| Homily
for the 1st Sunday of Advent Year “C”
Luke: December 3, 2006
Given by the Most
Reverend Stephen E. Blaire at the Cathedral of the Annunciation
in Stockton.
As Christmas approaches little children get
very excited. For them Christmas comes slowly. For adults
it comes awfully fast. They can hardly wait for Santa to arrive
and to open their gifts. I remember Christmas Eve very well
as a child. My parents would be wrapping gifts in the kitchen
and we would go off to bed anxiously awaiting the arrival
of Christmas morn. We attended early Mass and ate breakfast,
all before we could open our gifts. Advent is the Church’s
liturgical season of joyfully anticipating the coming of Christ.
We await the spiritual coming of Christ in Christmas, and
are reminded further by the Church that the Lord Jesus will
indeed come again in His glory to judge the living and the
dead. The Son of Man will come, as Luke says, in power and
glory. Our redemption will be at hand.
The weeks before Christmas are very busy. There
is so much preparation in buying gifts, decorating the tree,
preparing for Christmas dinner, deciding how and where and
with whom to celebrate the Day. Advent is a time of liturgical
preparation. How do we best prepare to celebrate the spiritual
but very real coming of Christ in Christmas? How do we prepare
to meet the Lord when we pass into glory?
I would like to offer three suggestions. The
first is prayer. Our prayer in these busy days can be as simple
as COME, LORD JESUS. COME, LORD JESUS, OUR REDEEMER AND SAVIOR.
We can meditatively utter this prayer several times during
the course of the day. Secondly it is a time to put some order
in our lives. You might say that this is the worst time of
the year to try to do this. Why not wait until the new year.
We all know what happens to New Year’s resolutions.
The right time to put our lives together is right now, not
tomorrow. Jesus says it rather dramatically, “Beware
that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life …Be vigilant at all
times.” Thirdly it is a time for generosity. Love covers
a multitude of sins. The finest way that we can make reparation
for our sins is by generosity to others. What we do for the
least of our brothers and sisters, Jesus considers done to
himself.
How we prepare for the coming of Christ
in the celebration of Christmas is exactly the same in how
we prepare to meet the Lord in glory. We can live every day
as an Advent for eternity. The Christian lives in the reality
of the world with all its difficulties, pains and sufferings.
But the Christian lives simultaneously in joyful anticipation
of the glory of heaven. We are a people of hope. We do not
lose heart because Jesus has come as our redeemer and savior.
COME, LORD JESUS!
Last Update December 3, 2006
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