Homily preached for the Second Sunday of Advent, December 9/10, 4p and 8a, St. John the Evangelist Parish

Today's mass readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/121017.cfm

We celebrate this weekend (today) the Second Sunday of Advent.  Now we normally think of Advent as a four-week season of preparation for the Feast of Christ’s birth, but this year we’re getting short-changed. 

Advent is only three weeks – the fourth week, after all, will last only from the 10 o’clock Mass on Sunday to the first Christmas Eve Mass five or six hours later on Sunday afternoon.  So three weeks it is to get our hearts ready for the birth of the Savior, and one of them is gone – so only two weeks left.

Only two weeks til Christmas!?  Some might be struck with panic at the thought – I have so much to do – shopping and decorating and baking and you name it. 

And some may be struck with panic – my heart is not nearly ready.  I haven’t much time.  But like we used to say as children in hide-and-seek, He is telling us “ready or not, here I come.”

It is the message of the season.  The message of this Gospel, the message of last week’s Gospel and in fact, the message of a number of Sundays before that.  Namely “Get Ready.” It’s a rather urgent message that John the Baptist is preaching to the folks coming out to the desert.  Folks coming out probably mostly out of curiosity – who is this guy eating locusts and honey?  They come out and they get an earful – repent and prepare!

That is a vital message to us, isn’t it?  We have an opportunity to do just that this afternoon at the regional penance service at Holy Cross. Avail ourselves of His mercy, repent of our sins, let Him cleanse our hearts in preparation for Christmas.

But it’s easy to let that message overpower the other messages in these readings –

“Comfort.  Give comfort to my people,” says the prophet Isaiah. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem… Here comes with power the Lord GOD… Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.”

And from this reading from the second letter of Peter: “The Lord does not delay his promise, but He is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Yes, it’s urgent that we should repent, but it’s comforting that He is coming with His comfort, His gentle care, and with His patience.

So what to make of all this?  What to make of the last two weeks of Advent, this time of preparing our hearts?  I struggled with that question – O Lord what am I to say to the people, what would you have me say to their hearts for this short 14 days.  And I think it’s this.

One of the dangers of this season, occurring every year, is that this Advent might be no different than last Advent or the Advent before that.  With the two weeks we have left, let’s focus on this being different, better, than any Advent before.

And specifically how, you ask?

Let us fall in love with Him.  Fall in love with the infant King in the manger.  With the crucified King on the Cross.  With the triumphant King risen from the dead.  With the King who is God and man, who loves you and loves me more extravagantly, more generously, more deeply than you or I will ever fully realize this side of heaven.

All He wants is that we love Him.  So let us fall in love with Him.  Or more accurately, let us pray that we fall in love with Him.  Like never before, like no Advent before.

While visiting family in Cincinnati last weekend, we were in the student center at Xavier University, and I saw on the wall a quote by the Spanish Jesuit Father Pedro Arrupe which really struck me.  Then at Mass this (yesterday) morning at the Genesee Abbey, the homilist mentioned it again, so I took it as a sign that this is what I, at least, need to ask for, need to pray for, this Advent.

The quote is this:

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in a love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything."

So, sisters and brothers, that will be my focus and my daily prayer for these last two weeks of Advent – “O Lord, help me realize how much you love me.  And Lord, help me fall ever more deeply in love with you.” 

Once we realize, not only in our brains but in our hearts and in our marrow, how much He loves us, how much He loves you, how much He loves me, brothers and sisters we will have no choice but to fall in love with Him.  Our lives will be radically different, as are the lives of everyone when they’re in love.

“O Lord, help me realize how much you love me.  And Lord, help me fall deeply in love with you.”

Homily for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, preached 6p, Friday December 8, St. John the Evangelist Parish

Mass readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/120817.cfm

You might think, from the Church’s choice of this Gospel – the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary – that this feast would be about celebrating the conception of Jesus in the womb of His Blessed Mother.  In fact, a lot of people think that…But they would be wrong.  We celebrate Our Blessed Lord’s conception on the feast of the Annunciation, March 25.

On this day we celebrate the dogmatic belief that Mary herself was conceived without stain of sin, without original sin, in the womb of her mother, St. Ann.  She, the new Eve by whom the salvation of the world was to be born, she who was called “full of grace” by the angel in our Gospel, she was called “a worthy dwelling for her Son” in the collect which Father just prayed.  A worthy dwelling for her Son.

And that sums up the why of today’s feast – why Mary had to be conceived without sin –because a Divine Son, an infant King through Whom all things were made, required a worthy dwelling.  She was chosen before time began to be the first dwelling place, the first sacred tabernacle if you will, of Our Blessed  Lord.  For it was by her “yes” to the Angel, and it was in her womb, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that our salvation first entered the world.

Jesus, King of the Universe and Savior of humankind, required a worthy dwelling place.

All well and good, Deacon Ed, but what’s that got to do with me?  Well I’m glad you asked.

I have three different and mostly unrelated thoughts about that, three different take-aways on this feast, if you will.  If you don’t remember all three, hopefully you’ll at least take home one.

The first is this and it concerns this area of our Church, of our sanctuary, right over her to my right.  Here we have the physical tabernacle, in which Our Blessed Lord in His sacred Body resides, where Our Lord’s sacred Body is reserved.

Whenever you’re near the tabernacle, please recall Mary, the Immaculate Conception, the first sacred tabernacle of Our Lord, and realize Who it is in this tabernacle.  Let’s especially be mindful of this in this, our year of the Eucharist, in which we are frequently reminded of Christ’s real presence – body, blood, soul and divinity in Holy Eucharist.  Reverently kneel before His holy tabernacle, if you’re able.  Bow, if you can’t kneel.  Know this – the Lord is right here, really present.   Let us worship Him.

Second – when we receive His Sacred Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in Holy Eucharist, you and I are, in a very real sense, also His tabernacles.  He chooses to come dwell with us, in us, to strengthen us, to unite us, to do His will.

Now you and I weren’t conceived without sin.  No, you and I weren’t given that great grace, that great gift, which Mary received.  But if He is to dwell in us, oughtn’t we be as perfect a dwelling place for Him as we can be?  In the same opening prayer, Father prayed that “through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to” the Father’s presence.

The place for that cleansing is especially in the confessional, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  I’m sure as heck not immaculate, but when I walk out of the confessional, having been absolved of my sins by Jesus Christ Himself through the power vested in the priest, that’s the closest thing to immaculate this side of heaven.  I walk out washed clean of my sins by the power of His life, death and resurrection.  Washed clean in His blood, in His mercy.  Filled with His grace to go forth to try again, to grow in holiness.

Sisters and brothers, if we are to be His dwelling places, if we are to be worthy dwelling places for Him, let us be careful to not receive His Sacred Body and Blood into our own bodies and souls if we are conscious of grave sin.  Let us first approach Him, sorry and repentant of our sins, and fall on His mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. That is the way, the power, He left His Church to make us worthy dwelling places for Him.

Third and finally, this solemnity is also the patronal feast day of our nation, the United States of America.  Mary in the Immaculate Conception is the patroness of our great country. We trust in her protection and guidance.  Ironic and sad, it seems to me, that that sacred place which should be the safest - the womb - is the most dangerous place in this nation.  Fully one-third of babies conceived here die in abortion. 

Let us recommit ourselves, through the intercession of Mary the Immaculate Conception, to work to change hearts to recognize this great national tragedy, and by her intervention with her Divine Son and by our work, may we once again restore legal protection to our tiniest and most defenseless sisters and brothers.

Let us now pray for her intercession for ourselves and for our nation using the words of the Angel Gabriel – “Hail Mary…”