Today’s Gospel says loudly and clearly: don't take things for granted. The end-of-life reminds me of the fellow who lived recklessly, ate and drank and partied day in and day out. Eventually, he was dying. The family asked their pastor to come to their home to prepare him for death. The pastor arrived and during the rite of anointing asked the man, “Do you renounce Satan.” There was silence. The pastor asked in a louder voice, “Do you renounce Satan.” Still, silence. Finally, the pastor shouted, “Do you renounce Satan?”
And the fellow slowly opened his eyes and said, “Look, in my condition, I don’t want to antagonize anyone at this time.” I don't think that's a good way to hedge your bet.
But back to the Gospel. We take so much for granted, don't we? We take tomorrow for granted, without a second thought. We take one another for granted, without even a thank you. We take God and his gifts to us for granted. We take our freedoms and opportunities for granted, often without a word of gratitude.
Some of you may remember the American playwright Thornton Wilder? Among his works is the classic play, “Our Town.” In one scene, set in the early 20th century, a father said quietly to his teenage son something like this: “In the backyard I saw something I didn't like. I saw your mother chopping wood. That's your job, but you hadn't done it. She needed the wood, but she didn't ask you. Your mother cooks your meals, washes your clothes, cleans up after you. But she's not your servant. She's your mother.” The teen began to get a bit teary-eyed with remorse, and his father lovingly concluded by saying, “I knew I'd only have to mention it to you.”
Like the scene in “Our Town,” it's easy to imagine God saying to each of us, “I saw something I didn't like to see. I saw you not doing what you needed to do.” And then Jesus adds, “I knew I'd only have to mention it to you.”
The great truth of our faith is that we are by grace what Jesus Christ is by nature: sons and daughters of God our Father, called to be, so to speak, the hands and feet and voice and eyes and ears of Christ in our everyday circumstances.
Advent begins the liturgical year which is a re-living of the history of our salvation. Advent invites us to prepare again for the threefold coming of Jesus. Jesus came to us centuries ago as the Word made flesh, the Christ-child; he comes to us today sacramentally and mystically in the signs of bread and wine; and he will come again triumphantly at the end of time.
So how might we keep this Advent season of expectation alive at home? How prepare anew for the coming of Jesus? Some families create an advent wreath and light one candle at the dinner table during the first week, two candles during the second week, and so on. And after lighting the candle they pray in their own words for the coming anew of the Messiah into their own lives. Other families make a Jesse or genealogy tree to re-experience the story of our salvation. Still others set up a nativity scene and invite family members to take turns telling in their own words the meaning of Christmas or God-with-us, Emmanuel.
These are but a few customs that can help us to keep alive the meaning of Advent, and to be grateful for what we are about to receive, the gift of the Word made flesh at Christmas. In the larger community, we might prepare for the coming of Jesus by engaging in a volunteer service activity.
The word of God in the Book of Isaiah takes us back in our imaginations to the sixth century before Jesus (the 500s). The author acknowledges how the Hebrews often broke their covenant with God (their promises) through their many infidelities. Isaiah describes graphically who we are—mere clay in the imaginative hands of God, our maker or potter. The author then prays that God, who worked mighty signs and awesome wonders in the past, will reappear, as he did at Mount Sinai centuries before, and find the Hebrews doing good. That prayer might well be ours too! God always finding us doing good.
Paul, in his letter to the Christian community in Corinth in Greece, prays that God will bestow his gifts of grace and peace upon that community. And as they wait for the revelation or appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul prays that God will help them stay the course. Surely Paul’s prayer is ours as well: that we persevere in discipleship with Jesus.
In the Gospel according to Mark, the author challenges us to always be alert and watchful for the Lord’s coming. Always behave in a manner worthy of our calling as sons and daughters of God our Father.
The Advent season is really about waiting. We do plenty of waiting, don’t we? We wait on lines. We wait in a doctor’s office. We wait for a “live voice” to answer the phone. Yes, we do a lot of waiting. So too did folks in the bible, but theirs was a different kind of waiting. They often waited for the Messiah to rescue them from their daily hardships, from the follies of their kings, from their exile, from their sufferings throughout their many foreign occupations. And yet the Messiah often seemed to be hidden.
We, too, often pray for God to rescue us from a crisis of one kind or another. At times we beg God to appear and make things right for us. Perhaps this is the story of everyone. Where was God when, for example, a loved one was in harm’s way? Why didn’t God protect them? There are no satisfactory answers. Yes, we pray for God to rescue us. Yet God can seem silent, hidden from our eyes. But is God silent? Is God hidden?
We profess that God is in our midst. But where? God is all around us! In nature and in people. God is with us as we ache with pain, as we become anxious during severe illness or a broken relationship or a job loss. God is especially in the word proclaimed and the sacrament celebrated today.
Saint Paul wrote that God’s favor, God’s grace has been revealed to us in Jesus. Jesus already has been transformed into a new indescribable heavenly reality. That's our future as well, but here and now, we as disciples are called to continue the saving work of Jesus Christ.
Let us pray this Advent season that the Spirit of God, who overshadowed the Virgin Mary and brought forth the Word made flesh, will reenergize us to become better instruments of faith in God, of hope in eternal life, and of love of one another, better channels of forgiveness, compassion, truth, and fairness, and better examples of hospitality, service, and responsibility until Jesus Christ comes again in glory at the end-time to create a “new heaven and a new earth.” Amen.
