Advent is about our spirituality -- God is with us.

Following our wonderful Thanksgiving family time in which we are very much in touch with our spiritual roots of gratitude, the next day is Black Friday.  And so, the commercialism of the season gets into high gear.  Were you among the shoppers on Black Friday and were you able to get what you wanted at a very good price?

Further, often enough, we are reluctant to schedule parish events in December.  People are too busy.  There is too much to get done in preparation for Christmas.

But deep down we all well know that Advent isn’t about commercialism; it isn’t about non-stop busyness.  Advent is about our spirituality.  It is about being in touch with our spiritual center  --  God is with us.  “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”    The meaning of Emmanuel is God is with us.  May we deeply value the spirituality of this holy season.  May it a time of spiritual preparation  --  to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  May the Advent wreath be a symbol of hope as we await for the light of Christ to overcome the darkness of our world.

The Advent season invites us to reset our spiritual calendar, to readjust the choices in our lives to be sure that they are consistent with the priorities of Christ.    We seek to move beyond the darkness of fear, anxiety, and sin to live in the light of Christ Jesus. 

On the one hand, there are 27 shopping days till Christmas.  On the other hand, in the Advent season, we are given the gift of time – four weeks – to prepare in joyful for the coming of the Saviour.

Pope Francis has given us a most challenging Advent message.  If we live in a world of war, and we see that the only solution to our problems to take us arms and defeat the enemy, Pope Francis then says our Christmas is a charade.   Christmas isn’t about military might as a solution to our problems.  Christmas is about embracing the message of the Prince of Peace.  Somehow we have to reconcile our political life as Americans with our spiritual life as the disciples of Jesus.  May we embrace the dominant message of Jesus of bringing the forgiving love of God to a sinful people.  In this Advent, we need to reflect on the meaning of our prayer for the coming of the Prince of Peace among us.

A week from now, on December 8, Pope Francis will be opening the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome inaugurating our Jubilee Year of Mercy.  Our Advent=Christmas spirituality is to proclaim and to witness to the merciful love of Jesus in our world.  We the Church of St. Joseph’s are to proclaim the gospel of mercy in our prayers, in our teachings, and in every ministry we engage in.

If are not proclaiming the merciful love of Jesus in all we say and do, then we need to reset our spiritual calendars.

In today’s Scriptures, the prophet Jeremiah proclaims to a discouraged people that “the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel.” The prophet Jeremiah is a prophet of hope and mercy that God’s promises will be fulfilled.

The apostle Paul writes:  “Brothers and sisters:  May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all.”  Paul’s words are the living word of God that are spoken to us as well.  The love we shared with our family members on Thanksgiving Day is the love the Lord wishes to share with one and all. We are to the witnesses of the love of Jesus in our world.

The Advent message of hope may be more difficult to see in today’s Gospel for it contains a stern warning to us.  Jesus says:  “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in disarray; perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.  People will die of fright…Additionally, beware that you hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and do not be overwhelmed by the anxieties of daily life.”

But the core message of Advent remains:  watch and wait for God, not with a sense of fear, but rather with joyful hope.  Sometimes we Christians tend to think Jesus came to sing us lullabies:  that when things are comfortable he’s with us, and when they get turbulent we’ve lost him – like the disciples in the stormy boat. Today’s Gospel tells us otherwise.   Yes, the sea of our heart sometimes is turbulent, fearful and anxious.  Even in these times, God is with us in the present moment and in every day of our future.  We are and will always be the recipients of the merciful love of Jesus.

To wait for the Lord who comes means to wait and watch so that the Word of Love enters inside us and focuses every day of our lives.  Advent calls us not only to welcome the coming of Christ but to incarnate it in our lives.  We are to be the light that illumines the world.  What does it mean for us to incarnate the love of Christ into our lives and how are we to the light that illumines the world?

I am very conscious that on December 12 we will have 130 of our younger parishioners celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time?  That is an amazing number and a great blessing to our parish community.  Now, are we as a parish community going to witness to the forgiving and merciful love of Jesus in the lives of these young parishioners?  Will the staff of St Joseph’s, will the families of these candidates, will the parish family of St Joseph’s witness to these candidates that we have experienced the forgiving love of Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation?  You can take to the bank that unless we ourselves witness to the grace of the sacraments in our lives, it is a long shot for these candidates to values the 2^nd and 3^rd and 4^th time they celebrate this beautiful sacrament of God’s forgiveness.

I am not here to try to give a guilt trip on any of us.  But I am inviting in this Advent to reset our spiritual calendar to value the many ways that God is with us in this Advent Season.  May this Jubilee Year of Mercy be our time to more fully experience the merciful love of Jesus in our lives.  If we know Jesus in our hearts, we will readily witness to the Lord’s mercy in the lives of others.