inviting Christ
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First Sunday of Advent: Inviting Christ Into Our Lives

Sunday, December 3, 2017, marks the first Sunday of Advent, and the first Sunday of the new liturgical year. Advent is the time when we prepare for the coming of Christ. We remember the historical event of the birth of Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, yet we also look forward to Christ’s return. The Gospel for this Sunday, from Matthew, reminds us to be alert to this event.

How exactly do we prepare for Christ? How do we invite Him in? Do we even really want to invite Him in? It’s all well and good to meet Jesus on Sundays – sort of like a weekly coffee date with a friend. But you don’t invite your friend to move in with you! No, it’s really far easier to just keep Jesus “contained,” in church, on Sundays.

In the book, With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life, priest-contemplative Henri Nouwen says that the moment of Eucharist is THE single most important decision of our lives: Are we going to allow Christ in? It is a decision to make Christ part of your life, every moment of every day, to remove the walls you have placed around Him.

Jesus is a very interesting person; his words are full of wisdom. His presence is heart-warming. His gentleness and kindness are deeply moving. His message is very challenging. But do we invite him into our home? Do we want him to come to know us behind the walls of our most intimate life? Do we want to introduce him to all the people we live with? Do we want him to see us in our everyday lives? Do we want him to touch us where we are most vulnerable? Do we want him to enter into the back rooms of our homes, rooms that we ourselves prefer to keep safely locked? Do we truly want him to stay with us when it is nearly evening and the day is almost over?

Christ, you see, is not meant to be contained. He is not meant to be a weekly visitor or a standing coffee date which one can easily cancel if something comes up. He is not even meant to be a boarder in our home; a person who rents a room but is seldom seen or heard.

There is a reason that we encounter Christ around the table, the altar. The act of gathering around a table to share a meal is an act of intimacy. Even strangers become friends when they gather together to not simply eat, but to enjoy the food, the company, the joy of elevating basic human nourishment to an occasion of joy.

Yet no hostess in the world would think of handing out coats to the guests just as the last mouthful has been consumed: “Oh! Out to you go! Been lovely to see you, but time to get!” We would be shocked – and rightly so. No, part of the invitation to the table is the chance to linger and further enjoy the company of those gathered. And if the weather has turned bad while the meal was being enjoyed, the host and hostess would find blankets and pillows and places for everyone to rest their heads.

So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. – Mt. 24:44

As we prepare for the holy season of Advent, let us begin by asking ourselves: Do I REALLY want Christ to be part of my entire life? Am I only giving Him a sliver of my time? Where do I deliberately keep Christ from entering? Why? Is Christ truly a guest in my home, my life?

courage hope
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Advent: Seeking The Lord With Courage And Hope

Today’s Advent reflection for the 1st Friday of Advent, 2016

We enter Advent hopeful and anticipatory!  Like children waiting for Christmas?  Or is there something else much more meaningful that we can be doing during Advent?  For how much more can we hope?  Isaiah tells us that all good things are possible!  There is a gift here for everyone in this passage.  Those of us who are concerned about the environment may read that the earth will be restored.  Those of us in need of physical healing might read that we will be healed.  If we are in confusion or sadness, we will anticipate being lifted out of gloom and darkness.  The lowly and poor hear hope that those who tyrannize them or who are too lofty to care about them will disappear from their lives.  And what a relief to hear that evil will be cut off and the just will be vindicated!

In this passage Isaiah conveys a powerful message that the Lord God wants us to know that the Lord is in our midst!  There will be no mistaking that we will see the work of his hands.  The people of God will be so impressed they will reverence the God of Israel and keep his name holy.  The weak and wayward in spirit will acquire understanding and those who find fault will get redirected.  Wow!  That about includes everything on my Christmas list!

So what is our response to this amazing news?  Do we see Advent as the time to sit back and wait for all these good things to happen to and for us?  Like children wait for Santa Claus?  No, it can be more than that!  The Psalm for today says we can ask for even more than Isaiah says is coming.  We can ask for entry into the house of the Lord where we may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate the beauty of his temple all the days of our lives.  There we shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living.  But there is a catch.  The Psalmist says we have to wait…..it seems that one of the tensions with our faith is centered in all that God promises to us is already, but not yet.  There is a lot of waiting going on…..but it is a special kind of waiting, I think.

During Advent, this waiting is something like preparing for Christmas.  It is an active waiting in which we can reflect on what is it that we really need and want beyond that Christmas list.  Children prepare for Christmas by hoping and anticipating, but adults engage in the season by working to make it happen.  In many ways that is the difference between adults and children in terms of our faith as well.  Children aren’t good at waiting.  Becoming an adult means we learn to wait…..while actively engaging in life.   I like to practice Christmas the way I practice Advent, which is to anticipate and celebrate all of the events that lead up to it more than just the events on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  I like the busyness of the holiday season.  Christmas is the coming together of families and friends, the sharing of the blessings of hospitality and good food, and the thoughtfulness of considering how we might provide good cheer and good will through gift giving to those we love and those in need.  In those ways, many of us celebrate Christmas all year long.  It keeps us busy!

So then, what is so special about Advent?  I think it is a special time of lifting up our hope to a higher level of consciousness in our faith.  It is a time to wait for the fullness of the Lord with renewed courage.  It is a time to experience more deeply the light and salvation of the Lord in our lives.  That’s why we light all those candles!  And Advent is a time to really grapple with the darkness of our fears and our unbelief.  It is a time to be stouthearted, for what have we to fear?  Jesus tells us in Matthew that he can do anything for us according to our faith….if we just believe.  Like children who believe in Santa Claus?  No, like the adult people of God who will acquire even more understanding of the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living that is here, already.  It is the belief in the hope that the Lord can do anything.  No matter what our circumstances, all things are yet possible.  But to see and understand that, we must have courage in our refuge, in our light, and in our salvation.  So I pray with all of you, that Advent will be for each of us a time of lifting up our hope to a higher level.  I pray that Advent is for each of us a time of courageous hope and anticipation for a better world in which we will share all the gifts we have been given of faith, love, peace, joy, mercy, acceptance, hospitality, self-less giving, and a genuine sense of brotherhood with all of humanity.  If we believe in Jesus, we can do this with him, for him and in him.

[Throughout the 2016 Advent season, we will be bringing you guest posts from a variety of writers. Our hope is that each of these will be a meaningful way for you to slow down, pray well, and prepare for the coming of our Lord. Today’s guest blogger is Barbara Dilly of Creighton University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, reflecting on the Mass readings for Friday, December 2.]

Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew
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St. Andrew: A Saint For Advent

Today’s Advent reflection for the 2nd Tuesday of Advent, 2016

[Throughout the 2016 Advent season, we will be bringing you guest posts from a variety of writers. Our hope is that each of these will be a meaningful way for you to slow down, pray well, and prepare for the coming of our Lord. Today’s guest blogger is Fr. Colin Mulhall, reflecting on the Mass readings for November 30, the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle.]

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Apostle St. Andrew, the “first-called” of the Apostles.  He is so named because in the Gospel of John, he is the first of the Apostles to follow Jesus.  Andrew is the one who introduces Peter to Jesus in the Gospel of John.

It might be said that it’s because of a bit of fraternal nagging that Peter met Jesus and eventually became the Prince of the Apostles.  It is fitting that we celebrate his feast during Advent, a time of preparation for the coming of Christ.  Here was a man who was eagerly awaiting the coming of the Messiah, and was most likely a follower of John the Baptist.  When John pointed out Christ, the Lamb of God, Andrew was probably filled with curiosity, and followed Jesus, eventually being invited to “come and see” where He was staying.

The attitude of Andrew, that hopeful expectation of the coming of Christ, is the attitude we are all called to emulate this Advent season.  We are invited to commemorate the coming of the Christ Child, and to prepare ourselves for the triumphant return of Christ in glory.  St. Andrew reminds us Christians that our fundamental attitude is one of preparation and eager anticipation.  We are in a constant of state of tension, an eschatological tension, awaiting the definitive victory of Christ, which has been accomplished in the Paschal Mystery of His suffering, death, Resurrection and Ascension, but has yet to be fully realized.  St. Andrew teaches us what it looks like to wait with the certainty of a hope based in the sure promises of God in Christ Jesus.

Take the opportunity this Advent season to welcome Christ into your life in a new way, letting St. Andrew and all the Saints lead us all into deeper relationship with the Lord.

Fr. Colin Mulhall is associate pastor at St. Robert of Newminster Parish in Ada, MI.