Reflection on Advent

Homily Given by Deacon Greg Pecore

November 27, 2011 – 1^st Sunday of Advent

[Is 63: 16b-17, 19b;  64: 2-7 (2B)]     [1Cor 1: 3-9]     [Mark 13: 33-37]

Good afternoon,

Advent is truly the start of our new Church year.  It should be a time of breakthrough...from darkness into light.  Jesus is informing us that this is an end to darkness – get ready to move into the light…be watchful…be alert.  This is His challenge.  Advent simply comes to us very forcefully with a question: "What is the struggle in your life...and mine?”  Advent asks: “What do we want to overcome?  What darkness in our lives, and in our world, would we like to see reversed?  What breakthrough would you and I want for this new church year?”

Perhaps it is that you and I can cope with peer pressure with greater wisdom?  …that you and I might be more understanding… kinder…more forgiving…less addicted…more chaste…holier…closer to God?  …that our job or our marriage would flourish?  …that our children or parents would change?   …that school would be more attractive?

What crosses our minds when we see and hear what’s going on in our world today?  So much personal suffering and hidden pain exists around us.  Indeed, in many of us... does irritation ever lead us to frustration? …even anger and hostility?  A simple comment can shift our mood; a glance can change our feelings; maybe fear lurks in the recesses of our being.  What will trigger the emotional reaction that scares us, frightens us, unleashes fear?  Maybe domination and control pervade our lives – we need to have everything just so...or more subtly, we control others by our compliments.  Manipulation is another manifestation.  However we cut it, pride is rampant.  “Healing” is necessary.

If we had to pick a theme this Advent season for this coming year, what would we pick?  My dear friends, I might suggest the theme of “healing”.  You and I realize the incredible influence that we contain within us…within our very look…within our very hand…our very lips.

The power to “heal” –  a gesture to make somebody feel better…a smile…picking up the telephone and offering a word of encouragement to that one person that keeps coming to mind…a courteous note sent…an apology given…a love spoken – all very simple things and yet we can “heal” hearts and souls – and often bodies.  Our Creator has given us that power.

My son David, who I love very much, and I often operate on different planes of thought which leads to misunderstanding and some unkind words at times, but when we realize a hurt has been caused, and then a word of understanding or encouragement is spoken, or an apology and a hug is offered, we both seem to understand those “healing” words or gestures because love operates on the same plane.  However, two “egos” do not.  Love is not dualistic and therefore, not divisive.  Hearts reconnect – a “healing” is taking place.

In the Gospel, we are told, “the gatekeeper is ordered to be on the watch”.  Each of us is gatekeeper to the home of our souls, so we must be vigilant and protect the dignity of ourselves…and others.  When we choose to love, we don't have to have the “last word” on every disagreement…we don't have to “win” every debate; but we know deep in our hearts that we do have to love one another. 

We cannot make these choices without Jesus.  If anything profound is going to happen to us this year, it will have to be in relationship with Jesus Christ.  If darkness is to be rolled back, it is you and I who will do it; if we’re looking for something that gives us meaning this Advent…Advent will become a time when there is a “turnabout”…a “breakthrough”.  What breakthrough would you and I like?  If we’re to be less controlled by our sins, and less controlled by our problems, we will need each other. 

That’s one of the great rationales for the little “advent box” that we placed in the Gathering Area – and I hope we will all take advantage of it…to put in your name and take out the name of a stranger, and pray for one another.  It’s not a gimmick – it is Gospel.  We have got to lift each other’s darkness.  Advent is that kind of season…it’s that patient struggle…that patient living in the light which is Jesus…so that the positions can be reversed and darkness, which sometimes pins you and me to the wall, can be overcome.

In the early part of John’s Gospel, when Jesus is just starting his public ministry, two disciples heard what he was teaching and they followed Him.  Jesus turned and saw them following Him and said to them, “What are you looking for?”  They said to Him, “Rabbi, where are you staying?”  He said to them, “Come and you will see….”

Jesus, where do you live?  He lives in somebody’s darkness…come and see; somebody’s hurting…come and see; somebody’s in pain, somebody’s in grief, somebody’s struggling…come and see.  Even those who seem most cheerful and seem to have it pretty much together may be hurting and in pain, in a very quiet manner.  Maybe all they ever wanted…all that you and I ever wanted…was to be “healed” with the affirming touch of another.

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind.  She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend.  He was always there for her.  She told her boyfriend, “If I could only see the world, I will marry you.”  One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her.  When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.  He asked her, “Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?”  The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was also blind – the sight of his closed eyelids shocked her.  She hadn’t expected that.  The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.  Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying, “Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours…they were mine.”  This is how the human brain often works when our status changes – one wonders, how many remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most painful situations?

Life is a gift – we all know that. 
 

Today, before we say an unkind word,

Lord, help us think of someone who can’t speak;

Before we complain about the taste of our food,

Lord, help us to remember and feed those who have nothing to eat;

Before we complain about our husband or wife,

Lord, help us to remember to pray for someone who is crying out to God for a companion;

Before we complain about our children,

Lord, help us to pray for someone who desires children but is unable to conceive;

Before we argue about our somewhat dirty house that someone didn’t clean or sweep,

Lord, help us remember to care for the people who are living in the streets;

Before whining about the distance we drive,

Lord, help us to remember to give a ride to someone who has to walk the same distance;

…and when we are tired and complain about our job,

Lord, help us to remember in prayer, the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had our job;

Before we think of pointing the finger or condemning another,

Lord, please help us remember that we are not without sin and that we shall all be accountable to you.

The Eucharist we will be receiving today is God’s gift of light to us, so that we may be His light to others that are suffering today – those who need an “Advent time”…a breakthrough…a turnaround in their lives.  If this world…if this nation…if you and I as a community are to roll back the darkness, Advent is the time…a new church year…a new beginning…a time when darkness begins to slip and, hopefully, in your life and mine, when the Son – Jesus – begins to rise. 

May God’s peace be with all of us.