For those who don't heed Advent's call to conversion before the sudden unforeseen end arrives, sadly, the advent of their lives will end in a life never truly lived, a live ending with dread, ending with the death of hope.

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. November 15th, 2015

Today is really the last “regular” Sunday of the liturgical year, as next week we will conclude the Church’s liturgical year with the Solemnity of Christ the King and then we begin Advent. The First Sunday in Advent is the official beginning of the Church’s New Year.

Advent itself, is meant to be a time of hopeful and joyful preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ first coming into the world at Christmas. However, when we begin advent in just a few weeks, you will notice that all of the Gospels, like today’s, far from joyful, take on an almost ominous theme, or one might even say, a gloomy frightening theme. This seems out of place, if you thing about it, I mean if in Advent we are preparing for such a joyful Feast as Christmas why the apparent gloom and doom. I think the answer to this questions lies in the fact that Advent isn’t meant to be just a preparation for Christmas and the celebration of Christ’s first coming, but it is much more. At a deeper level, it is really meant to be a preparation for Jesus’ coming again at the end of the world or the end of our lives which ever comes first. So explains the end of the world theme in our readings today and until Christmas.

In reality then, the end of the Church’s year also signifies the end of the world and the looking forward to Jesus second coming. So in these last weeks, before Advent, the Church already begins to emphasize the coming of Jesus in Glory, and the End Times. This reminds us that just as the Church’s year comes to a close, so too will our life someday come to a close.

And so, as we begin Advent, a time of preparation, reflection, hope and anticipation for the coming of the Messiah at Christmas, we should ask ourselves if we have fully used the “advent of our life” as a preparation for the coming of Jesus at the close of our own life--are we really ready to meet Him if He should come for us sooner than we expect? And not only that, Do we actually look forward to the end of this life with hopeful joyful expectation, the hopeful joyful expectation of little pure child waiting for Christmas and Jesus’ birth-His first coming? Or do we instead dread the end with fear?

The message of today’s Gospel, as well as the message of the coming season of advent, is that fear doesn’t have to have the Last word when we hear, contemplate and think about the end-even our end. In the book of Daniel, from which is taken our first reading, we are told that St. Michael, who is like unto God, will be sent to protect—and so hope is given,- “the wise will shine brightly,” we are told. In the Gospel, Jesus says, “I will gather the elect from the four winds.” Salvation will come. Jesus will come and Divine Mercy will be victorious over all sin and suffering, even over death itself.

Jesus has overcome our deepest fears. He has come to give us His mercy by taking away our sins and freeing us from fear for love. The wise then, are those who repent more fully of their sins and turn to God in total trust and all out love. This reveal to us that ultimately, it is our sin that causes us to be afraid, to be afraid of the coming tribulation, to be afraid of dead and judgment and ultimately even to be afraid of God. The Message of advent then, whether it be, the liturgical time before Christmas or the advent of our lives, is that God has come to save us by through His Divine Mercy, which comes to us through repentance and the forgiveness of our sins; so let us not be afraid. But for our part, in order to receive his mercy and so receive this hope, we must repent more fully, confess our sins more completely and with the help of God's grace amend our life; that is, change ourselves for the better.

Pope Francis on Friday reminded us that it is repentance that is the key to God’s Mercy (Pope Francis address to the Guardini foundation, Rome Friday Nov. 13th, 2015) In fact, during this advent, Pope Francis will begin a whole year dedicated the message of God’s Divine Mercy beginning on Dec. 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and ending at the beginning of Advent next year. Now is truly the time of God’s Mercy…and so now is the acceptable time of repentance (turning away from sin) and deeper conversion (turning toward God).

This Advent is really then a time of a decisive decision, a time of great action, a time for radical change. Are we going to continue to worry, hiding from God by hiding from the reality of our sinfulness and so stay in the grip of fear, the fear of what the future might bring? Or, are we going to repent more deeply and receive God's mercy and forgiveness by making a good and sincere confession and so live in the freedom of God's sons and daughters, free from the fear of what the future will hold, free to trust Jesus completely.

For those who don't heed Advent's call to conversion before the sudden unforeseen end arrives, sadly, the advent of their lives will end in a life never truly lived, a live ending with dread, ending with the death of hope. However, for those that heed this hopeful call before the end times, the advent of their lives will end in the fulfillment of hope-- the joy of the eternal Christmas of heaven and the ending love it brings, union with God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, along with Mary and Joseph and with all God’s friends—the angels and the saints.

This is the great message of hope that this last “Ordinary” Sunday of the Liturgical year and its readings brings to us. It is particularly relevant in our current situation, which seems like the beginning of the end (it is not…but it is the end of an era in the world). This time of distress in this life is short; and so, those who are faithful should not grieve over the hardships of this present time, for a life of blessedness awaits them.

Let us then repent with our whole heart, in order to save ourselves and to find life. Let us glorify the Father of Truth, who sent the Savior, and through Him revealed to us the truth and the heavenly life--to Him be glory throughout all ages, forever and ever. So that “When, as Pope Francis also recently said, “when we think about the end, the end of our life, the end of the world, every one of us will have our end; when we think about the end, with all our sins, with all our history, let’s think of the feast we will be given gratuitously and let’s raise our heads. Therefore, let there be not depression but hope.” (Morning Meditation
St. Martha Guest House. 27 November 2014.)

At the end of Holy Mass as we pray together that wonderful prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, let us do so that he would protect us and our family in the future tribulation. Hail Mary, Mother of our Hope, Pray for us, St. Joseph, Terror of Demons, come to our aid. Jesus I trust in you.