Category: Advent

Today’s readings

Sometimes I think our spiritual imaginations are stunted. That certainly seems to have been the case for the scribes and Pharisees who were among those crowded into the place where Jesus was teaching in today’s Gospel. Seeing the man lowered down from the roof in front of him, Jesus at once gets to the heart of the matter and forgives him his sins. Sure, he was paralyzed, but that was the least of his problems as Jesus looked at him. Jesus saw the real issue and moved at once to heal him from the inside out.

But the scribes and Pharisees were indignant. Maybe in some way they did not want to see themselves as just as bad off as the poor paralytic was. If his real problem was his sins, well, they could have been seen to be in the same way as he was. And that, for them, was unacceptable. In addition, they were angry that he presumed to forgive sins because only God could do such a thing. Their spiritual imaginations were stunted, and in a way, that made them even worse off than the paralytic.

We have to stop trying to decide how God should act in our world and in our lives. If we follow the example of the scribes and Pharisees, we stand a good chance of missing the real gift that we are offered this Advent: the gift of God’s healing in our lives. God promises to forgive us whatever stands in the way between him and us. We have but to let him do that.

Tomorrow is our Advent Penance Service. I encourage all of you to be there for that. When we turn to the Lord for forgiveness, we can receive much more than we can ever imagine. That’s the joy of Advent. Then, as Isaiah says to us today, “will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; Then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.”

Come, Lord Jesus, and give us your promise of forgiveness.

Today’s readings

Okay, so we live in this area of the country where there are just two seasons, right? The season of winter, and the season of road construction. And even winter doesn’t seem to be much of a deterrent to road construction: it seems like improving our roads is so constantly ongoing that we almost never get to enjoy them improved before they’re improving them all again. My dad says there are two groups who work on the roads, the tearer-uppers and the fixer-uppers. He estimates that there are up to ten times as many tearer-uppers as there are fixer-uppers. I think that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but only a little one.

We all know that it is important to have the roads fixed up and made safer. But we all know how frustrating it can be to sit in traffic tied up for miles because of construction. We have this tendency to want to speed past all of it, and that’s just not safe. We also wonder if this construction will ever be done, since we have to travel the same roads every day of our lives.

The spiritual life has often been likened to a road, and today’s Liturgy of the Word does that quite well. In the first reading, the prophet Baruch says that “God has commanded that every lofty mountain be made low and that the age-old depths and gorges be filled to level ground, so that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.” John the Baptist echoes this sentiment as he begins his preaching and ministry in today’s Gospel, proclaiming a baptism of repentance, preparing the way of the Lord with straight paths and smooth travel. St. Paul says to the Philippians that no matter how long it may seem to get there, they shouldn’t worry because God will clearly bring the good work in them to fulfillment, so that they can rejoice with the Psalmist that “the Lord has done great things for us, we are filled with joy.”

My question is this: if IDOT were in charge of filling in the valleys, leveling the mountains, straightening the winding roads and smoothing over the rough ways, do you think those things would ever be completed so that we could reach Jerusalem in time for Christmas?!

But seriously, here is the important piece to take away from today’s Liturgy of the Word: we all have rough spots, crooked ways and assorted obstacles on our spiritual paths. Our intentions to be friends with God may be good, but often we have lost our way or been stuck in a kind of spiritual traffic-jam. Our goal is communion with our friend, Jesus Christ. Our best intentions are to get there. Our frustration is that often we are derailed and never seem to reach the goal. But the promise is that God will indeed bring that good work to fulfillment, and we will then rejoice in our salvation with all God’s holy ones.

The good news in today’s Liturgy of the Word is that God does indeed promise to forgive us. Wherever we are on the journey to Christ, whatever the obstacles we face, God promises to make it right through Jesus Christ. We may be facing the valley of hurts or resentments. God will fill in that valley. Perhaps we are up against a mountain of sinful behavior or shame. God will level that mountain. We may be lost on the winding roads of procrastination or apathy. God will straighten out that way. We may be riding along on the rough and bumpy ways of poor choices, sinful relationships and patterns of sin. God will make all those ways smooth. And all flesh – every one of us, brothers and sisters – we will all see the salvation of God. That’s a promise. God will forgive us all of our sins.

That’s what Advent is about. The coming of Christ in our world isn’t just something that happened two thousand years ago. Advent means that Christ is coming into our world today, and every day, if we would just open our hearts and smooth out a place for him. God becomes incarnate in our world every time someone turns back to him and repents of their sin. God’s love comes to birth every time we accept the gift of forgiveness and the unfathomable grace of the Eucharist. Advent means that Chris is Emmanuel, God-with-us NOW. Advent means that the salvation and forgiveness that God promises us is available to us NOW.

I’ve been teaching our teens, the people at daily Mass, and the children in our school about an ancient prayer of the early Church. In the years just after Jesus died and rose and ascended into heaven, the early Christians would pray in their language, Maranatha or “Come, Lord Jesus.” So I’ve been saying that we should all pray that prayer every day during Advent. When we get up in the morning, and just before bed at night, pray “Come, Lord Jesus.” When you need help during the day or just need to remind yourself of God’s promises, pray “Come, Lord Jesus.” The early Christians prayed this way because they expected Jesus to return soon. We do too. Even if he does not return in glory during our lifetimes, we still expect him to return soon and often in our lives and in our world to brighten this place of darkness and sin and to straighten out the rough ways in our lives.

So whenever you see me, say “Come, Lord Jesus” and I’ll say “Amen.” If I say to you, “Come, Lord Jesus,” you say “Amen.” Let us keep the expectation of the Lord and the hope of his promise of forgiveness alive in our hearts:

Come, Lord Jesus and change our hearts to be more loving and open to others.
Come, Lord Jesus and teach us to pray; help us to grow in our spiritual lives.
Come, Lord Jesus and dispel our doubts; help us always to hope in your forgiveness.
Come, Lord Jesus and heal those who are sick and comfort all the dying.
Come, Lord Jesus and bring those who wander back to your Church.
Come, Lord Jesus and turn us away from our addictions.
Come, Lord Jesus and teach us to be patient with ourselves and others.
Come, Lord Jesus and help us to eliminate injustice and apathy.
Come, Lord Jesus and teach us to welcome the stranger.
Come, Lord Jesus and give us an unfailing and zealous respect for your gift of life.
Come, Lord Jesus and help us to be generous; teach us all to practice stewardship of all of our resources.
Come, Lord Jesus and help us to work at everything we do as though we were working for you alone.
Come, Lord Jesus and bind up our brokenness, heal our woundedness, comfort us in affliction, afflict us in our comfort, help us to repent and to follow you without distraction or hesitation, give us the grace to pick up our crosses and be your disciples.

The truth is, brothers and sisters in Christ, we come to this holy place to this sacred Liturgy, each of us at different places in the spiritual road. Our goal – all of us – is to advance on that road, tackling the obstacles that face us, and defeating our sin by the power of God’s forgiveness and mercy. There may only be one unforgivable sin: the sin of not needing a Savior. When we thing we’re okay and that there is nothing wrong with our lives or our relationships, then we’re lost. It’s not that God doesn’t want to forgive us this sin, it’s more that we refuse to have it forgiven. If Advent teaches us anything, it’s got to be that we all need that baptism of repentance that John the Baptist preached, that we all need to prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts, making straight the paths for his return to us.

This week, we have the opportunity to celebrate this promise of forgiveness in our lives. We will have a penance service on Tuesday at 7:00pm. There will be some readings and prayer, and then an opportunity for each of us to approach one of several priests to take advantage of the great promise of God’s forgiveness. Maybe you’re hearing this and you know you need to go, but you haven’t been to the sacrament in what seems like a hundred years. If you let that stand in your way, I’d be heartbroken. I don’t care if you’ve forgotten how to go to confession, come to one of us and tell us that and we’ll help you. Nothing – absolutely nothing – should stand in the way of you receiving God’s forgiveness. If you can’t come on Tuesday, and I sure hope you can, then come on Saturday at 4:00 to go to individual confession. On Saturday the 23rd, both Fr. Ted and I will be here from 3:00 on to hear confessions and will be there as long as it takes to hear everyone. We want to make sure that you can receive and celebrate what God promises us today. His forgiveness is better than anything we could possibly hope for. Don’t miss receiving it.

The new Act of Contrition concludes by saying “Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. In His name, my God, have mercy.” Today’s Liturgy of the Word tells us that that is just what God promises to do, if we will but let him in.

Come, Lord Jesus!

Today’s readings

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you,
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.

How willing are we to see everything and every situation as a gift from God? And granted, sometimes that kind of attitude can be quite a challenge. When everything is hectic at work, or when your work goes unappreciated, it’s hard to see that work as a gift. When your kids are making you nuts or your spouse seems distant, it can be hard to see your family as a gift. When aging parents are suffering from illness or children are sick, it can be hard to see life as a gift. There are many obstacles to seeing the beauty of every person and situation.

Yet that’s just what Jesus tells us we should do. We are blessed to see what we see. When I was in seminary, working as a hospital chaplain, I saw my share of death and disease. My fellow chaplains were going through the same thing. Then, one day, one of them brought in this very Gospel reading for discussion in the morning. When we reflected on the truth of the reading, we found that we were able to see grace in the middle of all the suffering, pain and sadness.

Sometimes even when things are hard, God can accomplish great things by helping us to carry those crosses. Even more important, God can help us to see great grace happening that would not otherwise happen. It’s difficult to get there, but today we can pray that we would consider ourselves blessed to see the things we see, and to hear the things we hear. Let us pray that God can help us to see the grace in every person and situation.

Readings: 1 John 1:1-4, Luke 1:1-4, Luke 4:14-22

[Mass for the School Children.]

In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah preached about 750 years before Jesus was born. At that time, the Jewish people were in a time of great turmoil and persecution. Isaiah preached to them God’s promise that he would send a savior to deliver the people from being unjustly imprisoned, from their blindness, and from their suffering. Jesus reads this promise to the people gathered in the synagogue, and then does something very startling: he tells them that the promise that Isaiah preached has come true, and that Jesus is the savior God promised to send.

I’m sure that you all know very well that Christmas is less than a month away. What do we celebrate on Christmas day? The birth of Jesus our Savior. On Sunday, we will begin the season of Advent, which is the time that we as a Church prepare for the coming of Jesus. In the readings every Sunday, we’ll be hearing all about God’s promises. As you look around today, you can tell that the church is different: we have already begun to decorate the church for Advent. But we left one thing out, and that is the candles for our Advent wreath. Here at St. Raphael, we are really the advent wreath, as we gather in kind of a circle around the Altar. And we place the candles at the four corners of the Church. So now, some of the eighth graders are going to help me put those candles in place as we walk around the Advent wreath and think about God’s promises.

On the first Sunday of Advent, we will light this first purple candle. Purple is the color of repentance, the color that reminds us to be sorry for our sins. The readings that we hear that day will tell us all about God’s promise to save us. Jesus, who has risen from the dead and has ascended into heaven, will come again in glory and will usher in a kingdom of peace and justice. He tells us to watch for his coming every day and to pray for the strength to hang in there until he comes back for us.

On the second Sunday of Advent, we will light the first two purple candles. The readings that we will hear that day will tell us about God’s promise to forgive us. We all have moments when we sin against God, when we break our friendship with him. Whether we don’t go to Mass on Sunday, or disobey our parents, or cheat on our school work, or are mean to our brothers and sisters and classmates, all of these things break our friendship with God. But the good news is that God still wants to be friends with us, and he promises to forgive us of our sins. When we confess our sins and say we’re sorry, we are preparing the way of the Lord in our hearts.

On the third Sunday of Advent, we will light the first two purple candles, and then light the pink candle. The pink candle reminds us that even in a time when we are working hard to be sorry for our sins and to change our lives, we can still be joyful because Jesus is coming. The readings we will hear that day will tell us about God’s promise to make everything new. Even when everything seems hopeless, and the days are dreary; even when we hear about wars and crime and all kinds of sadness, we can hope in God. God never meant for all this sadness to be part of our lives, and he promises to send the Holy Spirit to recreate the world and to recreate our hearts so that we can all share in God’s love.

On the fourth Sunday of Advent, we will light all the candles, including this final purple candle. On that day, with all the candles lit, we will know that the birth of Jesus is very near. On that day, our church will be brighter with all four candles lit, and our hearts will be brighter because Jesus will enter our lives once again. On that day, the readings will tell us about the promise that we can be God’s holy people. Even though we have sinned and have made the world darker, Jesus comes to brighten our darkness and claim us as his own people. We are made holy because Jesus, who is holiness itself, is in our lives.

Advent gives us the chance to get rid of all the darkness in our lives and to try to get rid of the darkness in our world. As we light our candles every Sunday, we might also take the opportunity to lighten our world by going to confession before Christmas, by reaching out to the poor and needy by buying a gift for someone on the Sharing Tree. We can lighten our own hearts by listening to the readings at Mass and praying for ourselves and our families and friends, and for those who have no one to pray for them.

I want you all to memorize one little prayer this Advent. I want you to pray it every morning when you get up, and every night before you go to bed. I want you to pray it whenever you think of it during the day. When I see you in the halls or anywhere around here, I’d love it if you prayed it with me right then and there. It’s a simple prayer, and there are just three words: Come, Lord Jesus. Let’s say it together: Come, Lord Jesus. And again: Come, Lord Jesus. Now by yourselves…

If we pray this prayer every day of Advent, we will truly be ready to celebrate the birthday of Jesus on Christmas Day. Let’s pray it just one more time together: Come, Lord Jesus!