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Alaska Priest Convocation – Reflection on Our Vows

This past week was the annual Statewide Convocation of all the priests serving in Alaska. It concluded with the Chrism Mass for the Archdiocese of Anchorage – Juneau. The Archbishop asked me to give a reflection to the priests before the Chrism Mass. Here is the audio. The text is below. NB, as always, the text is not as expansive as the audio. I hope you find it helpful. Feel free to share.

It was some weeks ago that the Archbishop asked me to share a few reflections with you at the end of the convocation. 

I am more than happy to do so, but I am painfully aware that doing so is always a daunting task in the midst of one’s colleagues.  As we heard in the gospel Monday evening when Our Lord preached in the synagogue in Jerusalem, “No prophet is without honor except in his native place.”

Never did that become more painfully clear to me than shortly after I was ordained in 1994.  I spent the first four months serving here at my home parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe, now the Cathedral, before I headed back to Rome to finish up a degree.  It was right here in this very building, which my own father built, that I was confronted my Mary Monahan out in the vestibule before Mass. She stopped and looked at me up and down in my spiffy vestments and said, “I’m supposed to go to confession to him?  Hell, I used to change his diapers.”

You are just not going to get a lot of respect from someone who knows you that well. 

Still, here I am and happy to be here. 

Tonight the Archdiocese will be celebrating the Chrism Mass.  As you know two important things will happen. 

The oils will be blessed,

       And we priests will renew the promises we made at our ordination.

Some of you have done this four times, some fifty-four times.  I have done this 31 times.  The words and the promises are very familiar to us, but I wonder how much attention to we really pay to these promises that define our lives. 

Have we prayed and reflected over them as often as we should? 

       Perhaps we should do so now.        

       Because I believe in my hearts of hearts that by doing so we not only prepare ourselves to renew just our vows, but also our priesthood and our ministry exercised within its embrace. 

You may recall that on Monday, the Archbishop reminded us that we are in a Jubilee year and the Holy Father has called the Faithful to be Pilgrims of Hope

Many of you have been on pilgrimage at various times with your parish or order or whoever. 

       And what is one of the first things you do when you arrive in the place where the pilgrimage will take place?

       You meet your guide. 

So I submit to you that if the people of God have been called to be pilgrims of hope, and they have,

       Then they need guides who can show them where hope can be found.

And that, my brothers, is you and I. 

       But to be a good guide you have to have an intimate knowledge of the holy space to which you bring

       We cannot guide others to hope, if we have not been there ourselves.

Furthermore, a good guide must also know his proper role, so that others may come to experience the power of the destination to which he brings them. He must know who he is, so that he may help others become who God has created them to be.     

Our vows define us. 

They define how we shall live, how we shall love and whom. 

So, in understanding them, we understand ourselves better and are of greater service to the People of God whom we are called to serve. 

Let’s go back to the beginning.

Why were we first ordained deacons before being ordained priests?

       One must be configured to Christ the servant before he can be configured to Christ the Head

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something.  He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.”

Jesus said in reply, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” They said to him, “We can.”

He replied, “My cup you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left [, this] is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt.

But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.  Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  (Mt. 20:20-28)

We can forgive Mrs. Zebedee. She is simply looking out for her two boys. She wants them to have nice cabinet posts when Jesus sets up the government in what she expects will be the new theocracy in the reestablishment of the Kingdom of Israel.  Like all the people at that time, she has yet to understand the immensity and transcendent nature of the Kingdom God preached by Jesus. 

But Our Lord is very clear, the exercise of authority in the Kingdom can only be understood within the context of service.

Abbot Jeremy pointed out very eloquently yesterday this same thing when he explained the meaning of the Ritual of the Washing of the Feet during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

Like Christ, the priest does not come to be served, but to serve.  Thus, we are ordained deacons, configured to Christ the servant, if you will, before we can be configured to Christ the head.

       Authority in the Church, or anywhere else for that matter, can only be exercised in the context of service.  Any attempt to do otherwise is doomed to failure and as we have seen so painfully since 2002, will have devastating consequences for the people of God.. 

At our diaconate ordination, we made three promises:

       For celibacy,

       For prayer

       For obedience. 

These are lifetime commitments to God and to his People.  They are the foundational promises on which is built the framework of our priesthood.

The ordaining prelate asked us:

       “In the presence of God and his Church, are you resolved, as a sign of your interior dedication to Christ, to remain celibate for the sake of the kingdom and in lifelong service to God and mankind?”

       Now you and I both know that this entails more than simply foregoing marriage and promising to live a single life. 

       It is the total a commitment of oneself, body and soul, to the People of God.

In a way, it is a type of covenant. 

       Covenants, as you are aware bind persons, or groups of persons – families, clans, tribes, nations.  In the Old Testament, covenants were serious business.  They still are.  They were always established in blood.  On the second Sunday of Lent we heard these words:

The Lord God took Abram outside and said,

“Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.

Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”

Abram put his faith in the LORD,

who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

He then said to him,

“I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans

to give you this land as a possession.”

“O Lord GOD,” he asked,

“how am I to know that I shall possess it?”

He answered him,

“Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat,

a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

Abram brought him all these, split them in two,

and placed each half opposite the other;

but the birds he did not cut up.

Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses,

but Abram stayed with them.

As the sun was about to set, a trance fell upon Abram,

and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him.

When the sun had set and it was dark,

there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch,

which passed between those pieces.

It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram,

saying: “To your descendants I give this land,

from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates.”

Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18

What we have here in the Covenant with Abram is a very good description of the Covenant ritual. After the contract was pounded out between the parties, you took the best from your herd and flock and coop and split them in two. Making a path between the animal halves.

       Then you walked down this path of gore as you said, “If I break this covenant, may what has happened to these animals happen to me!” 

       The amazing thing here in this passage is that when the smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passes through the pieces, God completes the ritual with Abram and binds himself to a people. 

Covenants were always established in blood.  They are still serious business.  When we made our promise of celibacy, in a very real way, we bound ourselves to the People of God, saying in effect:  “All that I am, I give to you, body and soul, without reservation, without condition.” 

       This finds its deepest, most profound, most intimate covenantal expression when we say the words of institution in the greatest moment of union in the life of the Church,

       With Christ we say, “This is my body…this is my blood…which is given up for you.”

       Configured to Christ, we too give all that we are to the People of God,

so that we may be available to them without incumbrance, in a fidelity that is infinite in its scope and eternal in its consequences. 

       We hold nothing back.

       We do not make compromises

       We cannot make excuses

              To do otherwise does violence to our relationship with our people

       And if we do this well, we become so identified with Christ as to become unrecognizable in another context.

       It was my day off, and I was getting ready to fly the little airplane out to the cabin. On the way to Lake Hood Seaplane Base, I stopped into the grocery store to pick up a few provisions.

       Since I was going to be cutting wood and other manly Alaskan things, I was in a flannel shirt and some Carharts.  As I went down the aisle this woman starts to stare at me very quizzically.  She knows she knows me, but she can’t figure it out.  I let her stare at me for a moment and then I said, “Mary, I’m Fr. Leo.  I’m your pastor.  You sit in the third aisle on the left at the 10:30 Mass.”

       Her face lit up and then she exclaims loudly a phrase I will never forget, “Oh Fathah! I didn’t recognize you with clothes on!”  

       Realizing what she had just said, she tried to back it up, “No, I mean with real clothes on!  I mean you don’t have your collar! 

       “Please…please,” I said. “Just stop talking.” 

Our promise of celibacy is not an external discipline that Church imposes upon us

       It is a total gift of self that we give to Christ and to his People for the building up of the Church and the world. 

Let’s move on to the second promise, the promise of prayer.  As we stood there, the bishop asked:

“Are you resolved to maintain and deepen a spirit of prayer appropriate to your way of life and, in keeping with what is required of you, to celebrate faithfully the Liturgy of the Hours for the Church and for the whole world?”

We set aside three things in the Church, that is, we set them apart as sacred to God:

       We sanctify people – through Baptism, confirmation, consecrated life, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders.

       We sanctify places – churches, shrines, religious houses, Cemeteries …homes.

(A quick aside:)  I bless a lot of homes.  I hope you do as well. I have to tell this story of one home that I blessed. Now, as you know, many times when you go to bless a home, the family will invite you over for dinner following the blessing. It makes for an enjoyable evening and people are delighted to take part in the “Feed-a-priest” program. So, I’m speaking with the mother of the family before heading over and she asked, “Is there anything special we need to get ready?” and I said, “Not really, just your favorite dish.”  “Great!” she replied.

       So I go to the home.  As always, we started at the door of the house and then worked our way through the various rooms.  Finally, I came to the dining room, and there, in the center of the table, on hand made lace doily, was the most beautiful porcelain soup tureen I had ever seen.  It was in the shape of a swan and the ladle (not a silver one) resting in a way that it blended in perfectly with the tail feathers. 

       Here in all its glory was her favorite dish.

       It was completely empty, and I ate at home that night, but by golly, I shall never ever forget that woman’s favorite dish!

So, we sanctify people, we sanctify places, but perhaps most important of all, we sanctify time.

       For the priest this is perhaps one of the most important promises of all.  Why?  Because you and I know that the Kingdom of God is made of relationships, the deepest and most intimate of which we call being in “full communion” with Christ and the Body of Christ, the Church. 

       It is our particular relationship with Christ which defines us, his priest. And we know that relationships are not rocket science. 

       If you want a relationship to grow, you give it two things: time and attention.

I have said this thousands times to my parishioners and I say it again to you today,    

       If you cannot find at least ten minutes a day for private prayer with Our Lord, then your life is out of control and you need to make adjustments.  NO EXCUSES. 

       I SAY IT AGAIN:

       If you cannot find at least ten minutes a day for private prayer with Our Lord, then your life is out of control and you need to make adjustments.  NO EXCUSES.        

You need to fight for this time. It is the second of the great gifts you give to Christ and his people.  

To be honest with you, it goes far beyond just setting good boundaries as Deacon Bernie shared with us. 

You have to plan for this time.  You have to fight for this time.

What do I mean?  If I was the Evil One, I would fill your life with so many good things…not evil things…good things like:

       Sacraments and confessions and marriage preps and bible studies and liturgy planning and catechetical sessions and pastoral counseling and marriage preps and school events and so much more

       I would fill your life with all these good things so that soon you literally do not have time to pray at any time, let along be faithful to the Liturgy of the Hours. 

My brothers, the reality is that relationships do not die because of conflict

       Ironically, healthy relationships get deeper and more intimate as a result of the resolution of conflict.

       No, relationships die because we fail to give them the two things that make them deepen and grow. 

       Time and attention. 

Do you want your relationship with your family to grow?

       Give it time and attention

You want your relationship with your friends to grow?

       Give it time and attention.

You want your relationship with your brother priests to grow?

       Give it time and attention.

Do you want your relationship with Christ to grow?

       Give it time and attention.

And that means prayer.

One of the great experiences I had was to work with the Missionaries of Charity in their various houses in Rome.  My favorite was their house of formation.  It was also the house where they served many who had chronic diseases and conditions.

Part of their rule of life in the Order is to spend one hour a day in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.  They take this very seriously.

I found out how seriously one day when I went there to celebrate Mass.  Now Mass for them happens at 6:00 AM. Every day. On purpose.  (Now as you may be aware there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who wake up with a smile on their face and say, “Good morning, God!”  and those who wake up and say, “Good God!  Morning.” 

Anyhoo, I arrived at 5:45 and the Superior said to me, “Now, Father, if some of the younger sisters fall asleep during Mass do not take it personally.  They were up until 3:00 AM ministering to one of our residents.”

       “Oh,” I said sympathetically, “So they have only had two and have hours of sleep.” 

       “Oh no, Father!” she exclaimed, “After that, they still had to do their holy hour.” 

       In their service to Christ in the poorest of the poor, the Missionaries of Charity live a very intense and austere life. But they know that they cannot do what they do for any length of time, if their ministry is not animated by a deeply intimate relationship with Our Lord.

       So they give it time and attention.

       They make no excuses.

       And neither should we.

Let’s move on to the third promise, that of obedience. 

Finally, each of us went up individually and knelt before the bishop.  We put our hands inside of his, and the bishop asked, “Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?”

There is a reason why this one is separated from the other two, and repeated.

This is where the rubber hits the road.

       The first two lay the foundation on which our ministry stands.

       Obedience gives the framework, the form, and the details of our ministry.

What obedience gives us and the Church is unity of heart, mind and action. 

       It is not a repression of our own will, desires and opinions, but as one writer puts it, “the fruitful redirection of them to a common goal.” 

In paragraph 1567, the Catechism puts it this way:

First, quoting Lumen Gentium 28 § 2, it says:

“The priests, prudent cooperators of the episcopal college and its support and instrument, called to the service of the People of God, constitute, together with their bishop, a unique sacerdotal college (presbyterium) dedicated, it is, true to a variety of distinct duties. In each local assembly of the faithful they represent, in a certain sense, the bishop, with whom they are associated in all trust and generosity; in part they take upon themselves his duties and solicitude and in their daily toils discharge them.”

Then it makes a commentary:  priests can exercise their ministry only in dependence on the bishop and in communion with him. The promise of obedience they make to the bishop at the moment of ordination and the kiss of peace from him at the end of the ordination liturgy mean that the bishop considers them his co-workers, his sons, his brothers and his friends, and that they in return owe him love and obedience.

This is when we are at our best. This is the image of a true Christian community—united and all working together in their respective roles for the glory of God and the proclamation of the Kingdom.

In one sense, obedience is saying yes at the very beginning of our priesthood to anything that will be asked of us from that point onwards.  Sometimes it is easy to say yes, sometimes it is very difficult.

       However, my brothers, we must never let difficulty devolve into disobedience.

On Tuesday, we heard these words in the Gospel:

Then the angel said to her,

“Do not be afraid, Mary,

for you have found favor with God.

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,

and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,

and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”

But Mary said to the angel,

“How can this be,

since I have no relations with a man?”

And the angel said to her in reply,

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born

will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,

has also conceived a son in her old age,

and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;

for nothing will be impossible for God.”

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

May it be done to me according to your word.”

Then the angel departed from her.                         Luke 1:26-38

The Blessed Virgin Mary gives us a beautiful example of the distinction between difficulty and disbelief. 

       In his depiction of the Annunciation in 1921, the American artist Henry Osawa Tanner has the Virgin sitting on the side of her bed, barefoot.  The blankets are in disarray.  The angel is portrayed as a pillar of light, which illuminates the whole room, but especially her face. It is the face of one pondering how everything has changed, can change, and her future will never be the same.  Tanner captures beautifully the most pregnant pause in human history, that moment when heaven and earth await the decision of a 16 year old girl who has been asked to bear the Incarnate Word of God.  It will mean the death of all that she was expecting up to that point entry into a new life and an uncertain future. 

       Will she say yes to God? 

       Will we?

As we knelt before the bishop, our future was no less uncertain. Yet in that moment when the bishop asked, “Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?” we joined our “yes” to hers, trusting in the God who called us then and calls us still.

Now, you and I know that obedience is easy when things are going great. 

But there is nothing virtuous about that.

The true test of obedience is when it is unexpected and difficult. 

It was February, 2016, at this very convocation. We were walking out of morning conference when Archbishop Schwietz pulled me aside and said, “Hey, Leo, can I talk to you for a minute?” It was not unusual for him to do so. He was always asking me to help him with this or that from time to time. 

       So I said. “Sure, Archbishop! What can I do for you?”

       He said, “Well, you know that Tom Brundage is no longer here in the Archdiocese and we need another priest to be a canon lawyer in the chancery. Would you mind going back to school and studying Canon Law for the Archdiocese.” 

       I stood there and just looked at him for a few moments.  I wonder what the expression on my face was.

       What I wanted to say was, “Archbishop, you know I already have my doctorate in Theology. What part of ‘terminal degree’ do you not understand?!” 

       But what came out was, “You know, Archbishop, I can honestly say that the idea has never crossed my mind. You are going to have to give me the day to get my head around this one.” 

       So I went down to the chapel that we had set up in the hotel at that time and sat there for some time. While unexpected, the idea was not abhorrent.  However, I was loving life at St. Benedict’s.  We had reached a great place in the life of the parish and we were hitting on all cylinders. So I just said to Our Lord, “Okay, Lord, you know what’s best. Let’s see how the rest of the day plays out.”

       I didn’t have to wait long. Mass was right before lunch in those days. And what was the Gospel?  The call of the first disciples in Luke:  “And they left everything and followed him.”

       “Thanks, Lord.  Thanks a lot.” 

       And then Bishop Burns got up to speak, oblivious to what was going on and in the course of his homily said, “And you gotta be ready for God’s little surprises because you never know what he is going to throw your way.”

       “Okay, Lord. I get it.  I get it.” 

       And again, later in the day, the speaker picked up the theme about how certain saints redirected their lives to follow God’s call.

       “Alright, Lord! Enough already!  I get it.” 

So that evening when we had recreation and cocktails, I pulled Archbishop aside from the group and we sat down at a table in the corner.

       “Okay,” I said to him, “The answer is yes.”

       His response?  “Your mother is going to kill me.” 

       And so at the tender age of 50, I headed back to school to study a very expansive subject in a foreign language I had not spoken in 20 years. 

       And you know, Our Lord seems to know what he is doing. 

I really liked Abbot Jeremy’s resurrection questions and his comments on about the multivalent aspects of the Paschal Mystery, namely, the Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost.

And by and large, we priests are very comfortable preaching about the Passion death and resurrection.

But are we willing to apply that to ourselves and our ministry?

A priest will die and be raised several times in his lifetime.  Each new assignment means a conclusion a death to what he knew and a new life in a new place.

Sometimes it is easy.  Sometimes it is unexpected and difficult.

       But Our Lord knows what he is doing.  

       And our ‘yes’ given in the promise of obedience at the beginning of our priesthood allows us to follow him in a way like no other and to be of service to the people of God in a way like no other.

       To live a life fraught with possibilities      

              of endless opportunities and grace-filled surprises. 

The promises we make define who we are, how we shall love, and whom.  The first three vows we made at our ordination to the diaconate laid the foundation and the framework for the vows we made at our ordination to the priesthood.

For your personal reflection for the rest of this afternoon, I have provided a sheet with those vows along with a few questions that may help you in your contemplation. 

For now, I leave you with a short poem by the great 20th century Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner whose work on priestly identity continues to inform our understanding of the holy priesthood in the modern world.   

‘A Prayer for Priests’ by Fr Karl Rahner SJ

The priest is not an angel sent from heaven

He is a man chosen from among men,

A member of the Church, a Christian.

Remaining man and Christian, he begins to speak of you the Word of God.

The word is not his own.

No, he comes to you because God has told him to proclaim God’s Word.

Perhaps he has not entirely understood it himself.

Perhaps he adulterates it.

But he believes, and despite his fear he knows he must communicate God’s Word to you.

For must not some of us say something about God,

About eternal life; about the majesty of grace in our sanctified being?

Must not some one of us speak of sin, the judgement and mercy of God?

So, my dear friends, pray for him, carry him,

So that he might be able to sustain others by bringing to them

The mystery of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ.

May God who has begun this good work in us bring it to fulfillment.

Questions for Reflection from the Rite of Ordination to the Presbyterate: 

Do you resolve, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to discharge without fail the office of Priesthood in the presbyteral rank, as a worthy fellow worker with the Order of Bishops in caring for the Lord’s flock?     

            What does it mean to be a worthy fellow worker with my bishop? Do I respect him and his office at all times or just in his presence? Am I charitable in my words, thoughts and deeds? 

Do you resolve to exercise the ministry of the word worthily and    wisely, preaching the Gospel and teaching the Catholic faith?    

            How much time do I spend preparing my homilies, my presentations? Is it enough? What am I reading to keep my preaching fresh and engaging? Do I really believe what I am preaching?  Does my preaching delight, inform, convince, and inspire? 

Do you resolve to celebrate faithfully and reverently, in accord with the Church’s tradition, the mysteries of Christ, especially the Sacrifice of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, for the glory of God and the sanctification of the Christian people?

            Do I celebrate the Holy Mass, Reconciliation and the other sacraments with joy or with resignation? Do I work with others to plan faithful liturgies that engage the People of God so that they may fully, actively and consciously celebrate the great mysteries of the Faith? Have I ever resented someone asking for sacraments?  If so, what was the cause? 

Do you resolve to implore with us God’s mercy upon the people entrusted to your care by observing the command to pray without ceasing?

            What is my prayer life like?  Do I get my Holy Hour in every day?  Am I faithful to the Divine Office? Do I need to make adjustments? 

Do you resolve to be united more closely every day to Christ the High Priest, who offered himself for us to the Father as a pure Sacrifice, and with him to consecrate yourself to God for the salvation of all?

            Do I make that total gift of myself, body and soul, to Christ and his People every day, or am I holding something back?  Do all of my thoughts, words, and deeds reflect the dignity of my vocation and the gift of self that I have made to the People of God.

Then the elect goes to the Bishop and, kneeling before him, places his joined hands between those of the Bishop.   Bishop:   Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?

            What is the best assignment you have every had?  What has been the most challenging? What has been your greatest joy?  Your greatest difficulty?  Where has Christ and the Holy Spirit been at work in all of this? 

‘A Prayer for Priests’

The priest is not an angel sent from heaven

He is a man chosen from among men,

A member of the Church, a Christian.

Remaining man and Christian, he begins to speak of you the Word of God.

The word is not his own.

No, he comes to you because God has told him to proclaim God’s Word.

Perhaps he has not entirely understood it himself.

Perhaps he adulterates it.

But he believes, and despite his fear he knows he must communicate God’s Word to you.

For must not some of us say something about God,

About eternal life; about the majesty of grace in our sanctified being?

Must not some one of us speak of sin, the judgement and mercy of God?

So, my dear friends, pray for him, carry him,

So that he might be able to sustain others by bringing to them

The mystery of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ.

– Fr Karl Rahner SJ

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Of Burning Bushes, Fig Trees, and Such

There is a lot going on in the scriptures this weekend. While we are in Year C of the three-year lectionary cycle, various Masses will be using the A Cycle readings for the next three weeks as we celebrate the Scrutinies for the Elect in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA).

       While the burning bush is a neat attention getter, it is the parable of the fig tree that should really give us pause.  It’s notable that it comes in the context of two recent tragedies, the folks whose blood Pilate mingled with the pagan sacrifices (a terrible sacrilege and curse) and the death of 18 people who died when a tower collapsed.

Whether we admit it or not, we still carry with us the notion that “what goes around comes around.”  Namely, if you do something bad, something bad is going to happen to you. It was even more prevalent in the days of Jesus. Many in the crowd assumed that those who suffered these tragedies must have done something to deserve it. While our Lord is quick to disavow them of this, he uses it as a way to remind them and us that an even greater tragedy looms for our souls if we don’t repent of our sins and believe in the Gospel. Dying is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Eternal damnation is.

So how does this tie into the fig tree that does not bear fruit? Simple. A disciple who does not repent is not much of a disciple. Repentance, not perfection, is the fruit that Christ is looking for. If we are too proud  or too busy to repent, then there’s not much he can do for us, no matter how much he cares for us.

Lent is a time that reminds us that the first fruit, the first gift, we give to God is sorrow for our sins. Doing so opens the door for the healing grace of God to enter our lives and lead us down the path of reconciliation leading to the joys of the resurrection. May our Lenten prayer, fasting and almsgiving guide our steps into the way of true discipleship.  

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The View From the Top

Hey, Church Fans, this is the basic text, but there is a whole lot more on the video from the 8:30 Mass, including a little explanation of the Sacrifice of establishing the covenant with Abram in the first reading. I would have put a clip of it here, but Microsoft has decided that making a video clip should take at least 45 minutes instead of just two or three like it used to. You can see the homily by clicking here and then just fast forward. It is at 18:50 in the video. Sorry to make you work harder. You may want to tell Microsoft that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

     Right in our backyard in Anchorage is the most climbed peak in North America. It is 3510 feet high and has a peak roughly the size of a football field. Easily accessible from the Glen Alps trailhead, it is scaled by young and old, humans and canine. In the old days, they would even haul a polka band and a few kegs of brew to the summit on the summer solstice. I am talking of course, about Flattop Mountain.

Most people climb Flattop because it is a quick and relatively easy hike, but also because on a nice day the view from there is really spectacular. It puts all of the Anchorage bowl, and sometimes life, into perspective.

You’ll notice that the encounter of Abram with God and the Transfiguration of our Lord both happened on the top of a mountain. In the ancient world, this is where one went to encounter God, presumably because it got you that much closer to heaven, but also I suspect that, just like on Flattop, the view puts everything into perspective. 

It was certainly true of the ministry of Jesus.  From this vantage point, we see by the presence of Moses, that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law.  By the presence of Elijah, we see that he is also the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecy. From the mountain top, we can see all the way back to the origins of God’s people, and we can look ahead to “what he would accomplish in Jerusalem” by his passion, death and resurrection. 

It is good to pause once in awhile either in prayer, or even by climbing to a place like the peak of Flattop, to put things into perspective. It is good to look back on where we have come from, how God has accompanied us and guided us on this journey of life and then to try to get a glimpse of where that is leading, what God might be calling us to as individuals and as a parish “and what we will accomplish in 99504.” 

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How Tempting!

Temptation is an interesting thing. No one ever pursues something because they believe it to be evil. Rather, they pursue it, because it is something that they perceive to be good, or at least benign.

       As humans beings, it is part of our very nature to pursue the good.  As Christians, we understand that the greatest good is God. The problem is that there are all these other lesser goods out there vying for our attention. Some of these will lead us to God.  These we call “real goods.”  Others will lead us away from God and ultimately into perdition. These are called “apparent goods.” 

       So how do you tell the difference? The temptation of Christ in the desert depicted in this week’s gospel (Luke 4:1-13) can help us out. 

       Let’s take the suggestion of the Devil that Jesus turn the stones into bread. Is a bread a good thing? You bet! All things being equal, there’s nothing better than a big hunk of warm sourdough with a slab of melting butter on it. And Jesus was hungry after fasting for forty days, so what’s the harm? Well, there’s lots of harm, actually. He who is able to turn water into wine can certainly turn stones into bread, but that is not why Jesus has that ability. Rather, it is to bring others to faith in God and in himself. To do otherwise would be a misuse of God’s gift.

       Likewise, understood and used rightly, political power can be a very good thing for the building of a just society. However, the power that the Devil offers Jesus comes only if he turns from the Creator and worships one of the created. Secondly, the Kingdom that Jesus has come to proclaim is “not of this world.” To pursue worldly power would be to subvert the very reason of the Incarnation.

       Finally, reliance on the providence of Almighty God is a very good thing. However, there is a not-so-fine line between faith in God’s providence and presumption of the same. When we cross that line, we say “MY will be done.” not “THY will be done.” Remember, God has three ways of answering prayer: “Yes.”,  “Not yet.”, and “I have something better in mind for you.” Who are we to presume that we know better than Almighty God?

       Keeping in mind the grand scheme of things helps us to distinguish between apparent goods and real goods. Something may be good in itself, but if it is not what God intends for us, then it is not a real good that will lead to our fulfillment and salvation, but an apparent good that will lead to our doom. May we have the grace of prayerful discernment to know the difference.     

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Ask Fr. Leo – Body of Christ or Body of Jesus?

Dear Fr. Leo

When we distribute communion we say, “The Body of Christ. “We don’t say “The Body of Jesus.” So, when we are in Adoration do we say we are in the presence of Christ or Jesus? – V

Dear V:

Great question. The short answer is that we are essentially talking about the same guy.  However, language is important. The very precise language that the Church uses is “Corpus Christi” (the Body of Christ). This makes sense when we are talking about the Eucharist because it avoids confusion about the enormity of the reality of what and who we are receiving. When we receive Holy Communion, we are receiving the complete reality Jesus Christ, crucified, died, risen and ascended. Simply saying “The Body of Jesus” lends itself to identifying just the reality of the historical Jesus. The reality of Christ, and the reality of the Eucharist is much larger.  It is a transhistorical reality, not limited by time and space, or even the laws of physics for that matter. When we receive the Eucharist, we are actively participating in the entirety of who Christ is and who the Church is.

Saying “The Body of Christ” also avoids an age-old heresy that holds that what one is receiving is the physical body of Jesus (Ewww!). The sacramental reality of Christ truly and substantially present in the Eucharist operates in a different way. The term “transubstantiation” helps us to understand what is going on.

Let me get a little philosophical with you. Using Greek philosophical categories, all persons and things are made up of two things. First, there is what they are in and of themselves. We call this their “identity” or “essence” or “substance.”  Second is their physical attributes.  What a person or thing looks like. It’s height, depth, length, mass, shape, texture, etc.  We call this a thing’s “attributes” or “existence” or “accidents” Think of yourself for example. You have always been you and no one else. This is your identity, essence, substance. But your physical attributes are quite different now than when you were a child. Your body has matured along with all of your physical attributes. This are your attributes, existence, accidents. Your substance is the same, but your accidents have changed over time.  Your identity is the same. It is your attributes that are different.

In the best way we have come up with so far to describe what goes on in the Eucharist, this process is reversed.  In the Eucharist, it is the substance which changes, not the accidents. It still looks like bread, tastes like bread, smells like bread, but through the power of the Holy Spirit through the prayer of the Church, in its essence or substance, it is transformed into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. It is this process of “transubstantiation” wherein the substance is changed, but the accidents remain the same. 

Finally, saying “The Body of Christ’ helps emphasize the further reality of the Eucharist in that who we are is joined at the same level of being with Christ and every other person in full communion with the Church. This includes not only the saints, triumphant in heaven, but also those being purified in purgatory and all the rest of us still on our pilgrim journey in the Church here on earth. 

So, in sum, the Eucharist is a huge reality, encompassing not only our participation in the passion, death, resurrection, ascension of Christ, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, but also our communion at the very level of being with Christ and all the Church.  Saying “The Body of Christ” emphasizes and encompasses all of these sacred mysteries in which we participate.  It’s a big deal. 

That the reality of the dynamic presence of Christ in the Mass. However, his true and substantial presence does not go away when Mass is over. We reserve the Blessed Sacrament for three reasons: first, to take it to the dying; second, to take it to the sick; and third, for adoration by the faithful.

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament really is a little slice of heaven. Think about it. What is heaven but to be in the true presence of Christ forever. What is adoration, but to be in the true presence of Christ for a time. But if we understand the expansive nature of the reality of the Eucharist, then we are also in the presence of the Mystical Body of Christ as well. That means that when we kneel in adoration, we acknowledge our union with all the angels and saints as well. It is heady stuff. No wonder we spend so much time on our knees.

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A Practical Paradox

     St. Luke must have been an interesting guy. We don’t know much about him personally, but based on what we do have, I gather that he must have been a bit of a renaissance man. He was at once a doctor, an artist, an historian, and an author, among other things. I also get the idea that he was a very practical man.

       A good example of this is his presentation of Jesus’ teaching commonly known as “the Beatitudes.” Unlike Matthew who has nine, Luke only has four. Luke also has an accompanying “woe” for each beatitude. Why is this teaching of Our Lord so important to Luke?

       Perhaps it’s because as a physician and an historian, it was very important for him to highlight the practicality of Jesus’ teaching. Matthew was a Jew writing to other Jews.  Luke on the other hand, was a Gentile writing to other Gentiles. As such, he tailors his message to his audience. Luke knew about the deepest desires of people in the Greek and Roman societies of his day. He also knew that such desires were often as out of reach for most as the pagan gods to whom they were obligated to pay homage. The great fears of the day were poverty, hunger, death and persecution.

       It was in just such a social and spiritual environment that the paradox of the Paschal Mystery could bring hope. This paradox is expressed clearly in the Lucan beatitudes and woes. It is the poor who are blessed; the hungry, the mourners, the persecuted. In his life and ministry as well as in his passion, death and resurrection, Jesus had experienced all of these things and emerged triumphant and glorious. For the pagan Greeks and Romans, the good news was that there was a better way. That the limits of this world, including even death itself, no longer had the final say, and thus has no lasting power over us in this life or the next. Christ has shown us that our final destiny is far greater, far more triumphant, far more glorious, as we enter into communion with the Divine in this life and into the next.

       As human beings, we are made by God, for God. Our Deepest longings can only be satisfied by God.  We are all born with what Ron Rolheiser calls a “holy longing” that can only satisfied by communion with God.

Sadly, though, so many try to fill that holy longing for God with the very things Our Lord says will bring us woe: wealth, pleasure, power, and honor. None of these are bad in and of themselves, but if we place them in our heart before God, they will lead to our ultimate destruction. 

       The Christian knows that when Christ is the center of one’s being:

              Wealth finds its expression in charity.

              Pleasure is found in feeding the hungry

              Power is used in service to others.

              Honor comes from leading others to glory.

Thus, the paradox. blessed are the poor, blessed are the the hungry, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who are persecuted.

       Things have not changed all that much in the last 2000 years.  Our way of doing things has changed, but we humans still seek ultimate meaning and the revelation of our final destiny. We still have the same fears and desires; and these fears and desires are still overcome by the power of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.

       Luke helps us to see that salvation is still a practical matter. Despite the passage of time, we humans have not changed all that much, and neither has the salvation won for us in Christ so that we may enter into the realm of the Blessed. 

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Every Nation on Earth

Merry Christmas, Day 12! Today (and tomorrow) we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. As we do every year, we get   Matthew’s gospel account of the Magi coming to visit the Holy Family in Bethlehem. These Magi are interesting characters.  We really don’t know how many of them there actually were, but pious tradition has settled on three, given that they brought three types of gifts. I’ve spoken before about how the gifts represent that Jesus was a king (gold), a priest (frankincense), and how both of these would be manifested in his passion, death and resurrection (myrrh).  Let’s chat a little about the Magi themselves and what they represent.

First, they are not kings. That notion developed over time in art and popular piety over the centuries for a variety of reasons.  But strictly they are magi. Magi were interesting folks. They were scholars and astrologers who looked to the heavens to discern what was going on in the world. Interestingly enough, about the time of Christ’s birth, the planet Jupiter, which represented kings, moved into Aries, the constellation that represented Israel at that time. This would make sense to magi, but would probably have gone unnoticed by others. 

Also very notable is the fact that they are all Gentiles.    Matthew saw them as the first fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah in today’s first reading, as well as echoing today’s     Responsorial in Psalm 72, “Lord every nation on earth will adore you.” In time, the characteristics of the magi in artistic expression, such as their skin color and their style of dress, have them representing the three known continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. This was a way to help people understand, as Paul says very clearly in today’s second reading from      Ephesians, “that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”  The good news is truly universal in scope.

Finally, the magi also help show us that the nature of the Kingdom which Christ ushers in is very different than any earthly Kingdom. Sadly, Herod, being the despot that he is  misses this point entirely. Like so many rooted in the world, he sees Jesus as a threat, not as a Savior.

The world has changed quite a bit since a long time ago in a Galilee far, far away.  Sadly, human nature has not. Thus, those of us who understand who Jesus really is have the     special task of making him known to the world of today. Wise men still seek him.  May we all have the grace to be heralds of the good news.

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Learning from the Holy Family

Merry Christmas, Day 5!  

     Many of you know Deacon Jim Lee and his wife Mireya. Deacon Jim is more or less retired from the deacon biz now, but I always appreciated his homilies. I remember him preaching once on this very Feast of the Holy Family many years ago. He was chatting about his own family and quipped,  “I used to wish that my kid would be more like Jesus. Then I realized that my kid would probably be more like Jesus if I were more like St. Joseph.” 

  As we celebrate the Feast of the Feast Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we can learn a lot from them on how we can each be “holy families.” 

  They faithfully practiced their faith — The scriptures tell us that the Holy Family did all the things a good, pious Jewish family would do…and more. They were faithful to the Law when they dedicated him in the Temple. We see today in Luke how they would go up to Jerusalem each year for the Passover. Something Jesus did well into adulthood all the way up to  the end of his public ministry when he celebrated the Passover with his disciples in the Upper Room at the Last Supper. 

  They were each open to the will of God—Each member had to grapple with what God was asking them and then go forward living their lives accordingly.  Mary was probably envisioning a very different life with Joseph when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would be the mother of the Savior. Yet, she responded in faith, saying, “Let it be done to me according to your will.”  Joseph also had to change his plans when Gabriel told him that it was by the Holy Spirit that Mary had conceived. Then again, when he was told to flee into Egypt…and again when they returned to Nazareth. Finally, in his agony in the garden, Jesus asked that this cup might pass, but in the end said, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

  They dealt with hardship and kept their faith in God and in each other—The circumstances of his birth in the stable and becoming political refugees fleeing from Herod are just two examples.  I am particularly struck by how the Blessed Mother remained with Jesus all the way through his passion and death on the Cross. Even later, she stayed the course and remained with the disciples in the Upper Room. She was with the disciples in the Upper Room at Pentecost. 

  There are many, many other examples of how the Holy Family can teach us holiness, but let’s go with these three for now.

First, let us practice our faith.

Now, you have heard me say a few times this year that to be Catholic in the United States these days is to be countercultural.

  Sometimes we may think that this is a recent phenomenon, but it has ALWAYS been so.   

  So, how can we live our faith in today’s world?  Pretty simple really.  The Church sanctifies three things: people, places and time. To sanctify someone or something, means to set it aside for God.  Each household, such as it is, should do the same. 

  1. Realize that you have been sanctified by your baptism.  You are a holy people, a holy family, a household of grace, set aside by God for the sanctification of the world.  And if not the whole world, then at least that little part of the world which with come into contact each day.  Be the animators of grace in your neighborhood.
    • This season, or next, put up a manger scene in your yard.  John Thomas Williamson has a really cool one that he came up with made out of plywood and a few lights.  It is really cool. If we are nice to him, maybe he will share with us the plans so we can each have one next year.  Imagine the difference that would make? 
    • Sanctify space: Where does prayer happen in your home every day?  You have a place to eat, a place to sleep, a place to watch TV, hopefully a place for your vehicle.  Where is the space set aside for prayer each day?  Get creative. 
    • Sanctify time: 
      • When does prayer happen each day in the home.  This will change as the life within the home changes.  Prayers that once took place at bedtime may move to right after dinner as the household gathers around the dinner or moves into the family room for a quick decade of the Rosary. 
      • Celebrate the holy seasons and feasts of the Church as part of the life of the home. Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, feast days of the patron saints of members of household. 

2. Living our faith and building that deep relationship with Christ and one another allows us to be open to the will of God for each member of our family.

In doing so, we are able recognize the gifts of others in the household and encourage those gifts to be used in a way that is pleasing to the giver within the family and the Church for the greater glory of Almighty God.

For ten years I was the Vocations Director for the Archdiocese.  Do you know what the greatest biggest obstacle was for those who were discerning a vocation to the priesthood or religious life? 

Parents. Specifically fathers who wanted their family name carried on and mothers who wanted grandchildren.

Now, neither of these are bad things, but if they are not the will of God for your child, you are doing them a great disservice and will find yourself fighting against God himself. Personally, I would not want to be in that position. You want your kid to be happy? Want the same thing that God wants for them. You’ll be glad you did. Celebrate each others gifts and vocation within the family and within the Church…for the world.

3. Finally, if we live our faith, if we are open to the will of God, then we are we may bear hardships that lead us and those around us to salvation.

  I’ve said it many times. 

       Life is messy…and…God is faithful. 

You can count on it.

       Still, I cannot say how I have been inspired and lifted up by those who seem to be going through the worst of times.  Yet through it all, they literally glow with the light of faith.

       It is real and it is undeniable. 

       It was true for the Holy Family, who seemed to know no end of hardship in those early years.

       Why would it not be true for us also? 

The world and everything and everyone in it has limits.

       Sometimes those limits manifest themselves in very tragic and troubling ways.   So what?!

  We have God and one another. 

  I know a woman who has had cancer two times, who has a 6’4” autistic son, who sometimes is more than a handful, and who by many measures of the world has had more than her share of heartbreak and hardship.

  And yet she radiates a joy that is unmistakable. 

       When I asked her about it once, she said, “Well, you just have to realize that you are held.”

And so we return to the Holy Family

  As Jesus was held in the arms of Mary and Joseph so too each of us is held precious in the arms of a loving God.

  So let US be a holy family.

Let us practice our faith with courage and constancy,

  Let us celebrate each other’s gifts for the glory of Almighty God

       So that none of the troubles of this world or of anyone in it can ever separate us the love of God or one another.

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The Morality of Capital Punishment

Dear Fr. Leo:

     What does the Church teach about the morality of capital punishment? – G

Dear G:

     In Alaska, we do not have the death penalty, so the question is academic, but it is one well-worth asking.

     In looking at the morality of capital punishment it helps to first understand the purpose of any punishment in general, next to see how that plays out in the criminal justice system, and finally evaluate whether capital punishment makes sense within that framework.

     In general, punishment has three main goals.  First, to bring a cessation to the offending activity; second, to reform the offender, and third, to restore the moral order, i.e., to satisfy the demands of justice.

     Let’s take an example from family life. Melissa is a 16 year-old girl. She has a curfew of 12:00 Midnight, because as we all know, nothing good happens after midnight in this town.  One night Melissa comes in at 1:00 AM. Even though she tried to sneak in through the garage, Mom and Dad are waiting. She is busted big time. The next evening at a family meeting, her parents explain to her and the other kids the seriousness of the violation, why a curfew is important and to impose a suitable punishment.    Melissa is grounded for one day for every minute she was late, or sixty days. Melissa apologizes to the members of the family and accepts her punishment. At the end of this time, her parents meet with her to discuss the matter one last time and ask what she has learned as a result. Melissa responds that not long after she was grounded some of her friends went to a party where bad things happened and got into a car wreck at about 2:00 AM. In light of that, she states that she has come to appreciate the benefits of the curfew and will not break it again. 

     In this idyllic scenario, we see that all the goals of punishment have been achieved. The offending behavior has ceased, the offender is reformed, and by her being grounded for a fitting amount of time, the demands of justice have been met.

     You can see how these same principles apply to law enforcement and the criminal justice system. If someone commits a crime, law enforcement arrests them, and their guilt is determined by the court, either by admission or by trial. If they admit guilt or are found guilty, the judge has sentencing guidelines for various offenses given the circumstances under which they were committed.

     The death penalty is usually reserved for the most heinous of crimes, namely brutal murders.  Let’s see how it measures up. Regarding the first criteria, it is rather definitive.  One cannot murder again if one is dead. However, upon further reflection, it does not do so well with the second two criteria. Putting the offender to death simply removes the offender from society. There is no possibility of reform. Finally, there are serious questions about how well the death penalty serves the demands of justice.  There are three things (among others) to consider here. First, given the expense of legal appeals which can continue for decades, condemning someone to death costs society several times more than sentencing them to life in prison without parole.  We must ask ourselves if such a high cost to society is justified.  Second, it has been shown that the death penalty does not bring closure for friends and family members of the victim. Ironically, the results are often the opposite. Often families of the victim feel that the offender got the easy way out. They have to deal with the loss of their loved one for the rest of their lives, but the murderer does not. Finally, even now, society does not necessarily possess the means to ensure that an innocent person will not be executed. The recent examples of DNA testing exonerating a person on death row are too numerous to ignore.

      All practical arguments aside, for the Christian, capital punishment eliminates the possibility of the grace of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation. We cannot ignore the example of Our Lord and the countless examples throughout history where those who have committed even the most heinous of crimes have come to faith and even reconciled with the families of their victims. One great example of this is the case between Colonel Herbert Kappler, the Nazi commander of the occupational forces in Rome and Msgr. Hugh O’Flaherty, whom he tried (unsuccessfully) to have assassinated multiple times. At the end of the war, for his many war crimes, Kappler was sentenced to life without parole in Regina Caeli Prison. For years he had only one visitor. Fourteen years later, Col. Kappler entered the Catholic Church and was baptized by none other than his sole visitor, Msgr. Hugh O’Flaherty. The film, The Scarlet and the Black, (1983) starring Christopher Plummer and Gregory Peck tells the story, as well as a number of books.

     Such Christian hope is reflected in the Catechism, #2267. While noting that in the past, the death penalty was seen as a legitimate means of protecting society, in these times more effective means of detention are available which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

     Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.

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Advent – Hope and Joy!

You know, in my life as an Ecumenist, both on the theological and the practical side, I have worked with folks from every denomination and major world religion.  One of the side effects is that when one enters into dialogue with others, you gain a real appreciation for your own tradition.

…I really like being Catholic. 

One of the great things about being Catholic is that how we see every part of life as touched by Almighty God. We sanctify everything: people, places…and time. As we enter int Advent this week, I’m going to concentrate on how we sanctify time.

We have holy hours, holy days, (ergo the word “Holiday”), Holy Week, and holy seasons.   In many ways this makes us counter cultural. 

While secular America has just entered “the Holiday Season”, we enter into the Holy Season of Advent. For us Catholics and many protestants, the Christmas season proper does not begin until the Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve and continues until the Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord. on January 12th.

But before we get there, we have this wonderful season of expectation, preparation, repentance, and hope. 

Most people may know that the Advent season focuses on expectation and think that it serves as an anticipation of Christ’s birth in the season leading up to Christmas. This is part of the story, but there’s so much more to Advent.

       The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming,” which is a translation of the Greek word parousia (παρουσία). During the 4th and 5th centuries in Spain and Gaul, Advent was a season of preparation for the baptism of new Christians in January on the feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ’s humanity and divinity by the visit of the Magi to the child Jesus, his baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, and his first miracle at Cana. During this season of preparation, sometimes called St. Martin’s Lent, since it began on November 11th, the Feast of St. Martin, early Christians would spend 40 days in penance, prayer, and fasting to prepare for this celebration.

       By the 6th century, however, the Church in Rome had tied Advent to the coming of Christ. Pope Gregory the Great in the late 6th/early 7th century composed many of the prayers, antiphons, and psalm responses. But the “coming” they had in mind was not Christ’s first coming in the manger in Bethlehem, but his second coming in glory at the end of the age. It was not until the Middle Ages that the Advent season was explicitly linked to Christ’s first coming at Christmas.

       These days, the first three weeks of Advent focus on our preparation for Christ’s second coming in glory. Then, in the last week of Advent, we shift the focus to our preparation for his first coming in humility.

       The readings each Sunday reinforce this. Today, we hear the prophet Jeremiah remind us that the days are coming when the Lord will fulfill his promise to send the Messiah

       Paul exhorts us to conduct ourselves in a way that is pleasing to God.

       And finally, Our Lord himself tells us that when he comes again in glory, we should stand erect and raise our head, for our redemption is at hand. Indeed, the trials and tribulations that he mentioned seem all too present sometimes. Thus, we need to remain vigilant so that we may recognize him at his coming. 

       And he may find us waiting in joyful hope.

How we keep the Holy Season of Advent not only helps us do so, but it can be a lot of fun.

Be counter cultural! 

This year, why not make Advent something special.  Here’s some ideas

  • Get an Advent Wreath. 
  • Celebrate the Sundays of Advent and the major saints and feasts:
  • St. Andew’s Christmas Novena
  • St. Nicholas Day, 6 December
  • Immaculate Conception, Holy Day Dec. 9th
  • Our Lady of Guadalupe, 12 December
  • St. Lucy Day, 13 Dec
  • Go to Confession!  Get your spiritual house in order.
  • Fun stuff to do in Advent
    • Advent Wreathes
    • Jesse Trees – an example in the Narthex
    • Advent Calendars
    • O Antiphons
  • Have the Wise Men travel across the living room a little each day, until they finally reach the manger on January 6th.
  • Once you’ve set up your Manger, (of Baby Jesus won’t go in there until Christmas), have a little pile of straw nearby. Every times someone in the house does a good deed, put a piece of straw in the manger so that Jesus may have a comfortable bed when he arrives .
  • Clean out your closet and give something to the Warm Clothing Drive.
  • Go to Formed.org for videos, podcasts and Advent resources.

Advent is a time of expectation, preparation, repentance, and hope. 

      For the first three weeks we prepare for his second coming in glory at the end of the age. In the last week, we shift our focus as we prepare to celebrate his first coming in humility. 

      Be counter cultural! Get ready!  Have fun! So that when Our Lord comes…

however he comes,

he may find us ready to welcome him

standing erect, with our heads held high,

filled with hope and joy.