You alone were preserved from every shadow of sin, in order to be the all holy dwelling place of the Word Incarnate, You always entrusted yourself wholly to the Lord. Please obtain for us to do the same.

Second Sunday in Advent December 8th, 2013

Our readings last week for the first week of Advent reminded us that we need to stay awake. Many of us driving home from a long journey or trip late at night have had the experience of how long the last few miles before home can be. We turn up the radio, crank down the window and maybe even slap ourselves across the face in our struggling to stay away. The only thing that keeps us awake is thinking about making it home and crawling in bed safely and soundly. As we drive on, if we are not careful, it would be so easy to dose off, dreaming we had already made it to our goal-home, only to be jarred awake, all too late however, as we leave the path of the roadway facing disastrous results.

Advent is time to make sure we have not fallen asleep at the wheel of life, veering off the path of holiness as we dream that we have already achieved our goal, which is our salvation, only to be awakened too late to disastrous consequences. In our spiritual life, we must pray always to stay awake and watch, so we don’t live in a dream world; we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, always staying awake, always keeping our eyes on our prize—Jesus, who is coming soon, even though he seems as if he is delayed; He is not delayed but he is being patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.

Last week the opening prayer at Mass reminded us that we must run to Jesus by our righteous deeds. Run is of course an active verb. Jesus runs to us but we for our part must arise and wake from our slumber and run to meet Him by our righteous deeds. So too the message for this week: "To stay awake, to watch, does not mean to just sit back and do nothing as we wait for Jesus to come we must be active. Pope Benedict once said, “to watch means to follow the Lord, to choose what he has chosen, to love what he has loved, to conform one's own life to his; to watch means to spend every moment of our time on the horizon of his love without letting ourselves be overcome by the inevitable daily difficulties and problems.” What Benedict is describe is what Holiness really is; it is how we watch, how we stay awake, how we rise up in order to meet the Lord who in His great Love, has already come to meet us and who continually beckon us to Himself.”

This call to watch and so meet the Lord through daily holiness of life is the message for all of our Advent, both the Liturgical season of Advent and the Advent that is our life. Our reading from Isaiah for tells the coming of John the Baptist who will be that voice crying out in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord! John’s voice is still crying out in the desert and in the darkness of our present times, summoning souls to repentance and to holiness of life; and holiness of life never goes out of style.

St. John at the beginning of His gospel, describes John as the man sent from God. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world; this light that John came to bear witness to was of course Jesus Himself. Jesus is the Word become flesh who dwelt and continues to dwell us among us full of grace and truth…John bore witness to him, and cried, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.”

Our world today is full of Darkness but Jesus is still the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome It. There is undeniably, a great battle taking place in our world today, a battle between darkness and light, between truth and error, between good and evil and between death and life. But the greatest of all battles is taking place with each of us, between the light of Christ and the darkness of our sin or put another way between the Holy Will of God and our own dark selfish self will. This what Vatican II meant when it said, “peace is more the just the absent of conflict or war;” for peace begins within the hearts of men. The renewal of the world begins in each individual heart. Society is not transformed by tearing down unjust social structures but by the conversion of individual hearts to the Lord and to His ways, to His Holy Will.

And so, the more the will of God loses this battle in the hearts of man, the more visible and earthly battles begin to break out in the world and so the more darkness begins to cover the world and the less peace we have. In God there is no darkness, only light; all the darkness in this world comes from us putting our self-will before God’s Holy Will. The greatest enemy we have is our own wills. In fact, doing our own will over the Will of God is another name for hell, for that is what those in hell do, they do their own thing.

The good news is that Jesus is the light and the darkness has not overcome Him. In Him and only in Him can the battle between our will and God’s will be won. In Him our victory is assured, but in Him alone. Advent is then a time of Hope; Jesus has the power to save us from ourselves if we but turn to him in our struggle, in our battle. Jesus alone has the power to save our world, which is on the brink of utter collapse; He alone is Savior of the World. But we must arise and run to meet Him halfway. In other words, the renewal of the world begins with individual hearts, with our heart. We have to repent from those times we have lived our put our will before God’s, better known as sins, and turn to him more deeply. The world is changed, not by politics, but instead by individuals changing and turning more fully in love and obedience to Christ and to His Commandments, and so to His Holy Church and to Her teachings.

As we prepare and watch this Advent for the coming of Christ, let us, with the help of the Holy Spirit, do an examination of conscious. Have we put other “things” before God, which have prevented Him from coming intimately into our souls? Have we sought the easy way out, seeking comfort and pleasure before out faithfulness to God and to His Holy Will? Have we tried to make our worship of God more about our entertainment and emotions, than about our love and adoration of Him? Have we been greedy and sought only to lay our hands on the temporary things of this world, placing more value in them than on our relationship with Jesus--our ultimate and true end? Have we made ourselves the center of the universe, becoming filled with love of self, and thus turning our back on God’s love and on our love of neighbor? Have we been faithful to our daily duties according to our state in life, especially have we been faithful to our daily spiritual duties of prayer-the rosary and intimate conversation with God, along with spiritual reading and offering all our words, thoughts and actions to Jesus through Mary in union with St. Joseph-this begins with a morning offering and ends beside our bed with an examination of conscience followed by an act of contrition.

This time of Advent recalls the Lord's first coming, his final return, and most importantly it reminds us of His true abiding presence among us now in the Sacramental Life of the Church. Again quoting our Holy Father, "Celebrating the Eucharist we proclaim in fact that (Jesus) has not withdrawn from the world and has not left us alone and, though we cannot see or touch him, as is the case with material and sensible realities, he is with all of us and among us; what is more, he is in us, because in this way he can attract to himself and communicate his life to every believer who opens his heart to him."."

Following our Holy Father’s advice, our cry this Advent and every day of the Advent of our life should be, “Ven Domine, Iesus! …Come Lord Jesus, Do not delay! We need you to come now, for by ourselves we are in darkness and the darkness will overcome us; only in you is there light, only in you, with you and through you can we win the battle raging within us between our will and the will of God and so live in the freedom of Sons and Daughters of God; only in you can we become instruments of hope for our ever darkening world. So come Jesus, through Holy Communion, come now more deeply in our souls made worthy through the sacrament of confession, fill them with your life and your light, help us to conform our lives to yours, make us living tabernacles of your dwelling among men, so that we may scatter the darkness of our world with your light and your life shining within us. Use us as your chosen instruments to bring peace to all men of Good will.

Let us pray. “Blessed Mother you are the Immaculate Conception. This feast day reminds
us of your singular adherence to God’s saving plan. You alone were preserved from every shadow of sin, in order to be the all holy dwelling place of the Word Incarnate, You always entrusted yourself wholly to the Lord. Please obtain for us to do the same. Our Lady of the New Advent, pray for us; obtain for us a deeper faith, hope and love for Jesus who is truly among us in the Holy Eucharist, so that we may, like you, conceive Him in our heart in order to birth Him to the world. Amen.”