In this time of Advent we hear of readings which talk about preparing the way of the Lord. Jesus has come and left us the way to Heaven, it is up to follow it and prepare our hearts for when He will come again.
Jesus encourages us to pray for strength. What does that mean, how does that fit with other scripture, how can we pray for strength in our lives? As we enter into Advent, God wants to give us strength and other gifts of the Holy Spirit so we can persevere towards the narrow door of Heaven.
Here at the end of our Church year we focus on End Times. We essentially have two End Times prophecies, one from Daniel and one from Jesus, but there are multiple meanings within them, one is just that we must be prepared for our own death. If we knew we only had a short time to live, what would we do with our time? If there is something we feel like we should do spiritually, we should make a resolution to do it now!
God loves us and asks us to trust in Him to provide for as a good father cares for his children. As disciples we are called to give more of our lives to God.
God wants us to all become Saints, but it starts in very simple ways, by spending time in prayer, by reading the Bible, by reading spiritual books, and then, inspired by our love of God, we go out and love our neighbor in the world, again in simple ways.
Healings still happen in our world because it is a sign of God’s presence, proof that the Kingdom of God is here, Jesus ushered it in, and we are living in it now, the prophecy from Jeremiah has already been fulfilled and we are living in it here. My encouragement is to really ask for what you need, to go to Him sooner, to give Him the chance to earn your trust, give Him the chance to love you.
With our Suffering Servant prophecy from Isaiah, Jesus tells his disciples that if they want to be great, they must serve as He served. When we struggle with suffering or serving, we must approach God for help as His beloved children.
Today is the optional memorial for St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque is the French religious sister to whom Jesus revealed the devotion to His Sacred Heart. We have a large statue of the Sacred Heart here so I thought it would be good to highlight her along with this statue. We should focus on the love of God and pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In the last 10 days I've had 4 funerals, three at St. Josephs and 1 priest funeral in Waterloo. In the next 6 days I have 3 more at St. Joseph’s and another priest's funeral in Waukon, Fr. John Moser died very unexpectedly at the age of 64. We've lost 7 priests this year, 7 active priests, not retired, it's been a rough year. Anyway, these deaths are heavy on my mind when reflecting on these readings. I mean, what's it all about? In the end none of the material stuff matters. We can’t take it with us, and often it just prevents us from following the Lord more closely.
St. Francis was known for loving nature, and He found God there. We can also find God in the natural, and in the supernatural, but the point is God is trying to let us find Him while respecting our free will.
Do you ever have a conversation and after it is over you think, “Oh, I wish I would have said this or that?” It happens to me, I imagine it happens to everyone, but also for me, I finish my Sunday Masses, or sometimes even during the readings I think, “Oh, I wish I would have preached on this or that aspect.”
Last weekend I talked about letting the Bible speak to you. The Bible is the Word of God, it is living and active, God will speak to us through it. This is why we need to take time to pray, every day, with the Bible, with good Spiritual Reading, with Prayer Resources… God will speak to us if we give Him the time.
As you may know I have been a priest for six years, which means I have gone through two 3-year scripture cycles already. Our Sunday readings repeat every three years, which means that this is the third time I have preached on these readings, once at Resurrection, once at Nativity, now here. It also means that I have two old homilies I could steal.
Today’s readings are challenging, not impossible, but very challenging for our modern ears. In our first reading, if you take St. Paul’s advice seriously when he said “Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife,” then all of you students should become priests or religious. Is that really what he is saying? No, while that would be awesome, and we wouldn’t have to close any more churches for the next 50 years, it isn’t exactly his intent to encourage religious vocations.