[Homily. First Sunday of Advent. JRH-M. Dec 3, 2023.]
We begin a new liturgical year. The cycle begins again. A new set of readings from an unchanging set of sacred scriptures. A new cycle of celebrations in the church of the Eternal High Priest. We begin the new year with waiting for the Second Coming of the Lord…. We begin with hope. That this history of ours will not end in disaster, death and darkness, but with the triumph of the Father in the ultimate fulfillment of his Kingdom through the victory of his Son, Jesus, the Christ.
In this hope, we participate in the new liturgical year through the Holy Spirit in recalling, worshipping, and living in fidelity to Christ the King. For liturgy is not just worship in church. It is Christian life, life which ultimately comes as a blessing from the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. Our blessed lives which we humbly offer in return to the Father through the liturgy led by Jesus.
In the liturgical year, we recall God's creation of this world. We recall how in order to save the world from our disastrous misuse of human freedom in sin, the Father sends the Son to take on our human flesh, and makes his dwelling among us. We recall his birth in a stable in Bethlehem. We recall his growth as a child in Nazareth. We recall his public life, his baptism by John the Baptist, the temptations he suffered throughout his life. We recall his calling apostles and disciples, men and women, to follow him, and his interaction with them, his teaching them, his forming them, his admonishing them, his encouraging them. We recall his healing the sick, feeding the hungry, preaching the Good News about the compassion and love of his Father. We recall his teaching us to pray, to love one another, to consider blessed the poor, meek, those who mourn, those who are persecuted. We recall his insisting the Sabbath Day was made for the human being, and not the human being for the Sabbath, that it was therefore alright to do good to people, to liberate them from sickness and sin on the Sabbath Day. We recall the fierce opposition he encountered from the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Chief priests, their intent to murder him, his betrayal by one of his own apostles, but also his establishment of a New Covenant in the Sacrifice of his own body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, his passion, death, resurrection and ascension, then the establishment through the Holy Spirit of his Church, his Kingdom, his community of disciples entrusted to spread the good news of the Love and Compassion of the Father in Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. They are to be faithful to him – despite suffering and persecution, until he comes again to bring his Kingdom to fulfillment. As the liturgical year begins with the hope of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, so it ends with the hope the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
In that hope, the hope of the Age of the Church, we are told: "Be watchful. Be alert. You do not know when the time will come." But knowing how stressful and taxing being faithful to the Lord in this world is, knowing how fragile and breakable we are, our sentiment with Isaiah is, "O that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you…! Would that you might meet us doing right! For we know we are sinful. We know we are guilty. "Our sin is ever before us."
Yet you, O Lord, are our Father; we are the clay, you are the potter. We are in your hands. Let us not harden ourselves against your pressing fingers. Mold us – throughout the entire new liturgical year - into the servants you wish us to be.
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