Baptism of Jesus

Almost all of us at one time or another have been in a job interview, either as the interviewee or the interviewer. And no matter how the interview process has evolved over the years, it remains essentially the same at its core. In the end --- it’s about the interviewer trying to find out if the applicant has what it takes --- has the right talents, the right work ethic, the right experience, the right gifts for the job. It’s all about trying to figure out what that particular individual “brings to the table”. Today, on Epiphany, we once again hear the story of the magi, who came from the east to give homage to the newborn king. And as you know, they didn’t come empty-handed. They came bearing gifts (in this case, gifts representing certain things --- kingship, divinity, and death). And when you think about it --- these are gifts the baby Jesus really doesn’t “need”. Not in the least. Yet, they are gifts the MAGI need to give. It’s easy to think that our God “needs” certain things from us. Yet, when we reflect on that idea it’s easy to see how that can’t really be the case. God has no “needs” in the way we usually use that word. God is God. God can do whatever God wants to do - in any way God chooses to do it - on a timetable of his choosing. And so God in no way can be diminished by our failure to give him anything --- no matter what that particular thing or gift is. Yet, maybe the gifts God desires are precisely what WE need to give for our growth in holiness. Sometimes we hear these stories from long ago and have a hard time connecting them to our individual lives, have a hard time finding their meaning for our day-to-day decisions and responsibilities and routine. Is that the case with this story? Is it just something interesting from long ago, or is it more than that? What do the magi have to do with us? Like the magi, we will soon be on a journey. Ours will be much shorter than theirs. Ours will not involve danger or a star. The length of that journey will be determined by what pew you are in --- for the journey the majority of us will make is simply up the aisle --- from an ordinary place to the foot of a miracle. And the object, the destination of our journey is the same as the magi’s. We come to gaze on our God, to draw near to him, to “commune” with him, to worship him. Do we, like the magi, come with something to give, or do we come empty-handed? Many of us have a hard time believing that we have anything of value to give God. What could my gift possibly be? I guess I could give him the gift of my prayers --- but sometimes my mind wanders and I wind up thinking about some task I have later. I guess I could give him my generosity --- but I know that most of the time I worry about myself more than others. I guess I could give him my kind heart --- but I’ll probably do something unkind before the day is done (maybe even before I exit the church!). I could give him the gift of extending forgiveness and mercy to others --- but there are some grudges and hurts which I’m not willing to part with. I guess what I’m saying is --- all I have to give is my flawed, imperfect, weak, sinful self. And that’s precisely the gift God wants. And that’s the gift we NEED to give and place in the offering basket each time it comes before us and journeys to the Altar. We offer ourselves to imitate Jesus even though we know we can’t do it completely (or come even close). We offer ourselves to embody God-things even though we often act un-God-like more than we’d like to admit. We offer ourselves to do extraordinary things even though we know we are ordinary. And we offer ourselves to forgive things that seem unforgivable, and love people who seem unlovable, and show compassion and mercy and kindness in situations that make us want to show something else altogether. In other words, the gift of our whole selves is what we need to give and what the world needs from us. The world will become a better place because we have chosen to become a better person. And the world will be a kinder place because we have chosen to be a kinder person. And the world will be more forgiving, merciful and compassionate because we have chosen to be all of those things --- things we give to God as a gift --- not simply to the God who is deserving of it, but as a gift to our flawed selves and the flawed world we call home. And we don’t have to be perfect to do remarkable, powerful, loving, transformative things. We just need to walk up the aisle with empty hands, but not empty-handed --- ready to make an offering of ourselves to God who is offering himself to us in a divine gift exchange. So as we remember a gift-giving journey from long ago we ask ourselves … what we are bringing to Christ, the Eucharist, today?

Welcome, everyone, to the World Day of Peace! I know that some of you are thinking, “What did he just say? World Day of Peace? Is that some new-fangled thing?” No, we’re actually celebrating the 58 th World Day of Peace --- so it’s been around for quite a while. Yet, you are almost certainly here to celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. We sometimes forget that the two days coincide. And no, the World Day for Peace is not a “secular” celebration, not something we can sort of ignore or pay little attention to because we have something “more important” to celebrate this day. It’s actually a day set aside by the Catholic Church (by Pope Paul VI specifically) to invite the faithful to consider what peace is, how true peace comes about, and what role we can play in helping make it a reality (individually and collectively). And of course, today is a day to pray for peace --- in a deep, sincere, trusting, hopeful way. Two seemingly different, unrelated things deliberately scheduled for the exact same calendar day. That certainly can’t really be an accident. So, what do the two have to do with each other? Let’s take Mary first. After all, that’s really why all of you are here today. As you may or may not know, the title “Mother of God” was disputed in the early Church by some. The faithful (clergy and laity alike) wondered if it was ok to talk about Mary in that way. The matter had to be settled at a Church council --- the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. And quite honestly --- the focus of the debate was not really Mary. It was Jesus. Who was he? What was he? Divine? Human? Sort-of divine? Sort-of human? You get the idea. Out of that council came the approval for referring to Mary as Theotokos (Greek for God-bearer). By doing so the Church was affirming two things --- that Jesus was not simply human, but also divine, and that Mary indeed gave birth to him. In a certain sense what they were affirming was the God within --- the God Mary said yes to, the God Mary carried, and the God Mary birthed into the world. The God within. What a beautiful image, a beautiful thought, a beautiful reality. God came to his people not despite them, not separated at some distance from them, but actually through one of them. Mary was a channel of grace --- “full” of grace --- full of the living God who came to change absolutely everything. It’s really quite unbelievable if you think about it. The Prince of Peace. And this title of Jesus illuminates maybe the most obvious link between the two celebrations for this day. You see, if we do indeed want peace, if we are willing to strive for peace and work for peace, if we want more than anything else to make it a more visible reality in our world we must be able to recognize the God within. And I’m not talking about looking inward. (Although that is certainly a place we must be able to find our God.) I’m talking about looking outward. I’m talking about seeing God within . . . . The person I don’t like. The person who is nothing like me. The person who supports things I can’t support. The person who doesn’t live as I choose to live. The person who doesn’t vote the same as I do. The person who doesn’t pray the way I pray. The person who doesn’t like me. The person who hurt me, or betrayed me, or deserted me. The person I would never want one of my kids to wind up with. The person I call my enemy. The living God has no limitations, no restrictions, no conditions. That means that not only is it possible for God to dwell in me, it’s possible for God to dwell in every single person. In fact, in faith, we believe he isn’t absent from any of us. He dwells in the strong and the weak, the learned and the uneducated, the rich and the poor, the Republican and the Democrat, the law-abiding citizen and the criminal, the sinner and the saint. And if we can’t see God in those places, in those people, we’ll probably never have the “peace” we desire, never experience the “peace” God desires for each of us and the world. But if we can recognize God in others --- just as we recognize God…Jesus…within Mary --- maybe, just maybe we’ll be able to bring a little peace to a world in desperate need of it. Who is that person you can’t see God in? Who are those people? Let’s look a little deeper, a little more clearly through eyes of faith, and start recognizing the One we all have in common, the One whose presence within each of us makes our differences seem a little less important, our disputes a little more foolish, and true peace possible. Mary, Mother of God (and Our Mother), pray for us. 

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What a joy it is to gather and celebrate such an incredible mystery. And we need mysteries. It seems that with each passing generation fewer and fewer things remain a mystery, as more and more things about our world get “figured out” or “discovered” or “explained”. Think for a moment about your great grandparents and what the world was like when they were the age you are now. And think specifically about all the things we know today that they didn’t know, all the incredible advancements in science and technology that would seem like magic to them, all the stuff that was a mystery to them that we now have explanations for. With each passing generation many “mysteries” from the past vanish. It seems like only a few remain. Which category does Christmas fall into? I wonder sometimes if much of what we believe (in faith) loses a certain specialness with each passing year. Things that amazed us when we were younger start feeling common, ordinary, routine. A perfect example of this is the Creed. Most of us have said it so many times that we no longer even think about the words. It’s sort of like a kind of spiritual alphabet we just say but rarely contemplate. And yet, every sentence of it is remarkable, every sentence of it a profound declaration, every sentence a mystery that can never be explained away, every sentence of it something that ought to astonish us. Is Christmas still that? Or has it become a little too familiar, a little too common? Does Christmas (after having been part of our lives for so long) now make perfect sense? Or does it still have the power to make us realize just how amazing our God is? In other words, does it still make us want to shout, I can’t believe that God . . . . . . loves us that much --- so much so that healing our broken world was (and is) his ultimate concern. . . . that God refuses to remain at a distance --- wanting instead to be in an intimate communion with all of creation. . . . that God chose not to simply “appear” to his sons and daughters, but actually became one of them. . . . that God refused to force himself into the world --- choosing instead to ask the cooperation of, the “yes”, of a humble woman from an ordinary town in a sleepy corner of nowhere. . . . that God is able to show us not simply who HE is, but who WE are called to be. . . . that God came to us meekly, quietly, unassumingly, in a vulnerable way --- showing us that true power is not what we think it is. . . . that God helped us realize he acts through Creation --- through water, oil, bread and wine, giving you and me a chance cooperate with his plan and help transform the world into the beautiful, loving, peaceful place he created it to be. The mystery of Christmas teaches us all of that --- reveals to us a God unlike any god ever thought of or imagined, reveals to us a God who human beings never believed could be possible. Our God is the opposite of ordinary. The opposite of predictable. The opposite of disinterested. The opposite of vengeful. The opposite of distant. Rather, he’s a God who wanted (and wants) to be near us, wants to be one of us, wants to guide us, wants to save us, wants to dwell with us --- not just alongside us, but within us --- within every human heart open to his grace, open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the nourishment of the Eucharist. What a God we have! And so, as you gather with family and friends and do all the things you usually do, all the usual traditions, all the usual foods and songs, all the usual exchanging of presents --- make sure that you don’t exclude the miracle and mystery of Christmas. Think about the meaning of today’s Feast --- not just the meaning of that day long ago, but the meaning of God Dwelling among us and within us has for each of our lives in this time and place. Once you start to really unpack this mystery, once you start to “unwrap” this divine gift --- you’ll find that there is simply more and more mystery to be in awe of, more and more miracle to be grateful for. And don’t try to “explain” it. Just enjoy it. Embrace it. Live it. Share it. May Jesus, the divine eternal gift of our Christmas Eucharist dwell in our soul each and every day. 

Joseph had a choice. Well, that’s not exactly true. He had TWO choices. The first is one we would probably make without batting an eye. The scenario is relatively simple. You know it well. Joseph discovers that the woman he was going to marry is pregnant. And more importantly, he knows the child is not his. Now, Joseph, being the decent man he was, doesn’t get furious or make a scene or go around spreading gossip. Rather, he has no intention of adding to Mary’s predicament, no intention of making the situation worse for her. But he still has a choice to make. He can stay betrothed to Mary, or he can walk away --- feeling that it’s all too much to handle, much more than he can take. And he does what most of us would probably do in a similar situation. He walks away. Nothing surprising so far. But, as you know, that’s not the end of the story. Soon he has another choice to make. And this comes about because he now has new information that changes things. Note that I said “changes”, not “simplifies”. You see, the information he receives does not make things easier. As you know, this new information comes through the action of an angel in a dream --- a messenger from God who assures him that God is the one who is behind Mary’s pregnancy…that God’s Spirit is actually responsible. And consequently, the child Mary is carrying is no ordinary child. Somehow this boy would “save people from their sins”. I can imagine Joseph thinking, “Now what does THAT mean?” And once again Joseph has a choice --- the same choice. He can stay or he can go. He can accept the nearly unbelievable circumstances that brought about Mary being with child --- and stay betrothed to her --- or he can reject what was revealed to him and simply walk away as he had planned. After all, who would believe what had been revealed to him in his dream? Joseph, that’s who. What choice would you make? Thank goodness we don’t have to make the same sort of choice! But is that really true? Does the choice Joseph ultimately made have nothing to do with us, nothing to do with the decisions we make day after day, nothing to do with our lives? Advent is rapidly coming to a close. It always goes so quickly. And Christmas is just a few days away. Have we prepared well? Are we ready? I guess it depends on what we believe Advent is all about, what we believe we are supposed to be preparing for, what we are expecting to happen come Christmas morning. If the answer is just “Jesus’ birthday”, well, we don’t need to prepare for that. Or if it’s just to recall some stories from two thousand years ago, well we don’t have to prepare for that. Or if it’s just to open a few gifts and have a few parties and bake some cookies and put up a tree, well, that might be busy work, but it certainly doesn’t amount to any sort of “spiritual” preparation. If Advent is just about those sorts of things then maybe it’s just a counting down of days rather than an important season that deserves our attention. As disciples, all those sorts of things (worthwhile in their own way) are just add-ons, little side-roads we can travel down if we want to. But they are really not the heart of the season. You see, Advent is fundamentally about the same sort of choice that Mary made, and the choice that Joseph ultimately made. And what was that choice? Choosing to see God where you’ve never seen him before. Choosing to see God’s hand in a situation that, at some level, makes little sense. Choosing to accept and embrace something that you could never have imagined. Choosing to be ok with God doing what God wants to do, being ok with God surprising us and astonishing us and at times, bewildering us. In a sense, it’s about accepting that God isn’t always where we expect him to be. Like in a manger. The Incarnation teaches us these profound truths. And belief in the Incarnation is our own kind of “dream” --- a kind of “new information” we have that changes everything, changes how we are supposed to see not one situation, but all, see not one person, but everyone. By breaking into our world in the person of Jesus - God shows us that he is not separate from the world but is in communion with it, that he is not at some distance from the world but immersed in it, that the created world is not an obstacle to God but a channel of his grace. And that means God can dwell anywhere and everywhere, in every situation and in every person --- even in a woman from long ago who was living her life nearly anonymously. Can we make the choice Joseph made? Or Mary made? Can we accept that God is present in the person we don’t like, present in the tragedy we are experiencing, present in the co-worker we don’t get along with, present in our sorrows and failures and disappointments and crosses, present even in the spouse or children we might not always see eye to eye with? Can we see God, incarnate everywhere? Or will we only see him in the places we expect, in the people who make us comfortable, and in the situations that bring us joy? That’s what Advent is preparing us for and what Christmas promises. But the choice is always ours. What choice will we make?

Third Sunday of Advent – December 14, 2025 Readings: Is.35:1–6a,10; James 5:7–10, Mt.11:2–11 Dcn.Bill Kenney  Joy and patient anticipation during Advent Can we see the light at the end of the tunnel? I’m not talking about a near death experience, or a ride through the Detroit-Windsor t unnel, but rather the joy of our Advent journey. This Third Sunday of Advent — Gaudete Sunday — marks the halfway point of our Advent journey. The Church invites us to embrace the theme of joy in patient waiting. Our remembrance of joy this week is sandwiched between weeks of penitence and preparation. And for that reason, this third week is distinguished from the others by lighting a pink or rose candle on the Advent wreath. Father Nate also dons rose-colored vestments on this occasion. The word Gaudete comes from the Latin gaudium, meaning “gladness,” or “rejoice”. It is a deep, abiding joy rooted in God’s goodness and presence. Joy is the outward expression of the interior love of God in our soul that, in turn, touches the souls of others. It’s the kind of joy: · that can exist even in sorrow, · that refugees can sing while in exile, · that can offer hope even when the heart is heavy. As in our reading from Isaiah, the ransomed will “… enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness; sorrow and mourning will flee.” True joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It flows from love, humility, and gratitude and is most effective and valued when shared with others. Our outward expression of joy means that deep down we know we are baptized children of God and heirs to his Kingdom, and that radiates a spirit of joy in our speech, acts of charity, and in living our faith. What a blessing it would be to have the joy of our Lord’s presence in our hearts every waking day, not just during Advent! Think of the impact that can have on your day and that of others around you. How can we project a true spirit of joy in our everyday encounters with others? We can share our faith, pray for and with others, spread hope and good cheer, give comfort and other gifts of our time, talent, and treasure- all to help bring others to salvation in Christ. The theme of our second reading is patience. Patience is a virtue espoused by saints. St. James tells us of the farmer patiently awaiting fruitful crops and the prophets who spoke of the Lord in patient anticipation. It can be tough to be patient. My mother frequently reminds me to be more patient. We live in a world of instant gratification. To the secular world, patience is inefficient, a waste of time. “Road rage” is often due to impatience. To the Christian during Advent, patience is a form of suffering that is connected with the reward of joy found at the end of the Advent tunnel- the light who is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Joy, in the Christian sense, is not an escape from suffering — it’s the discovery of God’s presence within it- and that must be our consolation. St. Therese of Lisieux said, “My joy is the Holy Will of Jesus, my only love, so I live without any fear [of suffering]". We are getting closer to Christmas — the Word becoming flesh, the infinite takes on the finite; the Creator becomes the creature. In our patient anticipation and joy of the coming of our Lord, let us prepare our hearts and souls by heeding the words of John the Baptist: Repent! Repent of your sins! Receive the sacrament of reconciliation opening us to God’s grace and making room for Jesus in our hearts. Much like a soul cluttered with sin, there was no room for the Holy family at the Bethlehem Inn. In our interior stable we find beauty and disorder, love and lust, humility and pride. Through the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist, help us, Lord, to clean up the stable of our soul and sweep away our sins to welcome you that you may dwell in us. For as Isaiah tells us, “Here is your God, he comes to save you.” May we seek the light at the end of our Advent tunnel and look forward with joy and patient anticipation to the glorious Nativity of Christ who comes to us for our salvation and for the glory of God.

Do you ever wonder what your purpose in life is? Do you wonder about if you are where you are suppose to be? Have you followed the path God wants for you? Were you supposed to have chosen a different major in college, or live in a different town, or have a different circle of friends? These types of questions don’t have easy answers which is why we all often wonder about these sorts of things. But maybe we are looking at it all wrong. Is the “path” God wants for us really THAT specific, THAT concrete, THAT exact? (And if it is, does that mean that making the wrong practical choices in life means that we are acting completely contrary to God’s will?) THAT would be unsettling. Part of me thinks it can’t possibly be that way, but if it is that way, then isn’t God simply setting us up for failure, and a certain degree of unhappiness? And I don’t know about you, but I can’t see God doing that. I really can’t. But what if God’s plan for us has little (or nothing) to do with the “nuts and bolts” kind of choices in life? Put another way --- maybe it doesn’t have much to do with “what” we will be in life. Maybe it’s all about “who” we will be. In other words, maybe faithfulness is all about being a certain KIND of person, and then finding the best place and circumstances to be that kind of person. Listen again to what Paul wrote to the Ephesians. “In him we were chosen . . . so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, . . .” Now that sounds like something else altogether. You see, maybe God’s “will” for us isn’t as different for each of us as we might think. In a certain sense it is kind of the ‘same” for each of us. Maybe the living out of God’s will is not about getting all of our life choices correct. Rather, maybe it’s about living in such a way that our lives actually give glory to God, that our very being reveals God to others, that we somehow allow ourselves to be channels of the divine --- channels of love and mercy, kindness and compassion, tenderness and generosity. “Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.’” We gather on this holy day to give thanks to God for Mary, and for the way God gifted her, “graced” her in a particular way (from the moment of her conception) for the role she would be asked to play in Salvation History. God gave her all that she needed. And when the time came, in saying “yes” to something incredible and almost unbelievable, she united her will with God’s. Whatever plans she had for her life, however she imagined her life would unfold, whatever she thought she was supposed to “do” no longer mattered very much, if at all. Mary, it seems, knew that a good life, a faithful life was being a particular kind of person --- a person who didn’t try to fit God into her life, but rather fit her life into God’s. It was this sort of humility, this sort of “surrendering” that allowed her to give the “yes” that changed everything. Her life was God’s. She knew that, even if she didn’t fully understand. God was her motivation. God was her guide. God was her strength. God was the very foundation of her being. She would soon put her faith on display for her cousin Elizabeth when she told her, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.” Can we say the same? Life can be a rat-race, a competitive, exhausting ordeal. It’s hard to escape. But the spiritual life can be too --- if we feel we have to pick a particular path in order to be happy, pick a particular path that only God truly knows, pick a particular path that fits some sort of mysterious narrative that God has pre-ordained for us. If we live that way, we will almost certainly be disappointed --- convinced that we might have headed down the wrong path every time something goes wrong or doesn’t feel exactly right. We’ll constantly wonder, “Is this the life I was supposed to live?” But if we simply go through life BEING the person God wants us to be, being that loving channel of God’s grace, that loving presence, that loving expression of every God-thing we have been blessed with --- as Mary did --- then we can be confident that God’s will is being accomplished through us --- regardless of the job we have or the place we live or the things we are interested in or the school we went to or the friendships we’ve built or even the person we married. Put simply --- God’s will is accomplished through every small “yes” of ours --- that is, every time we choose to do the loving thing, the God-like thing, the humble thing (as Mary did) --- no matter where we find ourselves or what circumstances we’re immersed in or what life decisions we’ve made to this point. And our loving God will make sure we have what we need. “In him we were chosen . . . so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, . . .” What a beautiful understanding to go through life embracing. Mary sure seems to have gotten it right. Let’s focus much more on “who” we are supposed to be and less on the “what”. And may Mary’s example inspire us to always be open to God’s grace, God’s invitation --- trusting that in being a certain kind of person, we are also truly being the faithful people God calls us to be. Mary, the Immaculate Conception, pray for us.

Christians disagree about many things. I don’t have to tell you that. It’s pretty obvious. After all, we’re not carbon copies of one another. We have different upbringings and different experiences and different life situations. We have different strengths, weaknesses, personalities and different ideas. And those sorts of things can contribute to us not all seeing eye-to-eye all of the time. It’s just not possible. And for most things, that’s completely ok. But I would argue that there is one thing we should all agree on (at least to a great degree), something we have a responsibility to get on board with, to support, to hope for. And what is that one thing? We should all be working toward creating the same kind of world. Now, you might say that’s not possible. Or you might object to the use of the word “should” --- feeling that working toward the same kind of world isn’t really a concrete moral obligation. Yet, are we so sure? Consider the most obvious example --- politics. There was a time (not that long ago) that it seemed like for the most part we were in agreement as to what kind of society we wanted to build. What we often disagreed about was the “means” to achieving those ends. Yet, it seems more and more that we’re no longer really working toward the same end, that we don’t all envision the same kind of world. As a result, our differences feel almost unfixable, un-reconcilable. And that’s a problem. A big problem. And there is plenty of blame to go around. We only have to simply look no further than in the mirror and ask these questions: What kind of world do I want to build, want to work toward? Am I doing anything at all to help bring it about? Now this might sound kind of funny. Like we get to “pick” the kind of world we want to work toward, that what “matters” is what I want, what I hope for, what I “think” is best. // Sadly, I’m leaving out the only question that really matters, the one that just might start to heal some of our differences, the one that might truly heal the world. And that question is . . . .What kind of world does GOD want? Today, we once again encounter the voice crying out in the desert, John the Baptist, the one we hear shouting, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” and “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.” The time to do these things is not at some point in the future. It is now. Now is the time for change. Now is the time to be more than we were yesterday. Now is the time to get ourselves ready to encounter the One who is coming into the world to baptize us with the Holy Spirit. And John wants to make sure that we are ready, purified, and open to whatever it is that Jesus wants to usher in. None of this is new. We hear it every year. And to a certain extent we heed the warning, the call. Yet, often when we reflect on our own failings, disobedience, and sin --- we keep on revisiting the same things over and over again. And quite honestly, most of these things are somewhat minor interior-type things --- small “tweaks” if you will. I could always be a little kinder. A little more patient. I could make time for more prayer. I could be more forgiving, more compassionate. However, what almost never changes, what I never really ask to be forgiven for is my worldview. And I wonder if that might be one of my greatest sins --- not really wanting the world to change in the ways God wants it to change. “The wolf shall be the guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and bear shall be neighbors . . .” Are we ready for those things? We’ll never build a better world if we can’t agree on what that world is supposed to look like. And I don’t mean to suggest that it’s easy --- either in the understanding of what that world looks like, or how we go about getting there. But one thing seems clear --- the one we have, and the one many of us continually work towards and contribute to, does not really resemble the world God wants for us. A world of self-sacrificing love and self-control. A world of morality, faith and virtue. And so we continue our Advent journey --- waiting for and preparing for and anticipating someone wonderful --- our God breaking into our hearts and souls once again. Yet, God didn’t visit his people to leave us unchanged. No, he visited the world to change it forever, to transform it through the power of the Incarnation and the power of the Spirit. So let’s make sure we sincerely want for the world what God wants --- and stop trying to simply create the little world each of us wants for ourselves. The world we tend to create often looks nothing like the kingdom --- and will never bring us the things that really matter --- the meaningful, loving world God wants us to help bring about. That’s the best gift we can give God this gift-giving season. 

“You know the time; it is the hour for you to awake from sleep.” Are you someone who remembers their dreams? Some people almost never remember dreams, others remember most of their dreams. When someone wakes from a dream their reaction is often similar. They often feel like their dreams seem incredibly real. Of course, the longer someone is awake the more they realize that what they thought was “real” and “life-like” was just part of the dream. Dreams can often be strange, scary, and confusing. They can be comical or psychedelic. Now we know that dreams are not reality, they are not a clear picture and experience of the way things truly are. “You know the time; it is the hour for you to awake from sleep.” So says St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans. Of course, he doesn’t mean this literally. He means it metaphorically. In other words, there are times in the spiritual life in which we are kind of asleep, kind of dreaming, in a kind of darkness. And like so many of our dreams, this sleep-like state is one in which we aren’t exactly seeing clearly. Things that seem important really aren’t. And things that seem urgent really aren’t. Things that have all our attention probably shouldn’t. And things we are so confident of maybe we shouldn’t be (and vice-versa). Put another way --- so often we can go through life not really seeing clearly, but rather seeing things through a kind of fog, as if we were asleep and only dreaming. And the only way we can bring things into focus is to bask in a bright light, a clarifying light, a reality-revealing light. And we know WHO that is. Today we begin another Church Year, another Advent. Where did the time go? Matthew will be our primary guide on our journey, a kind of lens through which we will encounter God in our sacred texts. And as with every Advent we will be invited to prepare, to be ready, or as Matthew puts it, “Therefore stay awake!” The particular passage we just heard is, in one sense, focusing our attention on the end times, the coming in glory of our Lord and Savior at both the end of time, and more immediately, at the end of our earthly lives. Are we ready? If we knew one of those things was happening tomorrow would we do anything differently today? We know in faith that these aren’t the only times our God will come to us, the only times we will encounter our God. Rather, God will come (and is coming) to us all the time, in all sorts of experiences, through all sorts of people, and most importantly within our hearts and minds and souls through the Sacraments. Ongoing encounters with Jesus is what we are preparing for during this holy season --- the breaking into our world (and every open and willing heart) of our God who refuses to stay on the sidelines --- our God who wants nothing more than to commune with us, dwell within us, accompany us, transform us. But to experience this divine grace in the fullest way possible we must be able to see clearly --- in a sense, see as God sees and make room for the Light. And we can’t do that if we’re asleep --- if we’re going through life as if we were dreaming, confusing our distorted way of experiencing the world and thinking about the world with the way things truly are, and the way things God wants them to be. In other words, what we need is light, the kind of light that helps us distinguish the things that matter from those that really don’t, the kind of light that helps us see God in places and people and circumstances we’ve never seen him before. Jesus is that light --- the light coming into the world at the time when the nights are longest, and the darkness deeper, and the warmth of summer a distant memory. This is the light awaiting us whenever it is that we decide to awake from our slumber, whenever we decide that the path we try to illuminate for ourselves is never as good, as perfect, as the path God wants to illuminate for us. Will we stay awake? Will we resist the temptation to fall asleep, resist the temptation to spiritually “doze off” and enter that dreamy place in which we see things as we want to see them (instead of the way God wants us to see them)? Let’s try to make this Advent different from so many others. Let’s spiritually stay awake for the next four weeks, and deliberately let God do what God wants to do in us. It might be the best present we ever get.