Each year when Advent comes round; I love hearing the words of Isaiah as we have shared and proclaimed them here today, “A herald’s voice in the desert cries—make ready the way of our God”—clear a straight path.

Advent is all about the expectant waiting.  We can think of the times we have waited for a loved one’s return, from a trip, coming home from school—our kids were 6 hours away, so only came home at the holidays and “expectant waiting” described the feeling well at seeing them again.  The arrival of a new baby is another occasion that comes under the category of expectant waiting.  For Isaiah, it is a longing for all that this expected one will bring—peace and justice that he speaks of in another scriptural passage where he announced the coming of John the Baptist who will call the people to prepare.

In Luke’s gospel which we didn’t read today, there is a longer account of who John would be and of his call to the people for what would be needed from them. We read, “Every valley will be filled in—every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight—the rough ways smooth.”  Nothing will, nor should get in the way of Jesus’ coming—neither at that first appearance nor now, in our hearts this Christmas season.

God wants to get close to us—come into our hearts and reside there, help us to find our way, living our lives to the fullest.  But often, the path to our heart isn’t straight, it is cluttered with “rocks and dead wood”—the obstacles that we put in the way,  just like the woods on our farm used to be before we made trails. It is hard for God to get through when we throw up barriers.  We need to look often into our lives and check where our focus is—our way isn’t cleared once and for all—but needs constant checking.  Are we always busy with things?–always keeping active so that no time is available for quiet reflecting, having a talk with God about the bigger issues? Even though this is a busy time, I am simply asking us all to consider balance between the “busy-ness” and the quiet.

A friend of mine told me that he takes 10 minutes or so of quiet each day, with his coffee, lights a candle, and goes to the “basement of his heart” as we spoke of last week and checks  in with the Source of All Life. He says that it makes all the difference in his days.

The beautiful reading from Isaiah today gives us a wonderfully concise picture of just who “this shoot from the stump of Jesse” will be—that in fact we should keep our focus on.  The Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, counsel, strength and reverence for God will reside in this One, we are told.  Justice will gird him and his care for all the poor and lowly will be evident.  Those who are not about justice, love and mercy will be put in their place.

There is something wonderful in the air it seems at Christmas time when folks tend to reach out unlike other times of the year—I so long to make that Christmas feeling extend throughout the year!   I believe that Isaiah was speaking of a future, peaceful time such as this; that the world only got a glimpse of when Jesus walked the earth—the wolf lying down with the lamb, the cow and bear as neighbors and so on.

All this peace and good will are our challenges my friends to bring about in our world; one small step at a time—one act of kindness at a time. We all love the stories of “paying it forward” when someone does us a kindness and we want to give them something back and instead are told, “Do something good for someone else!”

Advent also calls us to look at our world and its people with bigger eyes and larger hearts and to get at what causes people to suffer.  I was having a conversation with a family member on Thanksgiving and shared about the collection we are doing for Standing Rock and it got me to thinking—wouldn’t it be great if there were no reservations, if we all could truly be one, living together in peace—that, truly would be “the lion lying down with the lamb!”  Our country has a like opportunity right now with the “Water Savers” at Standing Rock in North Dakota.

Paul reinforces Isaiah’s message of peace and justice toward all in his letter to the Romans. He lets them and we know that our strength comes from our loving God who will stand with us, and be for us, in our pursuit of goodness, kindness, peace, mercy and justice.  We never have to do it alone.

We are moving into a season in the Church Year that for many of us; if not all of us, is that one time each year that we really manage to open up our hearts, if they have been closed, even if just for a day or two, a week or two, and that is why this holy day/holiday is loved by many. We all as individuals, peoples, nations, want, more than we would say or admit perhaps, to live in a world that truly responds in love, care, joy, belief in others, gratitude, peace, generosity, justice, regardless of what we heard in the past political campaign.  That is what Christmas is all about, extending our best selves to others, to our world and this is what truly “makes America great!”

In tribute to a prophet of our times, who died this past year, Fr. Ed Hays, who founded the Shantivanam Prayer Community in Kansas many years back; I would once again like to share his notion that the Christmas Crib and Santa Claus should go together.  I have always felt this idea to be right, even before I discovered he felt that way too! Great minds I guess….

Ed Hays was a gifted artist and writer along with being a fine human being and several Christmases ago, he designed a card depicting both the baby Jesus and Santa.   A baby was born out of love and self-giving and ever since, followers of Jesus have celebrated his coming among us by generously and lovingly giving to others at Christmas time.

I have heard some people who try to separate the two, Jesus and Santa and while I understand the intent, I don’t agree with the action. What I would say is needed, is again—balance. We should not have Santa without Jesus, nor should we have Jesus without Santa. When we balance the two we have love that is expressed. If we have Jesus and no Santa—then we fail to respond to God’s great act of love freely given—we simply must respond! If we have Santa and no Jesus, we have forgotten the reason for the celebration and our gift-giving is hollow.

Therefore Friends, my prayer for each of us is that we strive for that balance this Advent Season—make our ways straight, let nothing get in the way of our God coming into our hearts this Christmas Season, and be close to us then throughout the year, responding with love as we reach out to everyone we meet!  May God bless us all, and give us the strength to be true followers of Jesus, the Christ, our Brother and Friend.

The holy season of Advent gives us four weeks as Christians, followers of Jesus, to prepare not only to remember his historical coming in time, to be one with us, Emmanuel, but of our journey to God.  Both parts are important, but the last is equally important!  Advent is a time to remember that Jesus doesn’t just come to us, but we MUST also be on a journey to him.

All the readings today speak about being on a journey.  In our opening hymn, we sang, “People look east, the time is near!”  “Pilgrimage” is the word most used by the people in Jesus’ earthly time.  Psalm 22 speaks about the joy a traveler or pilgrim felt in entering the temple, the house of God.  The prayer on the pilgrim’s lips was always, “peace, be with you.”  I reflect on the greetings of family and friends over this Thanksgiving weekend—in our family as we greeted each other initially and said our good-byes at day’s end—it was all about peace and all good to each one. Travelers long to go home each Thanksgiving, remembering times past and the joy of being with loved ones—and, this is something different to each person.

This is the year that our children are with their in-laws—we switch it up each year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but even from the miles, the greetings come back and forth and the gratitude for each other is felt.  Thanksgiving also reminds me of three years ago when our daughter’s Thanksgiving plans to come home were changed abruptly when she developed pre-eclampsia and had to stay put hoping to keep the baby inside as long as possible. Elliot, ever anxious for life and what comes next stayed put until December 8^th, and has caused us all to feel gratitude ever since, as we “journey” with him.

In Jesus’ time, the greeting, “Peace, be with you,” was the wish that people gave to each other when they entered another’s home, much like we say, “Hello” and give hugs of welcome.  “Peace, be with you” was indicative of the fact that the time when Jesus walked the earth was a time of warring—one nation against another—in many ways, like today.  Jerusalem was a strong fortress in and of itself, but the psalmist tells us that what made it strong was the presence of God within, and if they enjoyed any peace at all, it was due to that fact, that God lives there, within them and each person and their world.  The same is true of us—our strength and peace and well-being comes from our God within us, our being aware that we are a part of something bigger than our own existence. Our strength and peace of mind does not come ultimately from any of the material trappings we gather around us.  Hopefully, these thoughts can comfort us as we contemplate and worry about what will come next in our country.

There is a wonderful story told entitled, “The Basement of my Heart”—I have shared this story with you in the past, but it bears repeating at this time of year. The story is about a person whose life was in disarray.  This person had so much going on—sad and hard things happening in her life—and one day, just sat down, wondering where God was in all this trouble.  In the quiet—she found that God was right there, in the “basement of her heart” and when she took the time, she found God had been there all along and wanted to help her and be with her in not just the good, but the hard things in her life.  I like to share this story because it is so easy to forget in the busy-ness of our lives that our strength and hope is very close—right within us, in fact!

The gospel today tells us that the Promised One is coming at a time we least expect. The scripture continues…“so we should be ready.” As the story, “The Basement of my Heart” suggests, our God is always near and being cognizant of this fact, softens the Scripture and informs us each day that God does indeed love us and want our good.  Each of us has God within us—we are made of God and as someone wise has said, we are merely spiritual beings here, having a human experience.

So, you see; our journey this Advent isn’t to strive to become more spiritually-minded; we just have to become more aware of who we really are, and claim that existence in our human hearts. When we believe this, then we can believe the concept that each of us carries the face of God and of the responsibility to show that face to the world in which we live. If we walk through our lives with eyes and hearts open, the opportunities to share the goodness of life—the face of Jesus, abound.  We are finishing up our collection for Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota next Sunday and then we can look toward assisting with the Winona Warming Center and the Ten Days of Giving.  Many of us are involved in sharing a monthly meal at the Catholic Worker House, besides our regular sharing of groceries for Winona Volunteer Services, which we will pick up again on the second Sunday in December.

Paul, in the reading from Romans tells us to “wake up.”  In the Gospel reading from Matthew we hear of the need to “stay awake” and “to be prepared.”  All of our readings today are preparing us to receive Jesus, our Savior, more fully into our lives.  This is such a rich time—Advent, and I love it, every year when it comes round.  I find within myself the need to prepare each year for the awesome coming of Jesus, not only into history, but into my life anew.

Each year when Advent comes, I go out on our land and cut pine boughs, bring them into the house to become part of a wreath, something like the one that resides to my right here in our liturgical space today.  The color of the boughs is green, the church color for hope—we hope in our God for so much!

We have one candle lit today and we will add one each week as we journey toward Christmas.  The color for the season is blue—a color that denotes the holy, royal blood line of Jesus both human and of God and the blue is also in deference to Mary, his beloved mother.  In the third week, Gaudete Sunday, or simply, “Joy Sunday,” because our journey to Christmas is almost complete, we will light the candle in the white holder.

Again, this is such a rich time and we simply should not let ourselves, like much of our society, rush to Christmas before we have prepared.  During Advent, I always spend time thinking of Mary, Jesus’ mother and of her preparations to be a mother, for the first time. It wasn’t something she could rush—seemingly, it would take 9 months no matter what she did. She was told this would be a special child—the very Son of God. Would this birth be different from other births? She didn’t know. She had to prepare like this holy child would arrive like any other because she simply didn’t know.

I think the more we can make the Holy Family real, live human beings, the more we can look up to them as models in our own faith over matters that we don’t entirely understand. It was a walk in faith for Mary and Joseph as all pregnancies are. But the important piece is that preparation was necessary, then, and for us now.  The incarnation—“God-with-us” is an awesome event, not to be taken lightly!  We live in a society unfortunately that wants everything NOW rather than patiently waiting and making sure that we are truly ready.

And how do we do that?  I would guess that the words of Isaiah today in the first reading are a good place to start.  We are told to take the tools of war that are basically violence and hatred and turn them into life-producing tools—goodness, kindness, justice, truth and love.  Now I know that this is a stretch—to imagine that we can ever get rid of war and fighting as a way to peace, especially with some of the rhetoric we have heard during the presidential campaign, but hope springs eternal within me and with any great venture; we simply have to start. In our own lives, what can we do to be more peace-minded, less apt to fly off the handle when “someone gets under our skin?” I have found, putting some space and time between my reactions allows for a calmer, clear-headed response, one that can attempt to see an opposing opinion.  At times like these, it is good to remember our brother Jesus and how he responded to like situations—he was always trying to better understand people.  It is also good to distinguish between the crime and the person. It is appropriate to hate the crime, but never the person, and granted, this is hard to do at times. For the Christian this simply means that we need more and more to put on Jesus—become more like him.

This time of year, we always hear stories of ways that people step out of themselves and give in a special way because of the gratitude they feel for all the gifts they have received in life. Advent is about gratitude for a God who has loved us enough to send us Jesus.

As Paul says, “we need to be alert, attentive for ways to become more like Jesus—we need to change our hearts! And the local paper gave us this in the person of Michael Gerson from the Washington Post:  “For believers, Christmas culminates the remarkable story of a God who searches for us.  The only adequate responses are stillness, gratitude and trust.  After a dismal and divisive campaign season, many of us need the timely reminders of the Advent Season: that people matter more than all our political certainties.  That God is in control, despite our best efforts.  And that some conflicts can’t be won by force or votes—only by grace.”

So friends, may Advent be for each of us, a time to grow closer to our God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth—if we haven’t been as attentive to his message as we would like, then I invite us all to go into the “basement of our hearts” and get reacquainted with our God who is always near.

Friends, this Solemnity feast of Jesus, Our Brother and Friend, as I have named it, traditionally known as, Christ the King has only been with us since 1925.   Pope Pius XI established it, because in his words, “People had thrust Jesus and his holy law out of their lives.” He also said, “These laws [were given] no place in public affairs or in politics,” basically suggesting, that they should! The pope continued, “As long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of the Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations.”

Now there may be some truth in that because if we are to look at the message of Jesus’ life; we can sum it up quite succinctly by saying that it was, “all about love.”   The pontiff’s words say that if we don’t follow Jesus’ “law of love” in our dealings around the world; there is no hope for peace.  I think “love of adversaries” is probably not the first item on the list when trying to figure out how to deal with other nations.

So, from the standpoint of a “Roman” Catholic pope declaring this feast; we can perhaps understand the naming of Jesus, the Christ, as “King.”  It is interesting though that Jesus was not a king in his own time, nor did he ever claim the title for himself.  In fact, the title was used to mock him as he hung, dying on the cross—as I just proclaimed, “You saved others, save yourself, if you are King of the Jews!”

All the people, living in the time of Jesus, knew of kings—there was Herod, a puppet king set up by Rome, who knew nothing about being a true king—one who would care for the people and be about their best interests.  The people of Jesus’ time awaited a Messiah and had the mistaken idea that when this messiah came, he would take on Rome and conquer this enemy, once and for all.  Imagine their disappointment and confusion when Jesus was crucified.  We might say that many in this country were awaiting a “messiah” of sorts when they cast their votes almost two weeks ago.

But Jesus was about something else—“I have come to set a fire on the earth”—a fire basically of love—there will be no more bloodshed, either of animal offerings or human sacrifice—I am coming to do something new.

It strikes me that we saw a similar phenomenon in this year’s election. The president-elect made it abundantly clear who he was, who he didn’t like and who in fact he would wield the power of the White House against—minorities, immigrants, women—yet as one commentator said this last week, many, many people who have good hearts put these truths aside and voted for him anyway thinking that he would make their lot in life better, even though through his many business dealings; he proved that the opposite was true.

I have not commented on the election yet in a homily and throughout the election process, I tried not to, simply because I think I need to keep the lines clear.  I speak now only because when someone who wishes to lead our country displays an inability to do so coupled with a moral sense that in the least, seems to be lacking, such as we have not seen before in an aspirant for the White House; we have to ask, “What is going on?”

There have been many explanations given as to why we experienced this outcome and it isn’t my purpose to get into that except to mention that our Church in its hierarchy was less than prophetic when it encouraged parishioners—in some cases, rather strenuously to “vote pro-life.”  I say, “less than prophetic” because their definition of “pro-life” was very narrow—being “pro-life” means from birth to death, and everything in between.  Just because someone talks about overturning Roe v. Wade, that is a far cry from doing it.  Pro-life is also about uplifting minorities, refugees, women and all others down-trodden—being pro-life is hard work! Or as one of you has been sharing in emails recently, “Good is something you do, not something you talk about.  Some medals are printed on your soul, not your jacket.”  Another way to say it, “when convenient and when not,” and certainly never because you are trying to get votes!

Next Sunday begins Advent and the words of the prophets will don some the cards we send out for the Christmas Season—“The lion will lie down with the lamb.” Jesus indeed asks something new of us—even now, over 2,000 years later.  We must not just speak about being good; we must in fact, BE GOOD and object when we see less than good in those who want to be our leaders.

Several years after Jesus’ resurrection, when the people truly thought about it, they began to give him the title of “king.”  People did this in that best sense of what a king should be—one who was wise, good—a person of justice, who would truly care for the needs of people and call them to be the best they could be for themselves and others. This was truly a description of who they knew Jesus to be.   People instinctively know when goodness and truth appears and name it for what it is.

In our quest then to understand the naming of Jesus as king, we can look to the early years of Christianity.  As the young Church was growing and becoming more established, it was no doubt felt important to state, in no uncertain terms that Jesus was the fulfillment of the religious expectations of the Jewish people and thus the tracing of him back to David in the genealogies.

In the first reading from Samuel, we learn what can be expected from a true king—this person would shepherd and protect the people—would be their leader.  They also saw the king as the one who would be the commander of Israel—the one who would lead them into battle against their enemies, thus the misconception of who Jesus, the Messiah would be.  I think for too long, our Church has been under the misconception as well of what Jesus intended for our world.

We see the response of the true king in Jesus as he gave his life—he wasn’t ultimately concerned about himself, but promises paradise to his brother criminal for recognizing his royal nature—both that of Jesus and his own, when he said, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” In Jesus’ response, he proves himself a king, even though his throne isn’t majestic, but a cross.  And again, we must remember, Jesus never claimed “kingship” for himself.

Paul, in our second reading today, gives many names to Jesus to add to his royal title; first-born of all creation, image of the invisible God.  These two names alone tell us much about our God. If we see and know Jesus, we then know what our God is like.  If we look to the Scriptures and study the life Jesus lived, we know that our God is a God of love, mercy, justice—one who lifts up the lowly, one who will fight for the down-trodden—one who is not about being served, but one who wants to serve, wants to share with us this beautiful creation—wants us to be close.     And on this weekend when we celebrate what it means to be a true leader as we see it in Jesus, we can’t help but grieve as we contemplate the election of a man who does not emulate any of these qualities.

Paul continues with the names he attributes to Jesus:  In his resurrection, Jesus is first-born of the dead.  This title should give each of us hope—knowing that Jesus rose, signals what we can expect!

So, one thing that we can say about Jesus Christ, the King is, as a scripture scholar has said, “He is unparalleled in all history as far as kings go,” whether he ever saw himself that way or not.  It is understandable that Jesus never claimed a title or position for himself—the true prophets are about something different—not taking care of themselves, but others—calling each of us to our best selves.  And in my mind, because he is such a great role model in simplicity and servanthood, “Brother” is a much better title than “King.”

Each year at this time; we recall the death of John F. Kennedy—a young man taken too soon for whom Joan Chittister stated, “With the death of the young president came the death of the spirit of the nation. Hope died and direction died and idealism died in an entire generation with [his] death. If we learn anything from such waste, it is that each of us carries some part of another person’s life; but we never know how much.  We as a people must realize that we live not just for ourselves, but for others –this is not just a Christian attribute, but a human one.  It is one we will need to keep in mind these next four years and speak up when we see less than that!

Pope Pius XI was concerned back in 1925 that Jesus and his message needed to once again become more familiar to each of us—needed to penetrate our lives and as we move out into our society, state and government—allow Jesus’ way of life to seep into all the structures that govern our world and its people.   If we want to bring peace to our world, we need to remember the golden rule of Jesus, our Brother—that we do to others as we would want others to do to us.  Maybe the question we should all ask ourselves as this Church Year ends and a new one begins next week—can we recommit ourselves to follow Jesus’ lead?

Our readings this week cause us to ask, “What happens next? This question is one we all need to contemplate in our lives, from beginning to end—in our youth and as we age.  And there are different meanings and answers we come to as we move through our lives.  As young children, we were thoroughly engaged in life, discovering all there was to know, getting our simple needs met, hopefully—enjoying our existence.  Hopefully too, as a child, we knew a certain amount of love so that growing into adulthood; we felt good about ourselves and as a result, were able to make a contribution to our world.  Not everyone finds themselves in this situation and then, life can be a struggle.  If we didn’t receive all the nurturing needed in our younger years, hopefully we found it later on in our lives and are able now to give back a measure of what we have received.

As the years of our lives go by; we begin at some point reflecting, with more urgency, whether there is life after this life.  We see parents, spouses, and siblings die, and we begin to realize that we are the next group that will experience this awesome passing over and the thought may bring some trepidation—hopefully less and less as we age.  Scripture and our faith tell us that we can’t imagine what God has prepared, yet our human nature wants instinctively to hold on to what it knows.

Separations come in life, from death and other causes, and yet, life continues to move on—there is no stopping it.  It is all a mystery and we all can only pray to understand and accept it somehow.

We all understand the passion for life that underlies the readings today, especially in the gospel story.  We too instinctively want life to continue.  We know this fact most personally, in our own lives, as we watch our families grow and change, take on responsibility and carry life forward.

This passion for, and value that we place on human life can be seen in the practices that have arisen in different cultures through time—burial rituals for instance.  Because we consider life to be sacred, the places that we commit our loved ones to become sacred as well. These places become “sacred” because people deem them as so, leaving proclamations from church officials that differ, null and void. Some cultures commit their loved one’s remains back to the ground or the sea—lift them up to the heavens—according to where they believe the person came from.

The inevitability of death makes us reflect upon the meaning of life—what am I here for?—what is my piece to do?—a very spiritual question. I am working with a couple preparing them for marriage in the spring and the man in the couple comes out of a background that didn’t include a religious upbringing—he has no problem with those who do espouse a religion,  it is just not something that is important for him.

I indicated to him that even though this was the case, that he doesn’t claim a particular faith, he was no doubt a spiritual person.  I explained that each of us is a composite of the physical, emotional and spiritual.  Explaining the spiritual piece; I told him, it is what we get up for each day, the code of ethics by which we live—it may even be what we live and would die for.  Given that explanation, he conceded that he is a spiritual person.  I gave him an exercise to do entitled, “My Spiritual Journey” wherein I think he will answer questions for himself like, “Why am I here—what am I to do with my life?”

Continuing our thinking then around life and death presented by the Scriptures today; we are told that the Israelites did not have a clear idea of an afterlife—they believed that the dead went to a place they called Sheol, a place of neither reward nor punishment, a shadowy, underworld place.  They didn’t have a notion of an immortal soul like the Greeks who came after them. The Israelites believed their God was “of the living,” not the dead, so this would fit their thinking that discounted an immortal soul.  The Israelites did not venerate gods of the underworld as other nations did.  Even though their belief didn’t include an immortal soul; they didn’t believe that death was the end.

The reading from 2 Maccabees, while incredibly violent, serves to inform us of several important points in understanding the Israelite people and their way of thinking.  This reading comes out of a time of persecution when the occupying Greeks are trying to force the Israelite people to renounce their religious practices.  The reading shows the valor of those being tortured, because from three of the victims who speak, we learn of their belief that God will one day “lift them up.”  It stops short of claiming a belief in an immortal soul, but clearly is speaking of the resurrection of the dead.  This reading is the earliest reference to some form of existence after death.

It is this belief that one day we will see our loved ones again that gives each of us hope in the loss of loved ones and too, as we contemplate our own deaths. This past week, I was called to the hospital to minister to a young couple whose marriage vows I had witnessed last fall.  Their 39-week old daughter was still-born.  As you can imagine, it was a very sad time—one day the baby was jumping in her mom’s womb and the next day, there was no movement.  We spent time together, sharing, caring, anointing—baptizing this little one with our tears and I know the thought if not there at the moment, will come for them—we will see her again, one day!

In the gospel reading, Jesus deals with the same theme, that of the resurrection of the dead. Because the Sadducees don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead;  they try to make a sham of it in the scenario they raise of the seven brothers all marrying the same woman—an ancient marriage practice to keep the family line going, all through the male, of course. Jesus exposes their mockery by insisting that there will be no need for marriage in the next life because there will be no death.  He also restates the traditional belief that their God is, “of the living,” not the dead.

Even so, Jesus, as is always the case, is presenting something new.  Here, it is his understanding that God is God of the living and not the dead and the fact that it means something different to him than what the Israelite people have always believed. In the original meaning, “God of the Living,” simply meant, those who were alive now, whereas Jesus was talking about the resurrection of the dead and that those people would then be alive in a “new” way.

We continue then, to question through these readings, where the belief in the resurrection of the dead comes from because we know it doesn’t come from the Greek belief in the immortal soul.  Upon further reflection, we realize this belief for them, so passionately displayed in the torture of the Maccabees is their ardent belief in covenant—the promise made to them by their God—“I will be your God and you will be my people.”  So, my friends, it was all about their trust in their God—they believed the bonds that bound them were so strong as to be unbreakable.  That was the foundation for their faith.  A good place for us to contemplate how strong our faith is and to what extent we would go for that faith!

This is carried forth into Christian belief as Paul writes to the Romans 8:38-39, “neither death, nor life…will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”  For us friends, it is the same, we believe.  As Paul says today to the Thessalonians, “May our Savior, Jesus Christ, may God who loved us and in mercy gave us eternal consolation and hope, console [our] hearts and strengthen them for every good work and word.  The young couple I mentioned, grieving the loss of their daughter will go on holding tight to each other and continue to choose life.

The readings clearly reflect end times as we liturgically move in our church year toward its end.  November is a good time to reflect on all that this means as we literally watch our earth and surroundings change before our eyes.  Many people are putting their yards and gardens to bed, so to speak, for the season.  Days are becoming shorter—with less light.  For some of you, I know, this brings sadness—it brings change—it slows life down—others are ready to rest in the slower pace.

I believe the Church, in God’s wisdom sets us up liturgically each year to go through these changes along with our earth. Here in the Midwest; we truly see these stark contrasts of change. These changes allow us to reflect on life, its goodness, and its finality, and strive as we look toward a new Church Year, as Advent begins in a few weeks, to always, always keep our focus on Jesus who came to show us the way, the truth and the life.  Our readings today call us to the finality of life, yes, but also to the promise of everlasting life.  Amen? (Response)  Amen!