First Sunday of Advent - Year B

The readings for First Sunday of Advent may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/120323.cfm

On this first weekend of Advent, we are reminded to be watchful!  

Be alert!

Five times in this short gospel passage from the evangelist Saint Mark, 

Jesus tells us to be watchful, to stay awake.  

Because He is coming.

Jesus first comes to earth - His first coming, in the Incarnation, 

When he was born, becoming true God and true man.

That is what we begin preparing for this first weekend of Advent, 

that in a few weeks we will rejoice at our Savior’s birth at Christmas. 

Jesus will also come a second time at the end of the world. 

Closing out all chances for us to repent of our sins and to be saved. 

Definitely not as cheery as how we are feeling with Christmas coming.

That’s probably because while all of us want to go to heaven when Jesus does come,

Few of us are entirely sure we’d get in,  if He were to show up right here, right now.

Maybe we’re not in a state of grace and in full command of the work He gave us to do.

Now, Jesus wants what’s best for us,

So He gives us plenty of time between His first coming and His second to make things right, 

to make sure we are prepared.

And since none of us have any idea when Jesus will return,

we need to watch and be alert.

But if we think about it, 

Jesus is already here and likely comes to us many times each day. 

He comes to us in every opportunity to choose him, 

to love Him, 

to do his will by doing good to others, especially those in most need,

in the opportunity to honestly face him, 

to confess when we have missed opportunities to welcome him, 

when we choose to do what we want to do, rather than what He asks of us.

Jesus tells us to see Him with the eyes of faith, 

not feeling. 

Because it doesn’t matter what we feel. 

It matters what is true, what we believe and what we love. 

Because He will return.

And we have our mandate.

To watch for Him.

In those we serve, in our work, in our struggles, in our prayer, and, 

ultimately, someday, in our death. 

And since we do not know when the Lord will come, we must be prepared.  

And what are some ways we can prepare during these weeks of Advent?

We can consider ways to simplify and focus on the spiritual aspects of the season, 

rather than getting caught up in busyness and secular things that don’t matter.

We can take time for self-examination and confession, 

Participating in the Sacrament of Penance to bring us renewal and spiritual readiness.

We can spend time praying with the Scriptures, allowing the Word of God to guide and inspire us during this season of preparation.

We can engage in Advent traditions, like the Advent wreath, that give us reminders of the real reason we celebrate,

So as to help us to stay focused on Christ.

We can display a nativity in a prominent location of our home, 

to provide a visual reminder of the true meaning of Christmas, 

helping to keep our focus squarely on Christ.

We can prepare for Christmas with daily Advent Scripture readings available online, using the Hallow app or the Magnificat Advent Companion

to help us better understand and reflect on the significance of Jesus' birth, 

providing us a way to stay spiritually aware and focused.

We can take a few minutes to reflect and pray before Jesus in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament here at St. Gabriel’s each Wednesday between the hours of 3pm and 7pm.

Or even more simply, we can just speak the words “Come, Lord Jesus”, silently at various points during our day.

Come, Lord Jesus.  

To keep Him present in our minds and part of the things we do.

By incorporating some of these practices into our lives during Advent, 

We can cultivate a spirit of watchfulness and readiness, 

allowing the true meaning of the season to come alive in our hearts and minds.

To keep us awake and ready.

Because the time will come when the Lord will arrive.

May He not come suddenly and find us sleeping.

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

The readings for Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111223.cfm

We prepare for all sorts of things, don’t we?  

My wife and I just returned from a trip to Florida.

We booked our hotel accommodations eleven months ago, 

flights and rental car six months ago 

and all our dining reservations sixty days in advance.  

Yep - we picked what we wanted to eat and where on what day two months ago.

Why so much preparation?

Because our time off together was important to us and we wanted to have a fun and carefree vacation.

But we all prepare for all sorts of things, don’t we? 

Sporting events, emergencies, going to work, even going to the store and a whole other long list.

We prepare because preparing increases the chances that we’ll have a good experience.  

And what we prepare for, and how we prepare, reveals our priorities, what we think matters most to us. 

Today, the evangelist Saint Matthew retells Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins who took their lamps out to meet the bridegroom.

Five had enough oil for their lamps and were ready for the bridegroom when he came.

Five were unprepared and had to go off to buy oil at the last minute.

And when they returned, the door to the bridegroom and the wedding feast had been locked.

And they were on the wrong side of the door.

Like them, there are so many times in life when we find ourselves unprepared.  

And in those times, we try to make the best of a bad situation.

Now, it is worth noting that in most cases it isn’t because we were incapable of being prepared, but rather that we had chosen to focus on other things instead.

Playing the odds that we’d be able to make up for it later.

Today's Gospel reading reminds us of the importance of being vigilant and preparing for the coming of the Lord. 

That we must be ready to meet the Lord at any time, even if His coming seems a long time away.

Because none of us knows when He will come.

Do we spend our time and effort in ways that put more oil in our lamps?

Or do we let our lamps run dry and in a way fall asleep, increasing the odds that we will wake up to the words of the Lord, 

"Amen, I say to you, I do not know you."

 

These words should serve as a warning to us not to become complacent in our faith life.

We always think we will have more time before the bridegroom comes.

All of us become distracted by the cares of this world and lose sight of our ultimate goal - to be with the Lord forever in heaven. 

We must avoid complacency by staying vigilant and focused on the Lord each day.

This doesn’t mean we have to dress in horse hair clothing or join a religious order or stand on the sidewalk with a big sign warning everyone to repent because the end is near.

No.  We can prepare by staying connected to God through prayer throughout our day - some ideas -

thanking God when we wake up and put our feet on the floor in the morning, 

saying grace before meals, 

making the sign of the cross when we pass by a Catholic Church, 

attending daily Mass when we can,

praying the Liturgy of the Hours, 

Taking part in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, 

reading the Bible, 

and actively participating in the sacraments. 

This includes making a regular examination of conscience and good, sacramental confession where you receive absolution from Jesus through a priest acting in Persona Christi - in the person of Christ.

Prayer, reading sacred scripture, participating in the sacraments, participating in the practice of regular sacramental confession - these practices help us stay connected to God. 

Our ultimate goal should be heaven and we need to prepare for it.  

It doesn’t just happen.

Unlike the vacation my wife and I planned for, where we picked the location and the dates,

In today’s parable, we can think of Jesus simply saying, 

you are going on a trip, 

you don’t know when you will be making this trip, 

but you must consider where you are going 

and what you will need for a successful journey. 

What makes this difficult? 

It’s not knowing when we will make the trip.

That’s why we need to stay vigilant, to be alert and to be prepared.

With certainty, the bridegroom is coming.

The last thing any of us will want to hear when He does is 

“Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.”

Therefore, we all need to be prepared - for none of us know neither the day nor the hour.

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

The readings for Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101523.cfm

This week, the evangelist St. Matthew writes of Jesus telling another parable.

Where Jesus gives us a beautiful image

of heaven as a wedding feast and celebration given by a great king in his great hall. 

Today we call it a reception, but I love the term wedding feast. 

It just sounds so much more joyful and happy.

Now in this parable of the wedding feast,

God is that great King, extending invitations for people to come, 

to celebrate with his son, Jesus 

and his bride, the Church.

God being love itself, and God loving and wanting to save everyone. 

So, God invites us to celebrate Jesus as the marriage of divinity and humanity, true God and true man and his One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  

God invites us to join in the joy of this union with hope of everlasting salvation in heaven.

And how important it is that we respond to that invitation.

The good news is that all are invited.

However, not all accept it. 

If we don’t respond to a wedding invitation from a friend, 

there may be some bad feelings, 

it could make things awkward for a little while, 

but the relationship can likely recover from it.

If we don’t respond to the invitation from God,

the impact is far greater and everlasting.

In the parable, when the King’s invitation is rejected and his servants delivering the invitations are mistreated and killed, 

He sends his troops to destroy those responsible and burn their city.

Those people rejected the King’s invitation, facing judgment and punishment as a result.

So will those who reject God’s invitation.

The King then casts a wider net and invites many more people, both good and bad, to attend the wedding feast.  

We are those people.  We have been invited to the wedding feast.

To the church, to share in the hope of everlasting life in heaven.

We are here.  We accepted the invitation and that’s good.

But in this parable, Jesus tells us that just accepting the invitation is not enough.

Accepting the invitation doesn’t mean we get to stay.

Jesus tells us of the King seeing a man without the proper wedding garment which symbolizes our right to come into his great, kingly hall and to fit in. 

Now this is not a fashion show.  

This wedding garment is not the clothes we wear on the outside, 

But rather what we wear on the inside.

And God can see it.

This is a wedding garment of charity and sanctifying grace.

Do we do more than just come to Mass?

Do we believe in Jesus and what he is telling us?

Do we reflect that belief in our actions and the way we live our lives?

When we fall short, do we go to confession,

 

knowing that we further compound our sins if we go to communion without having done a good examination of conscience and received absolution from a priest in the sacrament of confession?

If we haven’t been to confession recently, we don’t have the right wedding garment and we should probably do that.  

Soon.

It’s uncomfortable to think about, but without it, 

Jesus tells us we will be bound and thrown into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Where we will forever be separated from God.

That’s not easy to hear, but we need to hear it.  (Pause)

The King has invited us to the wedding feast.

It is so important that we have accepted his invitation and have the right wedding garment.

How we wear it will have a lot to say about whether we have what it takes to stay at the feast forever or

Whether we too will be bound and thrown out into the darkness.  (Pause)

This week, as we reflect on this parable,

Let us remember that God’s invitation to the heavenly banquet is a great gift and cause for joy.

Let us pray that we respond with generosity to this gracious invitation 

And ask for the strength to always be clothed in a wedding garment of charity and sanctifying grace, 

Reminded always that many are invited but few are chosen and that

None of us will be taken into the eternal wedding feast against our will.