The following sermon was given 11 years go by a Roman Catholic priest who would probably prefer to remain anonymous. I found most of his sermons to be moving and engaging and reassuring, and almost mystical.
Second Sunday of Advent 2011
This year for the season of Advent our assignment, our homework, is to get used to the new translation of the Mass prayers. Your parts, the parts the people say, is rather minimal. The parts the priest says from the altar have more changes. For while we will be using Eucharistic Prayer number three.
Eventually we will use all four of the Eucharistic Prayers, but for now just number three.
We will notice as we get used to the new translation that there is an emphasis on the holy. God is holy. God is the Holy One. What does that mean that God is the Holy One. Many of us would associate the word holy with religious, or godly. Most of us do not like the word godly, or even the word religious. And it des not mean we are going to be using more incense.
The holy, in fact, has nothing to do with being godly, or religious, or incense. To say God is holy means there is a heaviness to where God walks. There is a heaviness to the presence of God. To say something is holy means it is genuine and authentic. We like to think things are genuine and authentic.
So many things come from the holiness of God. It is from the holiness God that we can have the forgiveness of sins. Pagan gods could never forgive sins because they are not holy. Sinners are included in the communion of saints, the communion of saints and sinners, because God is holy. So in the new translation of the Mass prayers we will notice an emphasis on the holy. God is holy.
Today is the second Sunday of Advent. If we are waiting for part two, there is no part two. Nor is there a part three, or a part four. Christmas when it gets here, the Church celebrates Christmas rather quietly. It is not a boisterous, big party. We enter the church by the side aisle, and stop by the crib.
Advent too is rather quiet. Advent is a reflective time. The darkness of this time of year. The Church does not give us a lot of business to do. To keep watch, to keep vigil, to wait patiently. It is this time of year we make peace with the past year, calm down our emotions, put things in perspective. At least when we come into the church during the season of Advent it looks like Advent.
What is true in our lives is that God does not always come in the front door with a lot of fanfare. Maybe God could come in through the back door, or God could come in through the side door into our lives. God could come in through the cracks. If we have any cracks in our walls, God could come in through the cracks. If there are any cracks in our lives God could come in through those cracks.
So Advent is a reflective time. We can think about these things, whatever the Lord gives us to think about, put them in perspective, make peace with the events, the people, the relationships in our lives, the things in our lives, our death.
Advent is a kind of catechism for us. Advent is a season of hope. When we have the virtue of hope we live differently. When we are in touch with hope we are able to see things of the heart. John the Baptist who makes his appearance today was crying out a message of hope. John the Baptist did not say ‘I hope things get better.’
Even with the virtue of hope things may get worse, or get more intense. But the God we have is a God of hope. John the Baptist has the message that God is the origin of hope, God is the origin of the hopes and dreams of a people. The God we have is a God of Advent.
The Christmas season began some time ago, at least in the stores. The Christmas season begins some time after Halloween. So the season of Advent is something of an insertion into the Christmas season. So we have to as Christians balance these things. We have to balance the sometimes business of the Christmas season with the reflective and quiet time of the season of Advent.
And we can do both. We are used to that. We can have Advent within the busyness of this time. John the Baptist today is not asking us to believe in the holidays. John the Baptist is not asking us to get into the holiday spirit. The surprise is that God could surprise us. God can come in through the side door. God can come in through the cracks. We need to see that we are involved in a profound mystery. We need to be aware of the wonder. We need to expect that God can come into the circumstances of our lives, into our own human experiences.
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