Walk in the Light

First Sunday of Advent [i]

By the late Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

In days to come, the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say: “Come, let us climb the LORD'S mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD! Isaiah 2:2-5

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. Matthew 24:42-44

Piety

May this Advent be a special time of uniting our minds and hearts to Christ! May we all bring Christ back into Christmas by making it a holy time! May Christ be alive in all our minds and hearts because of how we share him!

Study

The mountain of the Lord has its beginning in the crib of Bethlehem. We are called to the birth of Christ by the invitation to stay awake for his coming. Life brings us to the mountain of the Lord as the highest of the mountains of life. We begin to climb this mountain by going to the stable of Christ’s birth. We do it by our prayer. We do it by our willingness to find in the little things of life chances to love and chances to make the ordinary extraordinary by connecting the little and the ordinary to what is most special about life. Our walk in the path of the Lord begins with our realization that he is totally like us. No abortion can ever be acceptable when we realize our beginnings and his beginnings are one and the same mystery of God’s love entering the world.

Birthdays are wonderful celebrations for the specialness of all beginnings. Four weeks of preparation are hardly enough to say what is dawning for the human race in the Coming of Christ. Each year we celebrate his birth with different levels of expectation. We have great expectations when we do long preparation for a coming. The importance of an event is measured by the work we do to make an event memorable. There are few events in life that influence the lives of those we love more than birthdays that express gladness at the presence of another in our lives. We celebrate what is important to us. The name we give something shows its importance to us. All the places and the shops that have taken Christ out of Christmas, I intend to avoid. Christmas without the name of Christ is only a holiday. Instant gratification is the gospel of secularism. Christmas with the celebration of Christ’s birth is a Holy Day. Advent is all about the making holy the days of preparation for the coming of the Lord.

Action

Piety takes many forms during the preparation for the coming of Christ.

The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary keep the attention of our souls on what is going to happen. Christmas Cards keep those we love in the special place of our hearts. One wonderful practice for Christmas preparation is a prayer for each person we would send a card to as we think of how each person we send a card to, has a place in our hearts. Praying for people by name is hard to do in the world of too much business. Making the addressing and the signing of a card with the Christmas message a prayer gives special attention to the important people in our lives. May this Advent be a special time of uniting our minds and hearts to Christ! May we all bring Christ back into Christmas by making it a holy time! May Christ be alive in all our minds and hearts because of how we share him!

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[i] We start this new liturgical year with a tribute to our former spiritual director, Fr. Joe. This classic column starts off the A Cycle in the 2016-2017 Liturgical year. Originally Published December 2, 2007.  Happy New Year.