Wake up to... JOY! GROWTH! CHRIST!

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 1st Sunday of Advent, Year A

We begin today this precious season of Advent, a time of preparation and making ready, not yet a time of celebration, but the time of excitement that comes before the celebration!  The world around us is already celebrating Christmas, and then on the 26th will forget about it... as Catholics we are called to a different rhythm... now is the time to make ready!  The very word “Advent” means coming, arrival. And who is coming? Who is about to arrive? It is the Lord Jesus! You heard that very beautifully in the collect, that is, the opening prayer, perhaps one of the most beautiful prayers in the Missal:

Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom....

That is such a beautiful prayer… it captures our eager waiting, our desire for Christ’s coming… we want to run out and meet Him! And when we meet Him, we want to be able to offer Him our lives lived according to Him, so that we can be gathered in as a fruitful harvest, gathered into the joy of His Kingdom!

Did you notice that neither this prayer nor any of our readings today make any particular reference to the Nativity? Advent is truly a time of preparation for the Christmas feast, but first it continues the theme we have been seeing as this past liturgical year ended… the theme of Christ’s coming at the end of time! Christ’s second coming, is the time of harvest, the time of being gathered in, the time when the wheat is separated from the tares, the weeds. We continue to anticipate and prepare for God’s coming into His world in glory for judgment and restoration and full joy.

Maybe it's corny, but I find this moment in the film, when Gandalf arrives at dawn, as a powerful image of Christ's coming!

In light of that coming, then, the Church calls us above all to BE AWAKE, to be ready, indeed, to be already seeking the Lord and moving forward to meet Him, to be ready to welcome and receive Him. We are pilgrims on a journey, and the sense of brokenness and sadness we often experience in our very beautiful world is a constant reminder that this is not our lasting home, that our citizenship is in heaven. We are wayfarers on a journey, pilgrims seeking our destination. In our first reading we heard, “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” In our psalm, “We will go up to the house of the Lord.” In our 2nd reading, “...it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now that when we first believed…” And in our Gospel, “Stay awake!

This wakefulness and preparation and journeying is not easy! As Jesus loves us perfectly at this moment, He loves us too much to leave us where we are, wherever that may be… He loves us to much to leave us mired in sin and sadness and bitterness. It's true that Jesus loves us unconditionally, but not if by that we mean that He leaves us where we are... He loves us too much, out of that love He calls us always to deeper conversion.  We are called to once again wake up, look around, and notice that we are not yet in the promised land, and thus to go up, to climb, to make ready. Paul says it dramatically to the Romans:

Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

As Christians we are called to freedom in Christ, rather than being ruled by the urges and passions of the flesh. Being awake and being prepared means evaluating where we are at, recognizing it is not yet heaven, and then setting out towards Christ.



I have begun reading Pope Francis’ new Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, which means, “The Joy of the Gospel.” There is a lot there, and I hope to be thinking and praying and unpacking it myself and with you for weeks and months to come. One thing I would heartily encourage you to do is to read it for yourself, because just as with Jesus Himself, the crowds, and especially the media, are reporting a lot of hogwash! Several times a week people tell me they are excited about Pope Francis, but then as I listen to why, I discover not infrequently it is because they imagine he is going to make the Gospel easy and comfortable to live, especially by changing Jesus’ own moral teachings! It is hard to imagine a perception less connected to reality, although it certainly represents a great deal of the reporting on Pope Francis, and perhaps he himself has left himself open to this perception.  Pope Francis is not calling us to Catholic Lite, he is calling us to deeper conversion, calling us first of all who are trying to practice our faith, you and me!

What is his authentic message, then?  One piece of it, is not unlike the theme of this Sunday… Be Awake! Wake up from the slumber of apathy and routine and vice and consumption! Wake up to Jesus who always calls us forward, deeper, into conversion! Wake up to the beauty and joy of the Gospel!  Listen to his words from the third paragraph:

I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”. The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms.

Every single one of us is called to this ongoing and constantly renewed and deepened encounter with our Lord Jesus.  There is a risk involved, there is a price, but it is worth it... the Lord is waiting for us!

Again, a little further on, (paragraph #12) the Holy Father again deepens the call:

The life of the Church should always reveal clearly that God takes the initiative, that “he has loved us first” (1 Jn 4:19) and that he alone “gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7). This conviction enables us to maintain a spirit of joy in the midst of a task so demanding and challenging that it engages our entire life. God asks everything of us, yet at the same time he offers everything to us.

To follow Christ, the embrace the Joy of the Gospel is "so demanding and challenging that it engages our entire life" !  If we are awake, we can attend to the Lord's voice, the Lord's initiative, calling us deeper.

How can you live this concretely during this Advent we begin together today?  Go back to the basics... seek the Lord in prayer each day. I think this is the place where most of us who try to practice our faith can grow the most.  I encourage you and call you to prayer, even as I struggle myself, even though I'm "paid to pray!"  If you pray some days, make time for God every day, however simple that prayer may be.  If by God's grace you pray every day, open up some more time for Him, read one of the daily Mass readings, or pray a decade of the rosary... give God a little more space! You won't outdo Him in generosity!

Along with prayer... keep seeking the Eucharist.  Up the ante... if you make it to Mass some Sundays, make it every Sunday. If you make it every Sunday, consider coming to a daily Mass from time to time, or stopping by the church to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament.

Make a good confession this Advent... there is not better way to wake up, wipe the slate clean, and make a new start with God's healing and help!

We prepare now to receive our Lord Jesus on this altar, where He offers us Himself once again, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, hidden under the appearance of bread and wine.  Jesus not only challenges and calls us, He offers us the power and grace we need in the Eucharist.  Let us receive Him now with deep JOY!

+ A. M. D. G. +