Weekly HOMILY for November 28, 2010: Advent Hope: A Lesson from the Sunflowers

First Sunday of Advent, Cycle A
St. Mark Church, Fallston
November 28, 2010

Advent Hope: A Lesson from the Sunflowers
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


THE MEDICAL REPORT

A priest friend of mine was told by his doctor that his PSA had increased rapidly over the past year and a half and that the doctor was concerned that it could be cancer.

He needed to have 12 biopsies taken as soon as possible for the doctor was, quote, “very concerned.”

Soon after the biopsies, my friend was going to meet with the doctor to get the results, but he would not let me go with him. He said that it was something he needed to do alone, that is was just between him and God.

From the time of the doctor’s concern two weeks before, to that afternoon he was going in to GBMC for the results, he told me that his only desire was to do God’s will and that he wanted to be able to accept whatever the news was to be.

Not only that, he didn’t want to feel any differently, hearing whether it was cancer or it wasn’t cancer, only that he was embracing God’s will for himself.


THE REVELATION OF THE SUNFLOWERS

I learned later that on the way down to the medical center for the report, he was drawn to stop at the sunflower fields on Jarrettsville Pike and Hess Road across from the Royal Farms Service Station, a site many of us have witnessed.

The gorgeous acres and acres of bright yellow sunflowers he had enjoyed looking at over the summer whenever he passed, had all turned a deep autumn brown and as if in unison were all now drooping. It clearly looked like the end for them.

He believed that what he saw in the dramatic change of flowers was a sign of hope for him, that, though the golden blooms were gone, the hundreds of seeds in each flower would give rise to a crop of a hundred or thousand fold.

After his brief reflection in the sunflower fields, he resumed on his drive to receive the news, now believing deeply that it really didn’t matter what it was, that God had revealed that he would be okay either way.


READY FOR THE SECOND COMING

In today’s Gospel Jesus makes two things are very clear: First, we simply do not know when the Lord will come for us, but we do know that it will be as unexpected and surprising as a thief in the night.

Second, it won’t happen to all of us at the same time for Jesus says, “Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left.”

He then goes on to challenge his listeners and us with these words, “Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” Indeed we don’t know the hour or the day.

What I see in my friend’s way of dealing with the pathology report is that, while lots of things are important in life, only one thing really matters and that is God’s love for me and my love of God, expressed in wanting to do God’s will.


APPLICATION

Life is an Advent: an Advent of constantly waiting to become, an Advent to complete, an Advent to change, an Advent to begin the next phase, an Advent to turn the next corner.

But for us who await the coming of the Lord, we live in hope and wait in joyful expectation.

Every moment we live, with all the imperfections we see so blatantly in ourselves, with all the frustrations at work and all the pain within our family, every moment is pregnant with God’s trying to show us his love for us.

What it takes is prayerful listening to the situations in our lives and awaiting the manifestation of God’s will for us.


CONCLUSION

Jesus assures us that, “Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand.”

Each present moment is an opportunity to seize and in which to act.

Don’t let the trappings of Christmas preparations catch us unawares to the deeper question of meeting Christ in the day-to-day challenges in our lives and doing God’s will.

Be attentive for the signs and seeing them in as simple a thing as a field of sunflowers, and to embrace God’s will and thus find Christ our joy.