2nd Sunday of Advent Homily

Last week I announced we would begin signing up volunteers for our Christmas hospitality ministry. We want to be as welcoming a community as possible this Christmas. We’ll have many visitors who are unfamiliar with our church. We want to make them feel at ease. So, we want you to sign up to help them. Sign-up sheets for parking lot helper, who will help maximize our parking lot’s capacity, greeters to open the doors and wish everyone Merry Christmas, and hosts to help people find seats are at the Welcome Desks. Fifteen volunteers for each of our three Masses will make a full complement. Why not get the whole family together to volunteer?

Another thing. I’ve told you I believe we are growing a great parish here at Holy Redeemer. I feel one disappointment though. This parish has the poorest participation in the Sacrament of Reconciliation of any parish I have ever served. Every week I’m available in the Reconciliation Room from 3-3:45 pm and few people come to participate.

I’d like to try something new this Advent. The Order of Penance promulgated a year or so ago allows for an Order for Reconciling Several Penitents with General Confession and Absolution. It allows penitents with venial sins to come to a prayers service especially designed to forgive this class of less serious sins. Participants will reflect on scripture, listen to a short homily, contemplate an Examine of Conscience, kneel to receive absolution from venial sin, and go away rejoicing in God’s mercy. There will not be individual confessions celebrated after the service.

I want to make clear this service is not General Absolution like soldier might receive before battle. Penitents who come to the service aware of having committing grave or mortal sin or become aware of serious sin on their souls as a result of their reflection during the service must return later to receive individual absolution. In addition to our regular Confessions on Saturday afternoons, I plan extra hours for Confessions before Christmas. 

My hope is for this service to help parishioners who haven’t participated in Reconciliation for many years or taken the time for serious examination of their sinfulness, to overcome their fears in as non-threatening a setting as possible. Plan to attend next Sunday, December 14, at 3 pm.

Now for what I really want to talk about.

“I just wish Christmas was over and done with!” Admit it you probably spoke those words to yourself at least three times this week. You may have said it while you were searching in vain for sales help in the store, or when the item you wanted to order online was out of stock. You said it to yourself as you circled the store parking lot for the third time looking for an open space. Even though we are just beginning the time of preparation for Christmas you are already feeling a “let’s just get it over with,” attitude towards Christmas. 

It was so different when we were children. As children we couldn’t wait for Christmas. Every decoration, every Christmas song gave us joy and made us more anxious for Christmas to come. We were so full of hope.

Advent and Christmas are seasons of hope and that is what is so missing in our lives as adults. Hope is, along with faith and love, one of the three most important virtues of our life of grace. Hope is one of the three legs of the stool of Christianity. Like the other two virtues hope is a gift from a generous God.

Hope is quite different from wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is when we say, “Oh, I hope we get snow for Christmas” or “I hope the Patriots win the Super Bowl.” Those are things that might happen, but we don’t have any power over them. 

Christian hope is something different. It is the desire for a good that, while difficult, is possible to obtain. To have hope we need confidence, so hope engages the mind. It is based on our past experiences. While hope comes from our mind it also engages our hearts. It causes us to have an urging that comes from deep within our being. It has to be something that really excites us. Hope also calls for action on our part. It requires real commitment. It requires us to sacrifice some of our own time and energy. 

Christianity is a religion of hope. Christians are called to live as pilgrims. We live as people on a journey. We are on our way, but not quite there yet. As Christians we desire more from our world. We desire for it to become more and more like the Kingdom of God every day. We believe if we open ourselves to God and put our mind to it, the kingdom will come

That is what Isaiah said in today’s first reading. Isaiah sees a peaceable kingdom. He sees a world where even the primal beasts all get along and there is complete harmony. John the Baptist sounds a lot harsher, but he too is hoping for a world transformed into a Kingdom where all people live in harmony because they live faithfully with God. As Christians we are called to never be satisfied with our world, but to always work to make it a better place. 

Hope has its enemies and obstacles. One of those is despair, it is the opposite of hope. It sees only gloom and doom, only misery ahead. It is destructive of relationships. It can lead to addictions and even suicide. Depression, while it has many causes, can lead to a loss of hope and the fall into cynicism and sarcasm. 

On the opposite end is presumption. While hope says, “I’m not there yet, but I’ll get there.” And despair says, “I’ll never get there.” Presumption says, “There is no there there.” This is as good as it gets. There is no use trying for improvement.” Both despair and presumption have the same effect. They kill desire and confidence. They keep us from moving forward to the fullness of life that God intends for all of us.

This week I ask you to focus on the one thing we probably all want for Christmas. No matter who we are, regardless of age or state of life, the one thing we probably all want the most is for everyone to just get along this Christmas. 

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  If you are parents, you want your children, no matter if they are young or old, to all get along. So often we say just getting together to enjoy each other’s company is the best gift we can receive at Christmas. 
• If we are employers, we want our staff to work in harmony with each other. If everyone can work together without drama, it makes our work life so much more enjoyable. 
• We don’t want to have to live in tension and conflict.
• We want our country to put aside partisanship, and for everyone to enjoy the promise of life and hope our country promises. 

Unfortunately, many of our environments, at home, work, or school feel like war zones. The coming holidays only seem to exacerbate those feelings and make us just want to get Christmas over and done with. They make us set low expectations for Christmas because we are certain conflict will arise. 

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  We know that eventually we will get into a fight with our parents.
• Our siblings will open old wounds.
• Our boss will be overly demanding and expect too much from us,
• At some point our friends will disappoint us.

Luckily, you’re here in church today because we are going to look to see what we can do about all this. We can’t solve all your relationship problems here today but we can share some practical action steps.

To do that we are going to look to today’s second reading, which like last week comes from Paul’s letter to the Romans. As we learned last week Paul wrote this letter to a community of Christians, he had not yet visited but was planning to. Paul heard there was conflict in the community and he wants to try to ease it before he gets there.

Earlier in the Letter to the Romans, Paul gives advice on how to live together in harmony. He suggests those who are strong should bear the failings of the weak. Rather than get annoyed with each other’s faults and failures we should bear with them. 

Paul is not talking about sin here. Paul isn’t saying that we should just suffer in silence the hurtful behaviors of others. Paul is speaking about the little things our spouses, co-workers, and friends do that drive us crazy and aggravate us no end.  Paul is saying we shouldn’t expect everyone to do things our way. Paul says we should allow people to be who they are and let them do things their way at times.

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  If they want to change a holiday tradition, let them do it.
• If they want to put tinsel instead of garland on the tree this year, let them.
• If they don’t want to exchange gifts this Christmas, that’s okay.

Paul says the way to harmony is realizing we don’t always have to get our own way. If we look for opportunities to accommodate others, we are building them up. When we allow others to get what they want, do what they want to do, have the conversations they want to have, then we help to build others up. 

Paul tells the Romans that is what Jesus did during his ministry on earth. Even though Jesus was God he didn’t always try to please himself. Paul encourages the Romans to accept one another as Christ had accepted them. 

When we respond to others with acceptance, it yields the reward of hope. Perseverance and endurance brings hope! It really does! Acceptance causes hope to grow. We hunger especially for unconditional acceptance. When we feel accepted by another or a community we become attracted to them and in turn want to accept them. 

Whoever you are, whatever you do or have done, God accepts you in Christ. Time and time again Jesus proclaimed he had come to save the sinner not the righteous. Jesus came to establish a relationship of love and acceptance with each one of us. 

You don’t have to change or jump through any hoops to enjoy a loving relationship with God. You are already accepted by God. God want to give you the hope you need to move like a pilgrim along the way to a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Him. 

We all desire to experience a happy and loving Christmas. To accomplish that this year we need to work on being more accepting of everyone in our lives. If we are accepting, then we will offer them hope for the future and we will grow in hope too. Strengthened by the Eucharist we celebrate, may we all strive to be more accepting this Advent season so everyone can all grow in hope.