Preached this evening for the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God

Readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/010113.cfm

Good evening.  Happy New Year!

To the men present this evening - gentlemen, I don’t know if you’ve ever thought or felt this, and maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m a just a little bit weird, but I’ve always felt a tinge of jealousy toward pregnant women.  I mean, what a great gift, a wondrous gift, I dare say a miracle, to be able to experience the growth of another tiny human being within one’s own body!  To feel the stirring movements, the gentle flutters, and eventually the strong little kicks of the developing baby within!  What an amazing gift, and something that I can never experience.  And I’ve always felt a bit jealous about that.  For God in His wisdom, in His plan, simply didn’t give me that gift.  And this is not to minimize the fact that pregnancy can be difficult and painful for many women, or to downplay the very real pain felt by those women unable to bear children.  But it seems to me that despite hardships and difficulties, carrying a child within must be one of the greatest joys of life.

The closest I’ve been able to experience it was when we were expecting our oldest child, Lauren, and as her due date approached, I can remember pretty much each night as I lay next to my wife I would drape my arm across her growing belly and the baby would, pretty much without fail, give my arm a good swift kick.  That would blow me away.   It would bring a smile to my face and joy to my heart, then, just as it does now recalling it.  And it would bring a profound “thank you” to my lips.  But to all our moms – blessed are you indeed to be able to experience that wonderful and amazing gift – the miracle of new life growing within you.

How much more the joy and amazement that Our Blessed Mother must have felt, knowing that it was no ordinary baby that was growing in her womb.  No, the Angel had announced to her (and since she had not known man, she knew the Angel’s words must have been true) the Angel had announced to her that she had been chosen, favored among all women, to give birth to the very Son of the Most High, One who would reign on the throne of David His ancestor and rule over the house of Jacob forever.   A Son whom she would name Jesus.  Imagine the feelings of joy, and wonder, and perhaps unworthiness and probably even trepidation that Mary must have felt. 

And now in this evening’s Gospel, Mary has now given birth and the shepherds make known to her the message they had heard from the Angel – that “good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”  That “today in the city of David a Savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.”  She now knows that this tiny baby who grew in her womb, whom she held in her arms, who fed at her breast, was the Savior of her race, the Savior of the world.  She now knows that she had given birth to God!  Imagine her joy!  Her wonder!

Indeed, it is with some share of that joy and wonder that we celebrate the Feast, the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God!  For of all the titles given to Mary by the Church across the ages, Seat of Wisdom, Queen of Peace, Mother of Mercy, and I could go on, the greatest and most important title is “Theotokos,” which is Greek for “God-Bearer”, a title bestowed on her nealy 1600 years ago at the Council of Ephesus.  God-bearer.  Mother of God.  She who brought God our Savior into the world.  And for that unique role in salvation history, we esteem her and honor her greatly. 

Now most protestants don’t quite “get” the Catholic devotion to Our Blessed Mother.  Many think we Catholics worship Our Lady.  They don’t understand that the Church teaches that we worship God alone, that there is a difference between esteeming and honoring Our Lady and worshipping her. 

But if we ponder the wonder, and the majesty, indeed the miracle that Our Lord, through whom all things were made, grew within Mary’s womb for nine months, if we if we consider with amazement that Christ derived His very human nature from this woman, if we let it sink in that Our Blessed Mother was the first tabernacle of the Most Blessed Sacrament, how can we help but to revere and esteem her?  And how can we not go to her for her intercession, for her assistance, for her timely help? 

And if we consider that Our Lady was Christ’s first and holiest tabernacle when she carried within her Jesus Himself, it will also occur to us that in a unique but very real way, we also become tabernacles of the Lord.  When we receive into our bodies and minds and souls the very Body and Blood of Our Lord.  In a different way, of course, but in a real way, we also carry within us the life of Jesus Christ.  And we will go forth from this place this evening, carrying Jesus Christ out into our community, out into our world.  With the help and intercession of Blessed Mary, Mother of God, may we be able and worthy “God-bearers” to all whom we encounter.  May we do our part to bring God our Savior into a world still seemingly so foreign to Him, still so hungry for Him, still so in need of Him. 

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.  Amen.

Preached yesterday and today, St. Kateri Parish, Christ the King site

Readings   1 Sam 1:20-22,24-28;  Ps 84:2-3,5-6,9-10;  1 John 3:1-2,21-24;  Lk 2:41-52

            If you’re looking for a good book to read, I highly recommend this one – The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.  It’s a quick read, a thought-provoking, sometimes funny, deadly serious look at the struggle between good and evil, vice and virtue, temptation and grace. 

            The book is a series of letters from a worldly, wise old devil named Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood, a novice demon who is just learning the ins and outs of temptation in service of the one whom Lewis calls “Our Father Below.”  This is of course, Satan.  Wormwood has been assigned a human to tempt and his task is to lead his human further and further away from God, whom Screwtape calls “the enemy.” 

            This book came to mind as I was pondering the current state of the family in our nation and our world.  For I could imagine a letter from Uncle Screwtape in which Screwtape spells out Our Father Below’s master plan of attack.  Attack in an attempt to bring havoc to God’s people and lead them astray. 

            The letter I imagine would go something like this:

 

                My dear Nephew Wormwood,

            In the interest of your continued education in the ways of temptation, I would like to explain to you Our Father Below’s latest plan of attack against the enemy.  The great war nearly achieved all of our objectives, but in the end was a failure.  So rather than to conquer by force, the new plan is much more sly and devious!  The new plan is to attack from within – to attack the Christian family.  For the enemy’s servant John Paul spoke the truth when he said “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”  So, my dear Wormwood, if we are able to destroy the family, we will destroy their entire world!  Which is our goal, to be sure!

            So here are a few of the specifics of the plan:

1.       We must completely devalue their institution of Marriage.  We must advance the idea that Marriage is disposable, that Marriage is unnecessary, that they can get along fine without it, that it’s perfectly acceptable to conduct relationships as they please, without the unnecessary burden of commitment and responsibility.

2.      We must spread the idea that their sexuality can be separated from procreation.  That they be in complete control.  After all, the fewer their children, the better!  And it’s fine if they welcome God our enemy into their homes but by all means, keep him out of their bedrooms!

3.      And we wish them to view their sexuality as entertainment.  Either as a participant sport or a spectator sport.  Banish from their minds any idea that sexuality is a sacred gift from God!

4.      This thing they call television – we will make sure there are few good role models of healthy marriages and healthy families to be seen there.  On the contrary, we will use the media to reinforce all of the ideas I’ve outlined above.

5.      Finally, Wormwood, and this is the most important – keep them as far as you can from Church.  Let them see Church as one entertainment option among many, and give them all sorts of distractions that keep them away.  For there they will find the perfect model of the Christian Family, there they will find Joseph, Mary and Jesus, and Our Father  Below is no match for their power!

Well, my dear Wormwood, there are many other details to this master plan that I will share with you when we are together next week.  Until then, keep warm.

                                                                                Yours affectionately,     Uncle Screwtape

 

                This letter, of course, is a figment of my imagination.  But, based on what we’ve seen in the last fifty years, it sure is plausible!  For without question, Marriage and the Family are under attack and are severely strained in our contemporary worldly culture.  And there is good reason – for the Family, which Vatican II calls “the Domestic Church,” is the bedrock of both our civilization and our Faith.  And, according to the Pope, the family is the first way of transmitting the Faith. 

            And that’s why the current state of affairs is so distressing.  41% of births in the U.S. are out of wedlock (it was about 5% in 1960) and that figure is rapidly rising toward 50%.  15 million children live without a father.   And while we praise those single mothers who choose life and work long and hard to raise their children and bring them up well, single motherhood is the single leading predictor of both poverty and crime in our nation.

            That’s the bad news. 

            The good news is this – the Family is a creation of God and a significant part of our building the Kingdom of God is rebuilding the Christian Family.  And we have confidence that it is a battle that Our Blessed Lord is engaged in and will win. 

            You and I are called to take up this battle as well.  And how do we do that?  First, by prayer – prayer for healthy, strong and holy families.  Next, by doing all we can to make sure our own families are as strong, and as holy, as they can be.  Make no mistake, no family is perfect.  Every family has its share of disfunction, of disunity, of sin.  I stand before you as a husband and father who has made my share of mistakes and brought my share of pain to my own family.

            But you and I are called to strive, to do all we can to strengthen and make holy our families.  Here are just a few ways to do that, and I’m sure you can think of more:

            First, come regularly to church.  Here we come together to worship and give thanks to God.  Here we are called and formed to be His Church.  Here we receive His forgiveness and are strengthened by His Eucharist, to go forth and be His presence in our families and in the world.  Go regularly to confession and don’t miss Mass.

            Next, pray together as a family.  There is great wisdom in that old adage “the family that prays together stays together.”

            Third, get help when needed.  There are all kinds of resources to help you to build the kind of Marriage, the kind of family, which God desires for you.  Nine years after our wedding day, my wife and I were in a pretty bad place in our marriage.  By God’s grace, we went on a Worldwide Marriage Encounter weekend that was like a u-turn in our lives together.  Words can’t describe how much joy we’ve experienced as a result of that decision.  More recently, we had family issues and had no idea how to deal with them.  A wise family counselor helped us to sort things out and where needed, to change.

             Fourth – There may be teachings of the Church on marriage and sexuality that you have trouble with or disagree with, that you find problematic.  It that’s the case, I urge you, with an open mind and prayerful heart, to look anew at the Church’s teachings about marriage and sexuality, to read up on them and learn why the Church teaches what it does.  A good place to start is to read up on Blessed John Paul’s Theology of the Body – it has been life-changing for me and our family.

            Finally and most importantly, we must stay close in prayer to the Holy Family.  Stay close to Our Blessed Lord, his foster-father Joseph and Blessed Mother, Mary.  They give us a perfect model of the qualities we should strive for, in our lives and in our families.  We see in Mary her humility and complete surrender to God’s will.  We see in Joseph, her most chaste spouse, the values of hard work, trust, and complete self-giving.  We see in Our Blessed Lord the values of obedience, devotion and love.  Let us entrust our families to the intercession, and protection, of the Holy Family of Nazareth!

Let us pray:

            O God, Heavenly Father, it was part of your eternal decree that your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, should form a Holy Family with Mary, His blessed mother, and His foster father, Saint Joseph. In Nazareth, home life was sanctified and a perfect example was given to every Christian family. Grant, we beseech Thee, that we may fully comprehend and faithfully imitate the virtues of the Holy Family so that we may be united with them one day in their heavenly glory.  Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Preached for the 4pm Christmas Mass yesterday (12/24)

Preached for the children (and adults listening in!) at Blessed Kateri Parish, St. Cecilia site, yesterday, 4PM Christmas Eve:

                I have a little parable to read you.  Who can tell me what a parable is?  A parable is a story with a meaning, a story that teaches us something.  Here goes:

                Once upon a time in a faraway land, there was a terrible drought.  The rains and snows had stopped coming and day after day it was hot and sunny.  With no rain, soon all the green plants stopped growing, withered up, and turned brown.  The rivers turned into tiny streams and then began to dry up.  The crops in the fields stopped growing and died.  Their land was turning into a desert.  The people were running out of water and soon would run out of food, and they were very sad and very scared.

                “God told us that He would never abandon us!” they cried.  So they prayed and they prayed and they prayed some more, and God heard them.  He looked down on them with love and compassion and God ordered the clouds to gather and bring rain.  The people were just about to give up when one of them looked to the west and saw the gathering clouds and said “Behold, there is rain coming!  Rain to save us and our children!”  And the people danced and celebrated – for they knew that God had heard their prayers and was sending rain to freshen their land and bring them new life!

                And the rains did come.  Everywhere the rain fell, the land turned green again.  But the places where the rain did not fall – those place stayed brown and dry.  Wherever the rain fell, seeds sprouted and the crops in the field began to grow again.  The streams and rivers swelled with fresh, cool water to drink.  Soon the farmers were able to harvest many good things to eat.

                And year after year God sent the rains to freshen their land.  Oh there were still places in that land that stayed brown and dry, where the rains did not fall.  But every year the people would celebrate the day that God sent the rain to save them.  And thank God for His gift of the rain.  The End

* * * * * * * * * * *

So what does the parable mean?

                Two thousand years ago there was a terrible drought in people’s hearts.  People did not know how to treat each other well.  People did not treat each other with kindness, with justice, with love.  And there was no peace in people’s hearts.

                God had sent his law to Moses, but still the people did not follow it.  The people turned away from God.  There was a desert in people’s hearts, where love had dried up and stopped growing.

                So I can imagine the following conversation between God the Father and His only Son, Jesus.

God said to Jesus,

                “My Son, my people turn away from me.  They do not follow my law, and they refuse to treat each other with kindness, with justice and with love.  Most of all, My Son, they do not know how much I love them, how much you love them.

                “So I am sending you to show them.   Show them how to treat each other with kindness, with justice, and with love.  I am sending you to bring peace to their hearts.  And forgiveness of their sins.  Most of all, my Son, I am sending you to tell them, and to SHOW them, how much you and I love them.

                “So, my Son, I am sending you to visit my people, to live among them, to become one of them, to SAVE them.  You will be born of the virgin named Mary.  You will be born a poor, helpless baby, in a stable.  You will show my people how to live, and how to love, and when you die you will be raised again so that my people can live with me forever in heaven.”

                And so God DID send His only Son, Jesus.  And everywhere that Jesus went, He spread love and justice and peace.  But in three short years, Jesus could not visit every place and meet with every person, and not everyone accepted Jesus and there were still many places where people did not learn to treat each other with kindness, justice and love.  Places where there was still no peace in peoples’ hearts.

                But every year, all the followers of Jesus still celebrate that day that God sent Jesus.  Every year His followers celebrate the gift that God gave us in Jesus - that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to save us.

* * * * * * *

                And so that is why we celebrate Christmas – because God loves you, and loves me, so much that He sent His Son to save us.  But like the story tells, not everyone knows Jesus.  Not everyplace has the love and peace that only Jesus can bring.

                And that is why today is more than something we remember from 2000 years ago.  Today we invite Jesus to come and live in our hearts, and not only on Christmas, but every day.  So that you and I may carry on the work He began 2000 years ago.  If Jesus lives in our hearts, we will live and love like He did.  And by our words and by our actions we will spread Jesus’ words and love to others, to everyone we meet.  And like the first story, to everyone you and I meet and everywhere you and I go, it will be like bringing the life-giving rains that will turn our barren and lifeless world green again.

Preached this morning, St. Kateri Parish, St. Margaret Mary site

Third Sunday of Advent - Today's readings  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/121612.cfm

 

            At about this time of day 48 (50 or so) hours ago, 20-year old Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown Connecticut and, having already shot and killed his own mother at the home they shared, and he shot and killed six adults and twenty 6-year old children.   A horrific, senseless, act.  An act of unspeakable evil. 

            Over these past two days, all of America is searching for answers.  How can something like this happen?  To twenty little kids?!  To seven innocent adults.  How?

            On the TV and radio, I’ve heard folks grappling for solutions so we can make sure this can never happen again, each with their own idea of whom or what to blame.  It’s the fault of the guns.  It’s the fault of the video games.  It’s what we can expect when we kick God out of the schools, out of our nation. 

            I heard each of these within the last two days.  People search for answers, they grasp and clutch for some way to make sense of it, or fix it.

            People are rightfully shocked and saddened and horrified when something like this happens,

            But should we be?  How quickly we forget and become numb to the evil in the world around us.  We’ve not forgotten but in a sense we’ve put out of our mind the shocking image of those twin towers falling eleven years ago, with almost 3,000 dead, or the 32 who were gunned down at Virginia Tech just five years ago, or the fifteen killed at Columbine thirteen years ago.  I had to google how many were killed (12) and in what state (Coloradao) the movie theater shootings happened only five months ago!

            So forget even trying  to wrap our minds around six million innocent people exterminated in Nazi concentration camps just 65-70 years ago, or the millions killed by Stalin or Pol Pot, or the estimated fifty to seventy million killed by Mao Tse Tung, all in the last hundred years.  We basically put out of our mind the more than fifty million innocent victims of legal abortion over the last forty years here in the U.S.  Three or four thousand a day.

            Pretty horrific evil.  It’s a world filled with evil.  And it’s not just the death. 

            We know economic evil and suffering – factories closed.  Businesses shut down.  Job losses.  Suffering that hits very close to home.  Unspeakable poverty and hunger and starvation all around the globe. 

            And you and I have daily lives that are filled with pain and suffering too.  Visits to the doctor.  The hospital.  Or the cemetery.  Carrying on with life in the absence of dear loved ones.  Relationship problems.  Addiction problems.  Money problems.

            But still, when we see the faces of twenty innocent little kids on our TV screens, little kids blown away by a gun-wielding madman, we’re shocked out of our comfort zones.  We can’t imagine the pain of those parents who kissed their little ones and put them on the bus Friday morning, never to see them again.  We’re left questioning, and in pain, deeply saddened, and probably angry.

            So forgive us, Lord, if “rejoice,” which we hear over and over in today’s readings, if “rejoice” isn’t the first thing out of our mouths.  Forgive us, Lord if we don’t exactly feel up to “shouting for joy” - if it seems there’s not much to cry out with joy and gladness about.  In the face of pain, and suffering, and unspeakable evil in the world, it’s pretty easy to ask the question “What is there to rejoice about, anyway?”

            <pause>

            My brothers and sisters, forgive me if my words come across as hollow in the aftermath of Friday’s horrific tragedy, but as a people of faith, we have the only thing that makes sense of an evil, senseless world, of our often senseless daily lives.  The only answer to our questions.  The only hope.  The only thing really worth rejoicing about.  And that thing is not a thing at all – He is a person.  Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Our Savior. 

            For we have Jesus with us already and we have the promise of this season of Advent – Jesus coming once again.  Now and to come.  Now, and eternally.  God our Father loved us so much that He did not leave us trapped in our brokenness, our pain, our sin, our sorrow.  No.  He so loved the world that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, the promise of eternal salvation, but also the promise to heal our broken world and shattered lives right here and right now.  The promise that this broken world is not the end.

            And how did He accomplish that?  By His own senseless, violent, painful, sorrowful passion and death on the cross.  And three days later by His resurrection, by which He DESTROYED the power of death and gave us the only hope - THAT is the hope and promise of this season of Advent.  THAT, my brothers and sisters, even in the aftermath of Friday, is worth rejoicing about!

            Father John Riccardo, whom I often hear on Catholic radio, tells the story of Father Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Franciscan priest, and Father Kolbe’s last days in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz.  There was a rule at Auschwitz that if a prisoner escaped, ten would be put to death as payback.  One day a prisoner escaped and could not be found so the Commandant ordered that the prisoners be lined up in the yard and he went through the ranks, hand selecting the ten who would be killed – destined to die of starvation in an underground bunker.  As the Commandant selected the last man, that man, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out “My poor wife! My poor children! What will they do?  Hearing this man’s terror, Father Kolbe stepped out of line and approached the Commandant, and told him that he was a Catholic priest, that this man has a family, and Father Kolbe offered to be selected, offered to die, in place of that man.  Remarkably, the Commandant agreed, and more remarkably, that man survived Auschwitz to tell the story.  Franciszek was reunited with his family and lived more than 50 years, dying at age 95.

            Father Kolbe and the other nine were placed in the bunker, in the middle of this death camp where more than one million souls lost their lives, and the most amazing thing happened.  Within a day, the sound of singing could be heard coming from that bunker.  Singing and praying.  And it could be heard morning, noon and night.  And not dirges and laments but joyful songs and prayers.

            This infuriated the Nazis and within two weeks, guards were ordered to enter the bunker and give lethal injections to Father Kolbe and the others who hadn’t yet died by starvation.

            Today we know this man as Saint Maximilian Kolbe, the angel of Auschwitz.

            Saint Maximilian’s story, I think, shows us that as followers of Jesus Christ, you and I are called to live joyful, loving, rejoicing lives, as he did, even in the midst of the worst sort of terror, the most dehumanizing, desperate, evil conditions ever conjured up by human hearts.  Father Kolbe remained joyful to the end.  And he spread that joy to all whom he touched, all whom he met. 

            And imagine just for a moment, hard as it might be right now perhaps, what our parish and our Church and our world would look like if we lived lives of rejoicing!  We, more than anyone else on the planet, have cause to live joyfully – for we have Jesus Christ right here with us – in this assembled Body, in the proclamation of His Word, and in His Body and Blood which we will celebrate in the Eucharist.

            And if we were to live joyfully, our hope, our joy would be contagious – everyone would want to know where we got that!  Everyone would want some of that for themselves!  They’d ask us – why the hope?  Why the joy?  And we could tell them where we got that – right here at this altar!  Right here in sharing together His Word and His very Body.

            So as we pray this day for the loved ones and victims in Connecticut, let us also reflect, even in midst of our own questioning, and pain and very deep sadness, reflect on the great gift, the great hope we have in Our Blessed Lord – living in us and among us and through us, and yet still to come.  And let us anticipate the coming feast – as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

            In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Preached this weekend at St. Kateri, St. Cecilia site:

Today's readings:   http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/120212.cfm


          Good morning – and Happy New Year!

            It was probably ten days ago.  Just before Thanksgiving.  Watching some television, there were all sorts of commercials on, trying to get us to get up at some ungodly hour on Black Friday and go shopping, or not go to bed on Thanksgiving but rather head to the mall instead.  One commercial in particular caught my attention.  I can’t remember whose commercial it was, and I don’t recall what they were selling.  All I remember was this – a woman grabbed something off the shelf, threw it into her already very full shopping cart, and shouted “I’m Done!”  or “I’m Finished!” or some such.  Meaning, of course, that she had finished all her Christmas shopping.  Ready for Christmas. 

            And I remember saying to myself “Done, finished, ready – I haven’t even started!”  I’ve done no shopping, no Christmas cards, no decorating, nothing! 

            And then I immediately thought to myself “advent is still ten days away I’m REALLY not ready yet – how can this woman possibly be done and ready?” 

            Not only does today mark the beginning of the new Church year but, of course, the beginning of the season of Advent as well.    Advent is indeed a time of getting ready, a time to prepare ourselves, for the coming of the Lord.  And a time of waiting – in joyful anticipation – for the Lord.  And our readings all speak to this getting ready.  The season, I think, is summed up nicely by St. Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians when he says “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus.”  Advent is a time to strengthen our hearts, so that we are blameless in holiness.  What better gift to give to the Baby Jesus on Christmas morning than our own strong, holy, blameless hearts?

            For that is what we are preparing for, of course – the Coming of the Lord.   And how are we to properly prepare for the Lord’s coming?  How are our hearts to be strengthened to be blameless in holiness?  I would like to suggest that frequent reception of the sacraments is a good place to start.  Frequently coming to Mass – perhaps considering making an effort to come to daily Mass for at least a few days each week this Advent.  St. Kateri has daily Masses every morning at 6:30, 8, 9 and 11:30.  Frequent participation at Mass and frequently receiving the Body and Blood of Our Lord in the Eucharist is a sure way to draw closer to Him and prepare our hearts to meet Him, the babe in the manger.

            But, our readings today aren’t only speaking of the coming of the Lord on Christmas morn.  No.  The readings are also speaking of the coming of our Lord at the end of time.  And more specifically, they speak of the coming of the Lord at the end of your time and my time, when our life on this earth is complete.  And that means that we really need to be “ready” – not only on Christmas morn, but all during our lives.

            Our Gospel today speaks of the end time, and Jesus tells us to not let that day catch us by surprise.  Rather, He says, we need to be vigilant at all times.  Always be ready.  Not just for Advent.  Not just at Christmastime.

            And, if we’re going to get serious about being ready, serious about increasing in holiness, I know of no better way than frequently getting on my knees and confessing that I am a sinner in need of God’s grace and mercy, His forgiveness.  Sacramentally.  In the Sacrament of Penance.  Where I acknowledge and name my sins and confess my sorrow – for what I have done and for what I have failed to do.  Where I promise to make amends for my sins and go forth to do better.  Pope Benedict said this past May that “there is a close connection between holiness and the Sacrament of Reconciliation…as we seek the real conversion of our hearts, which means opening ourselves to God’s transforming and renewing action.”, is the ‘driving force’ of every reform and evangelizing effort.”  Indeed, the Holy Father said that “the New Evangelization begins in the confessional.”

            So I’d invite you to prayerfully consider availing yourselves of the Sacrament of Reconciliation sometime this Advent.  Don’t worry.  The priests won’t bite.  And they won’t judge you.  They’ll show you as best they can the love and mercy of Our Lord Himself.  And you’ll feel the freedom and lightness that can only come from casting off the burden of our sins!

            A couple years ago, my brother-in-law Chuck and his wife and kids were vacationing at my wife’s parents’ cottage in the Southern Tier.  On a bright and sunny Wednesday morning, Chuck and his wife and my in-laws all went to daily Mass in Watkins Glen.  After Mass, Chuck asked the priest if he would hear his confession, and the priest gladly said “yes.”  Chuck must have known something, we all think now, for two days later he went out for a 3-hour bike ride and when he was done, got off his bike, sat down under  a tree, and his heart stopped beating.  At 51 years old, with no warning, he met the Lord.

            And as difficult and painful as that was for his family, and my wife and me and all of the family, there was some comfort in knowing that Chuck has made his peace with the Lord, in the confessional just two days before.  We know not the time nor the place.  So we need to be prepared.  We need to be ready.

            I say this not to upset you or to scare you, but so that we all will heed the Lord’s words to be ready.  For Christ is coming.  And He wants our hearts joyful and ready to welcome Him.  He is coming as a helpless, newborn babe on Christmas morning.  He is coming at the end of time.  And He waits for us, to welcome us, to embrace us in His love and mercy, at the end of our lives.  So that we may live forever in joy and peace in the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

            Marana tha.  Come Lord Jesus.