
over these past four weeks or so, we’ve all been bombarded with messages
telling us to make haste. All the way from
the buildup to Black Friday to the days and weeks that followed, every outlet
of media has been filled with messages urging us to make haste: “Sale ends…”
“Three days only…” “Hurry before they’re gone…” In contrast to the age-old proverb, retail
businesses seem to be saying to us, “Make haste so that you don’t waste a
perfectly good opportunity to get what you want.” Yet all the while, the Church has been
telling us to watch, wait, and listen. ///
In our Gospel reading, the Virgin Mother makes haste to the
hill country, to a town of Judah so small and insignificant that the Gospel
writer didn’t even bother to name it. She
did so in order to visit her cousin Elizabeth: the barren one who was now in
her sixth month of pregnancy. Her hasty
departure (the Gospel tells us that she left soon after she heard the
announcement from the angel) probably meant that she left many things
undone. It is believed that Mary was
about 15 years old when she conceived Our Savior by the Holy Spirit, and so it
was likely that she was responsible for many things around the house. Thus, it is very likely that the Virgin
Mother’s haste made waste for others who needed to do what she left
undone. And would that be ok? I mean, even though she is the Virgin Mother
of God, does that mean that she could impose on her parents and their household
so she, in her exuberance, could visit her cousin? Perhaps, however, the blessing that the
Virgin Mother was to bring to her cousin was more important than the cost of
the journey and of what was left undone?
I guess, however, that since this is how the Scriptures have recorded it
we just have to believe this to be so.
But what if it really wasn’t waste at all? You know for years, Mary waited, watched, and
listened for the coming of the Messiah, God’s chosen one who would redeem his
people. Then, at the announcement of the
angel, she was ready to move. And so
what looked like haste was probably not waste because she had already prepared
herself to respond to whatever God’s call might be, and whenever (and however
unexpectedly) that call would come.
And so the question, then, comes to us: This Advent, have
we been so hasty to get to Christmas that we’ve wasted our chance to prepare
for his coming? Have we been so focused
on wrapping presents, sending cards, baking cookies, and decorating yards,
trees, windows and (in some cases) cars that we’ve forgotten to wait, watch,
and listen? In other words, have we been
so focused on getting to the red and green that we’ve failed to notice the
violet? …We’ve failed to notice the
violet, haven’t we? We’ve done it again,
haven’t we? We’ve wasted another Advent.
///
If so, my brothers and sisters, I have good news for you. There is still time. For many of you who will be here on Tuesday
afternoon, there are less than 53 hours of Advent remaining, but there is still
time. Nevertheless, the time that
remains to prepare is short. And so, my
brothers and sisters, now is the time to make haste to wait, watch, and
listen. Now is the time to turn off the
Christmas songs, to take off the red and green (and the jingle bells that inevitably
go with it) and to welcome silence. Now
is the time to make haste to slow down your heart: to wait and listen for the
sound of Mary’s greeting to hit your ears, announcing the arrival of her Son. Now, my brothers and sisters, is the time to
accept that everything that has ever needed to be done has been done: for Jesus
has come, he is with us now, and he is coming again. Let us, therefore, make haste to waste these
next days in prayer, to look with anticipation to what is yet to come, and so
be ready, when he comes, to leap for joy.
Given at St. Patrick Parish: Kokomo,
IN – December 22nd, 2024
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