Homily, 1st Sunday of Advent: Hope

First Sunday of Advent, Year/Cycle A

Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44

It is hard this time of year not to notice that the sun sets sooner and rises later. Perhaps our evening drive home from work is becoming steadily darker, or our morning routine can no longer be carried out without the aid of a lamp. Our bodies likely notice this seasonal shift because we long for sunlight and need it for our physical health. Our minds and souls too may be longing for light. Most of us here are likely confronting some sort of darkness. It may be very tangible darkness like sickness, the loss of a job or a broken relationship. Perhaps it is a more creeping darkness, such as the pressure of being constantly busy, the challenge of forming your children in virtue, or the difficulty of building authentic friendships in a world geared toward the superficial. This internal darkness can weigh more heavily this time of year.

Well, just take a moment to imagine yourself in a dark room. Now, imagine the candle we lit at the beginning of this liturgy being carried into that dark room. What happens to the darkness? Can you see the light scattering the darkness? Can you picture the darkness fleeing before the light of our Advent candle?

This is the promise of Advent. It is the promise of a candle in a dark room. It is the promise that the darkness cannot stand in the presence of even a small light. This is a season marked by the growing light of these candles. As we enter into this holy season, we must be watchers, searching for these lights, eagerly awaiting the dawn. We are invited to allow Christ to bring his light to our darkness. We are called to throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, to stream toward the highest mountain, where Christ’s light can be seen most fully. 

I know many of us like or have hosted parties! Hosting a party can be challenging. Things don’t always go as planned. Food doesn’t always come out of the oven the way we’d like, and beverages sometimes run out. Other times the “mix” of people isn’t that good, and conversation can be non-existent or even confrontational. And if there are competing sporting events on TV, fans can strongly disagree as to which game to watch. Yes --- when it comes to throwing a party, not everything unfolds as we would like. There are almost always “surprises” that catch us off-guard. One other thing that can really drive us crazy is when people show up either an hour early or an hour late. It just doesn’t seem right. Didn’t they know the exact time, we wonder!

“So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

Jesus continually encourages us to not be complacent in our spiritual lives, to not take for granted our relationship with God. And so, he cautions us,

“Stay awake!”

For more than two thousand years people have wondered when Jesus would return. Every generation has virtually felt that they were living in the end times. Many of you will remember that as the year 2000 approached there were all kinds of fears about the date. In technology the fear was our computers wouldn’t be able to process the date change because any date past 1999 just wasn’t built into the computers. Yet, Jesus makes it quite clear that we simply cannot know when that day or hour will be. In a real sense, Jesus is telling us that tomorrow is not promised to us. All we have is this very day, this hour--- this person or persons standing before us. And being faithful is simply doing the right thing in this moment. That’s not just good advice for Advent but all the time.

God is going to come when we least expect him. He’s going to be the one showing up an hour early or an hour late --- in the person we like and in the person we can’t stand, in the church but also in the messiness of daily life, in the family celebrations that bring us joy and in the tragedies that break our hearts, in the achievements as well as in the disappointments, in the good neighbor and in the homeless person we try to avoid. God is in all those situations, in all those people. God is everywhere. And he wants us to recognize him, acknowledge him, and let him in. Let’s be alert to the many small arrivals of the Lord that come through events and circumstances!

Can we let God come to us on his terms, and not on ours? Let’s make sure that our party is an open-house, thereby ready to welcome God whenever he wants.

This year, we celebrate the longest possible Advent season with four full weeks to seek and receive the grace this season offers. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, everywhere we turn, we are usually pushed to spend more, entertain more, and generally rush around at a frantic pace — all to create a “perfect” Christmas day. May we endeavor to scale back some of the unessential trappings of the season so that we can have more time for the spiritual preparations: Confession, weekday Mass in addition to Sunday mass, family prayer time and more acts of kindness.

Have a blessed Advent everyone.