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30 Nov 2014 - First Sunday of Advent, Cycle B

Last week was about endings and judgment. The church year concluded; time to choose allegiance to Christ, King of the Universe! With the season of Advent, the wheel of time turns again. Now it’s all about beginnings and fresh starts. This season is pregnant with possibilities, expectant with hope. If you like, you can be born again with Christ! The world is getting another chance to make things right. Each of us is issued the same opportunity to be made new. So it’s just a little formidable to start such a bright season on a note of warning. Be alert! Watch! We might have preferred a word of encouragement, rather than a sharp and sober command. Something soothing to rock the cradle of a new world, you know, more like the Isaian prophecy: Comfort, comfort! Not this militant tone: Stay at your post! Stay awake! But ask an expectant mother what waiting for a birth is like. She watches what she eats like a king with a royal taster, poised for a hint of treachery or danger. She carefully monitors her movements, expenditures of energy, money, and time. Her body becomes a guarded fortress, and a temple, and a treasure chest. She reads voraciously about what’s good for the baby, what’s harmful or ambivalent. Her eye is on the whole world, ready to do battle for this vulnerable new life that depends on her every decision. No one is more alert than an expectant mother with a universe within her to care for. So it’s right to start Advent on a cautious note. In preparing for new life, every hour matters. Every decision is important. The church is pregnant with a mystery about to be revealed! As usual, our Mother Mary leads the way in demonstrating what our discipleship should look like: careful, responsible, vigilant, and patient. That last item is not to be overlooked. We live in a rush-rush world of instant gratification. Click on Amazon for a world of options delivered to your doorstep overnight. But some things take time, and they are often the best things: baking a cake from scratch, making a friend, learning how to love. You don’t want to rush these things or they can fall apart. In a season of waiting, you want to make friends with time. So here’s our invitation at the start of a new church year, a new season with a new event horizon: make friends with time in these four weeks of anticipation. Don’t rush to make all of December a month of Christmas. Be patient. Let the new life the church bears in this season of grace grow on you, and in you. And keep your eyes open for surprises. Related scripture links What are we waiting for: Isa. 65:17, 66:22; Rom. 8:18-25; 2 Pet. 3:8-14; Rev. 21:1-5 The potter of Genesis: Gen. 2:4-7 The potter and the vessel: Jer. 18:1-12, 19:1-15; Isa. 45:9; Job 10:8-12; Wis. 15:7-17; Rom. 9:20; 2 Cor. 4:7 The Lord giveth and taketh: Job 1:21 Catechism links Season of Advent: 524; 1095 Conversion: 821; 1427-1439 Incarnation: 456-464; 470; 478

Authors Alice Camille

anticipation preparing waiting stay alert keep watch

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In other words

30 Nov 2014 - First Sunday of Advent, Cycle B

So keep a sharp lookout, for you don’t know the timetable. It’s like a man who takes a trip, leaving home and putting his servants in charge, each assigned a task, and commanding the gatekeeper to stand watch. So, stay at your post, watching. You have no idea when the homeowner is returning, whether evening, midnight, cockcrow, or morning. You don’t want him showing up unannounced, with you asleep on the job. I say it to you, and I’m saying it to all: Stay at your post. Keep watch” (from Mark 13). Taken from The Message: Catholic/Ecumenical Edition by Eugene Peterson (ACTA Publications, 2014 ); actapublications.com; 800-397-2282.

stay alert keep watch

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Sign & sacrament

30 Nov 2014 - First Sunday of Advent, Cycle B

At a time when people are setting up manger scenes to depict the scene of the infant Jesus’ birth, it seems strange to look ahead—as this Sunday’s gospel does—to the return of a very adult Lord Jesus to gather his people at the end of time. “Keep awake,” he told the disciples, “for you do not know when the master of the house will come.” While these two pictures look very different, what connects them is watchfulness. Advent is the season of our long wait for the coming of Christ at Christmas. And as followers of the risen Lord, we wait for Jesus to come again in the last days. Watch for him; he will come.

stay alert keep watch

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01 Dec 2013 - First Sunday of Advent, Cycle A

The Arrival of the Son of Man will take place in times like Noah’s. Before the great flood everyone was carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ark. They knew nothing—until the flood hit and swept everything away. “The Son of Man’s Arrival will be like that: Two men will be working in the field—one will be taken, one left behind; two women will be grinding at the mill—one will be taken, one left behind. So stay awake, alert. You have no idea what day your Master will show up. But you do know this: You know that if the homeowner had known what time of night the burglar would arrive, he would have been there with his dogs to prevent the break-in. Be vigilant just like that. You have no idea when the Son of Man is going to show up. From New Message 4 Next Week (actapublications.com/newmessage4nextweek) based on The Message: Catholic/Ecumenical Edition by Eugene Peterson (ACTA Publications, 2013).

stay alert flood

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Homily themes

01 Dec 2013 - First Sunday of Advent, Cycle A

Are the readings telling us, “Don’t get caught”: that those absorbed in self-indulgent behavior won’t notice they’re in trouble until it’s too late? Scripture this week is indeed recommending staying alert, but not simply out of fear. No, God is trying to get our attention. Learn my ways. Walk in my paths. While the call to start really listening may seem abrupt and harsh, the time is now.

Authors Joel Schorn

stay alert

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Homily stories

27 Nov 2011 - First Sunday of Advent, Cycle B

When I was a kid all the guys in my neighborhood played a kind of game--or was it a form of torture?--called "Think quick!" The game was not complicated. It came down to this. If you were holding a football, baseball, basketball, chalkboard eraser, or pretty much any other tossable item, you would whip the object as fast as you could at a friend standing nearby while simultaneously shouting, "Think quick!" The intended receiver was supposed to react swiftly and catch the object. And if he was really expert at the game, he'd just as swiftly whip it back where it came from, also advising, "Think quick!" The game resulted in countless nose bleeds, bruises, and jammed fingers. And as only adolescent boys would, we thought this game was great fun, especially when you caught someone walking into a classroom, or diving off a high dive, or while nervously on the phone with a girl he had a crush on. Some anthropologist, having observed our behavior, might have seen it as a throwback to the days when young hunters and warriors needed to practice staying alert in order to stay alive. That would be the kind interpretation. Yet I think of that game whenever Advent comes around. "Be alert," says Jesus. "Think quick," he might have added. It's Advent, and something important is coming your way.

Authors Tom McGrath

advent game stay alert

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12 Nov 2017 - Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

“God’s kingdom is like 10 young virgins who took oil lamps and went out to greet the bridegroom. Five were silly and five were smart. The silly virgins took lamps, but no extra oil. The smart virgins took jars of oil to feed their lamps. The bridegroom didn’t show up when they expected him, and they all fell asleep. “In the middle of the night someone yelled out, ‘He’s here! The bride-groom’s here! Go out and greet him!’ “The 10 virgins got up and got their lamps ready. The silly virgins said to the smart ones, ‘Our lamps are going out; lend us some of your oil.’ “They answered, ‘There might not be enough to go around; go buy your own.’ “They did, but while they were out buying oil, the bridegroom arrived. When everyone who was there to greet him had gone into the wedding feast, the door was locked. “Much later, the other virgins, the silly ones, showed up and knocked on the door, saying, ‘Master, we’re here. Let us in.’ “He answered, ‘Do I know you? I don’t think I know you.’ “So stay alert. You have no idea when he might arrive” (from Matthew 25). From A New Message 4 Next Week (actapublications.com) based on The Message: Catholic/Ecumenical Edition by Eugene Peterson (ACTA Publications, 2013).

oil lamps stay alert Preparation

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