We Are the Clay and You the Potter

November 30, 2008

First Sunday of Advent

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

“No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him. Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways! Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful.” Isaiah 64:3-4

“Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” Mark 13:35-37

Piety

Turn again, LORD of hosts; look down from heaven and see; Attend to this vine, the shoot your right hand has planted. Those who would burn or cut it down-- may they perish at your rebuke. May your help be with the man at your right hand, with the one whom you once made strong. Then we will not withdraw from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. LORD of hosts, restore us; let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. Psalm 80:15-20

Study

Advent generates expectancy. It builds up the excitement for Christmas and the birth of the Savior. How long we wait for something we want builds up the pleasure at the acquisition. Surprises do not offer the same quality expectation. What comes without working or waiting for it does not have the same joy. We can be happy with a surprise, but the looking forward to something creates a greater joy when we finally have what we were seeking. Our souls are waiting for the coming of the Lord.

We have a space in our hearts that only the Lord can fill. There is something of the Lord in every moment of our lives. But the fullness of the Lord is what heaven is all about. Advent triggers the need we all have for our God connection. We can not bridge the gap between heaven and earth without Christ. Only The love of God for us and his willing to be one of us makes the closeness of God’s coming possible. Our souls are yearning for the presence of God in our lives and the Word made Flesh is the realization of the hands on God that becomes part of who we really are.

The first Sunday of Advent rends the heavens with our great need of God. We are given the chance to face our greatest need. Only God with us satisfies the longing of our hearts. His coming is prepared for by centuries of wanderings on the part of the Hebrew people. It is almost comical that we would limit our preparation for the coming of Christ to four Sundays of preparation in the honoring of his first Coming. The good we would do prepares for his coming. The piety of the Christmas celebration sometimes gets lost in the crass materialism of our culture.

We almost needed the downturn of our economy so that we would be forced to look at the things that really count about life. The poverty in his coming has incredible echoes in people losing their homes. The homeless of the cities echo the no room in the inn. The chance to do something for all those who do not have by sharing the little we have will increase the joy of his coming in the appreciation of how our poverty is his poverty and how we share with the poor of our world will be how we share with the Christ of the first coming. Whatever we will do for the least person he will take as done for himself.

Action

Our Advent is a time of preparation for the second Coming even as we recall the first Coming. The Grace of Christ within us says we are not lacking in any spiritual gift as we wait to renew the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we want to have a great celebration of his coming into our world we need to face up to the needs of our brothers and sisters who are suffering and do what we can to be givers that model out the emptying out of self that allowed the Eternal Word to be one of us.

We need to share of our essentials that others may have some of the wonders of God’s creation that we are so incredibly endowed with by accidents of birth in our Country with our families that have done so well. We know not when the Lord will return, but we need to start preparing for his coming by sharing of the abundance we have for the sake of a more equal distribution of the wealth of our lives. May he not come suddenly and find us sleeping with all that we could have shared with the need of the poor around us. Advent must be our time of getting ready for his coming. Our family celebrations will be special if we have invited another family who does not have to share of our abundance. We need to reach out to the poor more than they need our reach out. Our giving makes space for the coming of the Lord.