Dear Parishioners:
On this Third Sunday of Advent, the Church gives us a very particular mandate: Rejoice! And, during these days before Christmas Day, it seems that there is joy all around us. There are Christmas parties, cookie exchanges, gatherings of friends, and sending Christmas cards. And yet, one spiritual writer reflecting upon Advent makes an observation that should give us pause: “For the greeting card sentiment and sermonic rhetoric, I do not think that much rejoicing happens around Christmastime, least of all about the coming of the Lord. There is, I notice, a lot of holiday frolicking, but that is not the same as rejoicing.”
Without Advent, the only thing to do is to "rush" Christmas, with celebrations without much purpose and little meaning. That turns Christmas inside out and can even make it depressing. It is celebrating a kind of “Superficial” Christmas that G. K. Chesterton, the great Catholic apologist and writer, described as "joy without a cause.”
We are still in the midst of Advent and so we celebrate both the coming and the presence of Christ in the world. As Catholic disciples this demands a certain response on our part—conversion and living lives worthy of his Kingdom. However, as Catholic disciples we also rejoice because Christ is present among us, even in the midst of all the problems, trials, and tragedies that seem to overwhelm our world today.
What we prepare to commemorate and celebrate at Christmas has actually happened: God is in our midst. This truth calls for more than some sort of vaguely defined “cheery” disposition or “holiday frolicking” for Catholics. Rather, the radical joy that this Gaudete Sunday calls for is grounded in the confidence that, although all hell might be breaking out all around us, the Lord has come—and will come—to set us free.
The name Advent itself means “the approach” “the coming” –of the Lord and of nothing less than our Lord. We wait in joyful anticipation for that coming. Yet we know we live in an age of instant gratification and guaranteed quick delivery. It is precisely because we do not expect great things that we want them to come so quickly. Advent reminds us that our want of those little and unimportant things to come immediately is no substitute for the patient anticipation of the great glory that is about to be revealed at Christmas.
Patience is a virtue precisely because it conditions the mind and the will to anticipate that for which the world was made. Advent calls for to a joyful patience and to truly wait for Christmas. As Chesterton suggests: “There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes." While Advent requires patience it does not require the strict kind of penance and mortification of Lent. It is rather a season of somber and sober yet joyful anticipation of Christ’s coming. The very last line of the Bible cries out, “Come Lord Jesus!”
The Lord wants us to anticipate nothing less than Himself with patience and joy. During this Advent Season one of the best ways to prepare for a joyful Christmas Day is to make a good Confession of our sins. Confessions at OLM are available every Saturday afternoon and each Monday night. On December 23rd, the Monday before Christmas, we will have two priests available for two hours of Confession from 6pm until 8pm. So rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in his mercy and forgiveness and rejoice that he comes to save us!
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us: “True joy is not merely a passing state of mind or something that can be achieved with the person’s own effort; rather it is a gift, born from the encounter with the living Person of Jesus and, making room within ourselves, from welcoming the Holy Spirit who guides our lives. Those who have encountered Christ in their own lives feel a serenity and joy in their hearts that no one and no situation can take from them.”
I thank the many parishioners who continue to be so generous in supporting the Our Faith, Our Future Capital Campaign. If you have not yet made a pledge, please make your pledge today! We need every parish family to support this vital effort for our future. Rejoice in Advent! Be well. Do good. God Bless. Go Pats! Oremus pro invicem!