The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, November 29th: Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:12—4:2; Luke 21:25-28, 34-36)

ADVENT: A GOOD TIME TO EXAMINE PRIORITIES

This week is the first Sunday of Advent. Our modern culture tells us the Christmas season is now in full swing. We are encouraged to go overboard—overboard decorating our homes, overboard eating and drinking, and overboard shopping until we drop. During these difficult economic times, Christmas shopping is now being described as our patriotic duty. To revive the economy and keep people from losing their jobs, we have an obligation to spend money we don’t have, to buy stuff no one needs, and then give it to people we don’t necessarily like. All in the name of the god we worship: materialism.

The Church takes a slightly different approach. First, on the official Church calendar, the Christmas season doesn’t even begin until the evening of Christmas Eve. Then it continues for the following 12 days until the feast of Epiphany on January 6th.

The real Christmas season is still almost four weeks away. So relax. Stay away from the mall. Order a few gifts online or buy a handful of gift cards so you’re not accused of being a total Grinch, and then take a nap.

Between now and the real Christmas season, we are officially in the season of Advent. The theme of Advent is anticipation. (Cue the Carly Simon song here.) We wait expectantly for the coming of the Lord. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming” (CCC section 524).

The First Sunday of Advent is dedicated to Jesus’ coming in glory at the end of time, in other words, the second coming. In St. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he encouraged his readers “to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones.”

Most biblical scholars believe when St. Paul wrote his two epistles to the church at Thessalonica—which are the earliest written texts in the New Testament—he was convinced Jesus would return in glory during his lifetime. As the decades passed, Paul began to realize God’s timing is not the same as man’s timing. But his encouragements were still valid. Believers must be ready at all times because the second coming could occur at any moment.

In the gospel reading this week, Jesus Himself offered some pretty vivid descriptions of the second coming. “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars….People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming on the world.”

Wow, people will die of fright? Whatever exactly happens during the second coming, it will not be meek and mild and low-keyed, that’s for sure.

Jesus continued and said, “The powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

The main message in the readings this week, and the main message of Advent, is fairly basic: get ready, get serious, get excited.

If God is truly God, then the one thing we as believers never should be is complacent. Think about it: the Almighty Creator of the Universe loved us so much He sent His only Son to save us from sin and death and make it possible that we can live in heavenly joy for all eternity.

And how do we often react to this phenomenal reality? With a yawn and a glance at our watches, as we mutter, “When is this Mass (or worship service) gonna be over?”

When you stop to think about it, if we really believe God is God, then this type of behavior borders on insanity.

My favorite living Christian writer (just eking out Charles Colson for the top spot on my personal Top-10 list) is Dr. Peter Kreeft, who teaches philosophy at Boston College. In his book, Jesus-Shock, Kreeft discusses sloth, one of the Seven Deadly Sins. He explains sloth “does not necessarily imply any physical laziness.” Instead, sloth “means the passivity…of the will…even in the presence of the true good.”

In other words, sloth can exist even among people who go to church every week and do all the churchy things they’re suppose to do. If they do all these religious activities with an apathetic, half-hearted attitude, then they are guilty of sloth.

In his million-dollar paragraph (one I wish I had written), Kreeft says:

Where do we find sloth? Go to your nearest Sunday morning church service, Protestant or Catholic. Then go to your nearest athletic field, amateur or professional. Compare the interest, the passion, the energy, the investment of the heart in those two places. How much soul-stuff, how much of the self, rubs off in those two places? Full disclosure here: I’m a big God fan but most of the time I’m an even bigger Red Sox fan. I make more noise about beating the Damnyankees than about beating the Devil. I’m an idiot. That’s one of the meanings of Original Sin.

I recited that paragraph to my wife, and at first she thought I had written it—mostly because of the Red Sox reference, not because of the wisdom contained therein.

During Advent, we should take a personal spiritual inventory. What exactly do we love with all our hearts and souls and minds and strength? Is it football on TV? Is it our new car and our fancy wardrobes? Is it the 50-megawatt Christmas light display adorning our house that can be seen from outer space? Is it getting drunk at office parties? Is it shopping trips to the mall?

Which reminds me, every single year without fail, the local news stations do big reports about shoppers on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, who arrive at retail outlets at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning so they can be first into the store when it opens at 5 a.m. Without a doubt, these people are displaying a great deal of enthusiasm, excitement, and dedication. But how many of these people do you think would display the same level of enthusiasm, excitement, and dedication regarding religious faith?

Would they arrive at church at 4 a.m. if that was the only way to guarantee they’d get a seat for Mass or worship service? Would they camp out in the church parking lot so they could be the first one through the door to pray?

I don’t think they would do that. And I know for sure that I would NOT do it. Hey, I admit it, that would require way too much effort. I’d stay in bed. Which means, I am, like Kreeft, an idiot.

We are all saddled with Original Sin, which means to one degree or another, we focus our energies on meaningless things while we ignore the only meaningful thing: God.

We’re not going to be perfect in this life, but maybe during Advent we can pause and evaluate our priorities. Maybe we can redirect some of our enthusiasm, excitement, and dedication toward the God who created us and who loves us. Maybe if we take the time to think about it and pray about it, we will draw into closer communion with the Lord and be better prepared for His second coming, whenever it occurs.

And maybe this year will be a little bit different than previous years: we will fill our hearts with joy rather than emptying our bank accounts of money. Now that would be a nice new holiday tradition, wouldn’t it?

©2009