Friends, I was reminded today, that I didn’t share my homily as usual to the web yesterday. All I can say is that I was coming off a long, lovely weekend of Thanksgiving with family, and the first snowstorm of the season that caused us to cancel Mass due to wanting to keep people save….have a good week! Pastor Kathy

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My friends, those of you who have been part of our parish for a while have heard me say over the years that I love the Season of Advent, and for the newer folks, now you have heard it too!  I think a part of why I love this season is that it calls us to be counterculture, slowing a bit at a time that is all about rushing.  Enter Advent, and the call to balance – to slowing down so as not to miss the true joy that Christmas time can bring. 

   I am of course talking about our culture’s tendency to rush Christmas’ coming – which can be so wonderful that we can’t wait!  Advent, almost a full four weeks this year, gives us the time to prepare well, a step at a time.  Having just finished a Church Year that at its end gave us opportunity to ask, “How did we do this year in basically, being our best, and how might we like to do better this next year?”

   I personally find what helps me most in getting ready for Christmas is a balance between what I will call “Advent things and Christmas things,” and they do overlap a bit.  The Advent preparation might be as simple as reading the Sunday Scriptures and then thinking on how the themes found in the gospel stories for instance affect us here and now.

• Mary traveling to be with her aunt Elizabeth to both comfort her in her pregnancy come late in life, and Mary’s search for belief and confirmation in the miracle that has befallen her.
• John the Baptist’s journey “finding a straight path in the wilderness of life,” not unlike our own personal searches for meaning and truth. 
• Joseph and his seemingly dashed dreams of fulfillment – something we all experience in life from time to time.

     All these stories my friends are only meaningful if we let them become so –if we try to see how they are like our own stories. 

   In the beginning I mentioned that it is important to prepare, little by little for a big event.  Perhaps a personal story will make this clearer.  About a month ago, Robert and I were visiting our son Isaac and daughter-in-law, Lauren. She and I came upon a wonderful sounding recipe for Pecan Cream Pie.  Since we were there for a long weekend, we decided to make this treat that comes right out of the Amish Cookbook which tells you immediately that it would be very rich in ingredients. 

   There were several steps in making this wonderful treat and Lauren and I decided to split up the sections to make it easier and go quicker. “Cutting to the chase” so to speak, this recipe needed much fine-tuning, it wasn’t something you could rush – each step had to be done in order to make it turn out. 

   It took us most of the day from reading the lengthy recipe to actually doing each part.  We decided that the recipe was poorly written and because we wanted to make it for Thanksgiving, I would rewrite the recipe and we would tag-team on it, each doing a part as was suggested, slowing it down.  Taking our time made it come together in a much better way.

   Advent calls us to this kind of slowing down, not rushing to the joy that Christmas time brings before we have really prepared.  Anything that is really important takes time to bring about –I think of awaiting a new baby, studying to earn a degree that may lead to a job, and so on.  I find that sending out Christmas cards and letters helps me do this slowing down, connecting with many that I only do, once a year.  For others, it may be something else.

   The Scriptures for today speak of  “dark and light;” encouraging us to move, evermore toward “the light.”  It is an interesting concept, here in the Midwest, as we live, at this time of year more in physical “darkness,” than light. 

   Isaiah, in today’s 1^st reading encourages [walking] “in the light of our God.”  And to him this would mean, “not [raising] the sword against another, nor [training] “for war again.”

   In a better world, can we imagine a time when “we train for peace, instead of war?”  Many times, we find that after long wars end, conflicts still remain – all too true in our world today.  From Alcoholics Anonymous comes the following wisdom –  “to keep doing the same thing, expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity.”

   Paul in his letter to the Romans says basically, [it’s time] “to wake from sleep.”  Matthew’s gospel for today tells us to “be prepared.”  Had we met today, we would have sung that prayer at the beginning of Mass. 

   Isaiah’s mention today of God’s home being on a “high mountain,” exegetes tell us is not so much about a place, but more so about us, as God’s people working evermore to be about love – a higher good – as opposed to hate in our lives.

   Dan Schutte, former active Jesuit priest and composer, who in recent years has given on-line retreats said of Advent [it’s all] “about joy, as God created us for this.”  He too though, speaks of preparing well – “There is always more in us that needs light shed upon it.”  And he concludes that thought with, “All who choose to accept the light, share it and spread it.”  As we said last week, it is not enough to say, “Here I am,” but, “we are ready” to do our part to make our world better. 

   A final thought as we begin this holy season – Advent really calls us, “to be aware” of all that is around us, over and above the upset and distrust, even meanness which may be around us.  Having just celebrated Thanksgiving, hopefully you found much, or at least, some things to be grateful for.  And that brings us back to awareness and not rushing through life.  George Carlan I think said it well. [It’s] “ not the number of breaths we take, but the moments that take our breath away!”  Awareness – my friends, preparation, and joy!  Amen? Amen!