Is 11, 1-10 / Ro 15, 4-9 / Mt 3, 1-12
What I have to say is really very simple. I think it goes to the heart of what Advent is all about. I want to recall our opening prayer. There we prayed that no earthly concern hold us back from being companions of Jesus. We are praying that God remove things that get in the way of our receiving Christ and becoming his companion. We have prayed for the grace of repentance – the grace of conversion.
Repent means changing the direction in which we look
for happiness. It means honestly
recognizing that our projects for our own happiness have not worked – and
cannot possibly work.
So Advent brings us to a simple question: what needs to be removed from our lives so we
can have the joy of actually recognizing Christ’s presence – the joy of
recognizing that Christ is our companion?
That’s what Advent is all about.
This whole season is all about helping us become aware of Christ’s
presence in us.
I think we have some un-learning to do. The Advent scenario is not that Christ will
come to us at Christmas – as if he were not already with us. Rather, it’s that during Advent we learn to
come to Christ. We learn to recognize
how Christ is already present to us in deeply real ways. Advent brings us to the Risen Christ – who is
the only Christ we have.
So what is getting in our way? What needs removing? Each of us must answer for ourselves. And Advent is the time to do that asking and
probing.
I want to share what gets in my way. It’s when – with some self-satisfaction that
I call gratitude – I begin to think myself and call myself a disciple of
Jesus. And I do that because I believe
certain things about Jesus. After all,
being a disciple means being a true believer: believing Jesus is my savior and redeemer;
believing he is truly divine and truly risen.
And I believe in the Church [that’s spelt with a capital C!] he founded:
one, true, catholic and apostolic.
But then comes the honest question: so what? So what? How does all this believing actually affect my life? In other words, what is the depth of my believing? If I say Jesus is my savior and redeemer, truly divine and now risen and alive, at work in the world – then would it not make sense for me to really rely on what he says about how and where I will find joy in life? How about when he says: Joyful are the poor – the meek – the merciful. Joyful are those who hunger and work for justice in the world – who suffer persecution for the sake of that justice. Joyful are the ones who work to bring about peace. Do these sayings coming from my divine, risen savior and redeemer – do they make any real, down-to-earth sense to me? Do I even test them, try them out to see if they’re really true? Do I actually follow Jesus enough to know the joy he speaks about? I haven’t noticed myself suffering persecution for the sake of justice – and feeling the joy.
What gets in my way is my own phony
discipleship. And that’s an excellent
Advent question to ask myself: what is
the depth of my discipleship? It might
be a question we all need to ask. We are
parishioners – but are we disciples?
Let us all repent – and feel a new joy in our
lives – a new joy to the world!
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