Weekly HOMILY for December 16, 2007: What Is This Season About Anyway?

3rd Sunday of Advent, Cycle A
Our Lady of Grace
December 16, 2007

Focus: The Contrasts of the Season
Function: To have the members of the Assembly learn the contrasts and choose to own for themselves what the Church offers us for the Season.
Form: Not this, but this

What Is This Season About Anyway?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


Reflecting on the Season

On Saturday, December 1st, our Environment Committee was preparing the church for Advent: cleaning things up, hanging bunting, arranging trees, hanging banners and swatches of cloth, creating the Advent Wreath, etc.

I came on the scene at one point and soon found myself reflecting on the contrasts between our American culture and our Catholic faith.

And I realized that there were vast contrasts between what we in our society are doing to prepare for the holidays on the one hand, versus what we in our Catholic Church are doing to prepare for Christmas on the other.

Upon reflection, I realized that these contrasts express a great deal about who we, as persons of faith, are called to be.

This evening/morning I would like to look at some of these contrasts with you and see where you are with each of them.


The Contrasts of the Season

(1) For starters, the dominant colors in our society this time of year are red and gold. Red and gold speak to us of our celebration of the holidays.

In contrast to the red and gold, the dominant color in our Church is purple. The purple invites us to go deeper and prepare for Christmas by looking within ourselves at what is blocking the Lord’s coming, look at what is preventing the Lord from being more present to us right now.

(2) Our social custom is to use lots of electric lights this time of year. We drape trees, indoors and out, with endless strings of lights and we even have the latest – illuminated inflatables of Santa Claus or reindeer! – on our lawns. The goal of holiday lighting seems to be, the more the better!

In contrast to all of these electric lights, in our Church we have just four simple candles on an Advent wreath. The candles, as one is lighted each week, invite us to go deeper for they speak of the opportunity we have for the true light of the world, for the Lord, to enlighten us and our lives more and more.

(3) Another contrast is that our society is absorbed with “things” this time of year. Newspapers are thick with ads inducing us to buy the latest wireless phone, computer, Blackberry, calendar, I-Pod combination all-in-one, or the Wii console by Nintendo.

In contrast to all these “things,” our Advent faith calls us again to go deeper, to set our focus on “persons.” We are to center ourselves on the Lord Jesus, who is really what this season is all about, to focus on our loved ones and even as Jesus says today, “on the poor who are to have the good news preached to them.”

(4) Or again, our society at this time of year tends to get very impatient. We can “lose it” waiting in line at Macy’s, waiting in traffic on I-83, or waiting on the phone for a live person at a Service Center.

In contrast to this impatience, St. James in today’s second reading, urges us to be patient. We are to view our personal and spiritual growth as a day-at-a-time process and requiring energy and patience until that moment when the Lord comes to us at the end of our earthly journey.

(5) Our society, on the other hand, suggests that we escape. We are to think that we will be happy if we eat this or drink that or own this with no interest payments till 2010 or travel there.

In contrast to this escape, Advent simply gives us hope. It calls us to live life, with its hardships and disappointments, with hope that the Lord will lead us to wholeness that Jesus conveys in his images today: “The blind will see, the lame will walk, lepers will be cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead raised to life.”

(6) One final contrast, our society begins to celebrate the holidays in mid-October and all ends on December 24th. We all know that the stores are decorated when the weather is still warm and, in truth, the season ends with its last shopping day, midnight December 24th.

In contrast to society’s “Holiday Time,” our Church begins to celebrate Christmas on December 24th. We celebrate Christ’s coming 2000 years ago and his coming each day of the year in the Word of God and in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and even in and through one another. The Christmas Season ends with the Baptism of Jesus several weeks after Christmas.

Of course by mid-January society is already pushing St. Valentine’s Day!


Conclusion

So, as I said, I see lots of contrasts at this time of year.

I believe that our faith, our Church, this time of Advent, in contrast to some of the elements of our society, can really leads us somewhere out than into credit card debt.

It draws us into the light, the one who is the true light of the world.

It moves us to love, to love and to be compassionate toward one another.

And it empowers us with a life that brings a fulfillment that we can find in no other place.

Let us continue to experience a final two weeks of Advent coming of our Lord into our lives.