1st Sunday of Advent Homily

Thanksgiving was only Thursday but here we are at the First Sunday of Advent. That means Christmas is just around the corner. There is so much to do to prepare for Christmas. Especially here at church, so, we need to get started. Next week we’re going to ask parishioners to sign up to help for our hospitality team. We have so many visitors who come for Christmas and we want to welcome them and make them feel like coming back.

That means we’ll need host parishioners in our parking lot welcoming people and maximize the number of cars we can fit in the lot. We’ll need greeters to open the church doors, wishing everyone Merry Christmas. More hosts to help people find seats and the bathrooms will be needed. We plan to have extra seating in the Parish Center for an overflow crowd, especially at the 4 PM Mass, where they can watch our Livestream rather than stand on the church steps. 

I know some of you will be thinking, “But I don’t know where I’m going for Christmas.” Well let’s settle that. You’re going to be here at Holy Redeemer. Plan to sign up next week and help make this Christmas a memorable experience for all who come and worship.

Earlier this week, I was looking over the guidelines for celebrating the holidays sent out from the diocese each year. One of the suggestions was to try to encourage parishioners to not all come to the 4pm Christmas Eve Mass. They suggested families with children might find it more spiritually rewarding if they came to a Christmas morning Mass. That way the excitement of Santa Claus’ arrival and gift opening would be over and families could more easily experience the sacredness of the day. 

My skeptical reaction was fat chance! The truth is the 4pm Christmas Eve Mass is my least favorite of the year. It can be such a zoo. That is why you need to help out with hospitality. Our church supposedly seats 400 and at the 4pm Mass we probably have 500 trying to cram in here. In the past people have lined the back and along the walls of church. Before Mass I have to go up here in the ambo, pleading with people to slide towards the middle of the pews so hosts can help parishioners find a seat. We have to remind them it isn’t very Christian to save seats for late coming family or friends and deprive someone who has come to Mass on time a seat. 

Once Mass is started it doesn’t get any easier. I begin to worry that I might not have enough hosts and wine prepared. A couple of years ago an older parishioner fainted in the middle of my homily. The ambulance had to be called and you can imagine the disruption that caused. 

Then as soon as Communion begins, I hear the church doors slamming as people leave early. It is hard to believe people will have got dressed up, fought through traffic, and then leave before the end of Mass on such a holy day. They will miss one of our most beautiful parish traditions, the singing of Silent Night by candlelight. 

Of course, some people do that every week. It is as if they were invited to Thanksgiving Dinner and when the hosts went to the kitchen after clearing the table for dessert leaving without saying thank you or even goodbye. It is so disappointing to see people rush off after so much effort has been put into planning and preparations.

I was talking about this predicament with some clergy friends and they admitted to having the same problem. Sadly, for so many people they just want to get Christmas Mass over so that they can be on their way. Rather than a celebration of the gift of God sending Jesus to save the world, they see Christmas Mass as an obligation to get out of the way, the sooner the better. For so many of us Christmas is something just to be got out of the way. Count up how many times in the next few weeks you say to yourself. I just want to get Christmas over and done.

When we were children, things were quite different. We couldn’t wait for Christmas to come. From putting up the first decoration, to decorating of the tree, and the opening of Christmas cards, we would get more and more excited. It felt as if Christmas would never come. How will we welcome Christmas this year and how will we receive it?

Most of all, the Advent and Christmas Season is a season of hope. That is what adults seem to miss with the “let’s just get it over with” attitude about Christmas. Hope is one of the important ingredients of Christian faith. Along with faith and love it is one of the most important virtues associated with salvation. It is one of the most important gifts God gives us. Over the next few weeks leading up to Christmas we’re going to concentrate on hope in our homilies as we prepare for Christmas. 

Christian hope is very different from wishful thinking. It is not “Oh, I hope we have a White Christmas. Or I hope I get the latest iPhone for Christmas.” Christian hope is the desire for something good that is difficult but very possible to attain. It requires confidence, positive actions on our part, and commitment to bringing it about.

Christianity is a religion of hope. It is a religion that teaches that while we aren’t quite there yet we are working towards a goal. The goal of eternal life. Christianity is a faith that believes there is more to life than just this life, there is eternal life. We are on our way toward the kingdom that God has planned for us and little by little we are moving forward. 

Hope faces obstacles and enemies in this world. One of them is despair. Despair is the absence of hope. Despair says that only gloom and doom are ahead of us. Feelings of despair can be very destructive and can lead to addictive behaviors and even suicide when people give up on life. Despair leads to cynicism and sarcasm. So much depression is rooted in the disappointments, hurts and losses we experience in life. 

Presumption is another enemy of hope. Presumption says, “This is as good as it can gets. We have seen it all. There is no use expecting more from life.” With presumption people can begin believing they don’t have anything else to work for so let’s live and let live. Let’s leave well enough alone. There is no use trying to overcome injustice and other social problems. Both despair and presumption prevent us from really living the fullness of life. They prevent us for taking the steps to grow in life and enjoy its fullness. 

Supposed we met a child that had no hope for Christmas. Who said Santa Claus never brings me what I want or I got it all last Christmas and there is nothing more I want this year. Wouldn’t that break your heart? Wouldn’t it be most disturbing if that child was your child? Consider how God feels when we stop hoping for the good things God has in store for us. God wants us to continue to strive for the fullness of life. 

How do we build and maintain hope? Paul’s Letter to the Romans, which we read from today, gives us some good ideas. Paul wrote to the Roman’s in the middle of the 1st Century. He hadn’t visited Rome, but it is clear he intended to do so and wanted to introduce himself before he came. At the end of the letter, part of which we read today, Paul advises the Romans on how to live in hope. 

Paul tells the Roman’s to wake-up! Salvation is near at hand. God is working in their lives and moving them in the direction of everlasting life. That was very countercultural for the Romans because they had an institutionalized hopelessness into their religion and culture. The Romans believed history was cyclical. Life went round and round with little or no progress. This was a very fatalistic approach to life.

The Christian view of history is one of liner progression. It is full of hope for progress and a steady movement toward the Kingdom of God. Yes, there is darkness in our world. We might feel at times that we are taking two steps backwards for every step forward. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. But Christians believe slowly and steadily we are moving towards the fulfillment of the coming of the Kingdom of God. Christians believe that because we have seen what the end time will look like. It will be like the cross of Jesus Christ. Not with Jesus’ suffering and pain, but with Jesus triumphing over evil because he was obedient to the Father. At the end, life will conquer death and the fullness of God’s Kingdom will come to pass.

Since our world can be filled with cynicism and doubt, we must be ready to fight for hope. We know that anything worth doing is worth fighting for. If we want to have hope this Christmas we will have to work for it. We will have to strive for hope if we want this to be a good Christmas and not something to just get over and done with. If we want a Christmas where wounds are healed, bounty is shared, and new life is able to come to our world, we will have to work for it. We must be ready for a spiritual battle for hope this Christmas. A spiritual battle we will lose unless we prepare ourselves to win.

Paul told the Romans, if they wanted to live in hope, they had to throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. They had to prepare themselves for a struggle it they wanted to live in hope. Living in hope requires our effort and determination. Paul told the Romans what the obstacles were that would get in the way of them being people of hope. The obstacles are the sinful lifestyle of promiscuity and lust, rivalry, and jealousy, it was reveling and drunkenness. If we allow those things to enter into our lives we will struggle to find hope. 

To grow in hope this Advent take these three steps. First, identify your desire. What is your deepest desire? Not some wishful thought but the deepest desire of your heart. Maybe it is to reconcile a relationship, overcome loneliness, or make a difference in someone’s life. Then bring it to prayer. Listen to how God wants to help bring your hope to reality. Lastly, resist the urge to give up when we will be ultimately attacked by the enemies of hope. Ask God for the power of grace. The hope of Christmas is possible but we can’t just wait for it, we have to fight for it this Advent.