relationship with God

The road home

For many, the road home can be filled with excitement and joy at the prospect of seeing family and friends. But what was it like for the prodigal son?

The Hallow app has a Lenten reflection that I’ve been following and part of it is about the parable of the prodigal son. One of the first days of reflection included a slow reading of the gospel story, encouraging listeners to really place themselves into the story. What caught my attention was the travel the son had to do in order to return home, and many questions came to my mind.

Lonely. The way home must have felt terribly lonely for the young man. How different it must have been in comparison to when he initially set out. Then his pockets were full of money and promise. In the thrill of excitement, did he realize that he was traveling alone then? Or did he make friends because he could treat others with his inheritance? Yet on the return trip there must have been a heaviness to his spirit, weighed down with his experience and embarrassment at what he was reduced to: a hired hand. Even if he did join up with a band of travellers, did he socialize with them or did he keep his silence? Perhaps he may have hid his feelings behind the stories of his experience, careful to be entertaining but not open enough to share completely.

Confident. The son learned a hard lesson that not everyone treats others as generously as his father did. It took a squandered inheritance to see how incredibly difficult life is. Growing up in the love his father showed, not just for his family, but to all who crossed his path, the boy expected that same treatment from everyone. In that foreign place as a caretaker of pigs, he experienced the harsh reality that others are not nearly as generous as his father. Yet in these deep thoughts, he felt that if he could return home, his father would hire him. Was it because he learned to work hard? Or did he know how much his father loved him and felt that he could not ask to return as a son, but could have a decent life if he asked to be a hired hand? 

Fearful. How much of a struggle was it for the young man to return home? Was he afraid of how his brother and the other hired hands would treat him? How many times did he turn around or at least pause to reconsider if this was the right thing to do? Maybe the question was more like, “what am I thinking?!” Did he travel straight home, or was it more of a meandering journey, dreading the unknown response?   

The story of the prodigal son is our story of how we sin and return to God. Do we find it a lonely path back to God because of the weight of our sins? The parable tells us that the son still had quite a bit of travelling to do when his father spotted him and ran to him. Do we recognize that God is on the look out for our return and wants to run to us and shower us with grace and blessings? Do we have the same confidence of the prodigal son that God will welcome us back? Or do we keep his mercy at a distance because we cannot forgive ourselves? Are we afraid to turn back to God? Do we fear the changes necessary to eliminate sin, especially habitual sins, from our lives? 

Lent is the perfect time to search our hearts and identify what keeps us from truly returning to God. Let the example of the prodigal son lead us to a greater introspection and to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation with the same depth and joy as the young man received upon his return. The Father is waiting with open arms.

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Reflections of light

As Christians, we are called to reflect the light of Christ in the world around us. How many of us, in order to not make waves in society, instead put our light under the “bushel basket?”

In the past few months, light reflections have been something I’ve noticed on a daily basis. After my cat Vera passed last spring, I adopted a female cat, Victoria, and then about two months later a male kitten, Marley. Everything is new to Marley and his most recent discovery is light reflections, be that from a car door that opens in the parking area outside the house, or when my phone reflects the light from a nearby lamp. It’s cute until he tries jumping up the wall trying to capture it. While Victoria seems to watch with a bit of disdain for a useless cause, I admire his persistence and his focus. I’m starting to wonder if I have those same qualities when it comes to living my faith. He can sit and watch the wall for an hour, chatting as if to encourage the return of whatever caused the light beam to show itself. Do I make use of the opportunities to grow in my faith, to spend time in silent prayer with an open heart ready to receive God’s guidance for me? 

In Marley’s youthful inexperience, he allows his focus on the light beam to direct his moves, even when there could be negative consequences. I’ve started avoiding using my phone at night, as that seems to cast the reflected light on the ceiling, and Marley is trying to figure out the best way to reach it. While the cat tree is tensioned to the ceiling, it’s thankfully not in the area where the light is reflected. Yet Marley climbs to the top of the tension pole to the ceiling as if getting to the same height will allow him to capture his prize. Do I put my focus on Jesus to lead the way? Or do I look at what’s going on in my surroundings and doubt what can be achieved? God created us with a soul for faith and a mind for reason, and we should be using both equally to do God’s will. 

Marley has also noticed when shadows disrupt light. These too he has gone after, trying to capture the dark spot on the wall. How often are we tempted to chase the shadows? They are a curiosity and we often try to capture them not because we want them, but because they are different and we want to know more about them. But shadows are not from God and will lead us away from our purpose. While it’s important to notice the shadows in our lives, it’s best to seek God’s counsel as to how to address them so they will not be a temptation for us. 

Our modern society allows us to illuminate night as if it were daytime. Artificial light can be a blessing, especially on short, winter days. Yet there are many artificial lights that compete for our attention, so that we forget our relationship with Jesus and pursue lights that dazzle our eyes and quickly fade. They leave us empty and searching for peace. Jesus is the Light of the world and His Word is a lamp for our feet. When we seek to follow Him, He will guide our steps, even when the way gets rough and challenging.

Next week begins the Lenten season. Perhaps a practice for this year could be to seek out opportunities to let Christ’s light shine through your life.  

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Be a witness

Christians are called to mirror Christ in their lives, so that by their word, deed, and even their being, others can see Christ in them. One of the ways to describe this is: witness. What does it mean to be a witness of Christ? 

According to Merriam-Webster, witness is both a noun and a verb, and has several meanings for each type. Many times we think of a witness as who we are but not what we do as Christians, yet it is both. Before we can take action as a witness, we first need to be one. One of the many definitions of the word is one who has personal knowledge of something. As Catholics, we are called to the most intimate relationship with God through the Eucharist. At Mass and through praying and reading Scripture, we come to have a personal relationship with Jesus, unique to each one of us, where we are in whatever state of life we are in. We cannot be Christ’s hands and feet on earth, if we don’t know Him and what He calls us to do. A relationship is not a once-and-done thing we obtain, but rather a continuous process of seeking to know Jesus ever deeper in all of life’s circumstances. 

Often Catholics shy away from the term evangelize, because it sounds too forceful, they feel they lack enough knowledge, or public speaking fills them with dread. However evangelizing and witness share a common bond. One of the definitions of witness is one who gives evidence. While some may think of standing on street corners and trying to convince people to go to church as evangelization, it’s not the only method. When we share our personal experience of how Jesus has worked in our lives, that is being a witness to Christ and evangelizing to others. Evangelization is not meant to tell people what to do, but rather to invite them to have similar experiences by welcoming Jesus into their lives. Being a witness requires us to open up and share our experiences rather than to keep them for ourselves and our memories. Sharing as a witness to Christ working in our lives doesn’t need to be flashy or extreme, it just needs to be honest and personal. 

While many people can cross our paths throughout a day in our life, we won’t be able to talk to each person who sees us about Jesus. Our actions play an equal role in being a witness that Jesus lives in us and we are trying to reflect Him to the world. The Commandments, the Beatitudes, and the Corporal and Spiritual works of mercy all exemplify a Christ-centric spirit, even if we do not say a word to another. Instead of seeking to please ourselves, our focus is doing God’s will and sharing His blessings with others. In that way, a witness is not just what we are but rather what we do. 

When we witness to our faith and hope in God, we are making tangible the proof of a living God. We do not ask others to accept God because of the blessings He has provided to us, but rather to seek a relationship with Him so that they, too, can become a witness and share the unique wonders God has worked in their lives. 

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Don’t fear the storm

No one would consider it a miracle. However, since man cannot control the weather, and we know that the wind and waves obeyed Jesus’ command, I’m still going to call it a miraculous event. At the very least, it was an answered prayer.

Last weekend the weather forecast for the Richmond, Virginia area included every form of winter precipitation in nature’s arsenal. First there would be heavy snow, followed by sleet, but the worst was anticipated to be hours of freezing rain coating all the trees and power lines. The message was not just about expecting power outages, but that it would be days of the power being out, since the weather after the storm would be below freezing for most of the day and lows in the teens to single digits, making it hard for crews to repair the damages. I’d like to say that I wasn’t worried and that I just left it in God’s hands but I can’t. 

Perhaps the experience of losing power for a significant portion of the day in a much smaller storm last year fed my fears. I was anxious. I was trying to figure out how to pray. Did I ask for God to make the storm all snow? After growing up in Pennsylvania, I can handle a large dump of snow. And it wasn’t the snow or sleet that I feared, it was the freezing rain and the persistent cold temperatures. What if I lost power? What if my pipes froze and burst? Without heat, the threat of frozen pipes would be more of a when it would happen rather than if it would happen. Do I pray that I don’t lose power or that I don’t have an issue with my pipes? Or do I ask God to be with me in whatever happens and try not to think about what all the negative outcomes? 

As the weekend neared, I found myself either reading or hearing songs that contained lyrics that mentioned “Don’t fear the storm.” Each time, I would ask myself is that what I’m fearing? Honestly, yes, I was fearing the storm. I know that God has helped me through good times and challenging times, and I know He would be with me every minute of the storm. Imagining what I would need to deal with if a tree fell on the house due to the weight of the ice coating, it was hard to abandon those fear-mongering thoughts. Yet I was also given an opportunity; I could prepare for days without power and without a way to cook food. I gathered water and baked bread and items that could be eaten cold. I wrapped the outside faucet to protect it. I did all my laundry and ran the dishwasher, so that I didn’t have the machines going when the power cut out. In all that preparation, I was reminded that we’re called to do the same for heaven. Our whole life on earth is meant for us to prepare for heaven, to be with God for eternity. Do I prepare for heaven like I’m preparing for this storm? Do I fear the outcome of hell with as much adversity as I was fearing dealing with frozen pipes?

Although meteorology is a science, it can be incorrect. Thankfully the predicted half-inch or more of freezing rain was largely substituted with sleet. While it has made a mess of sidewalks and roadways, sleet bounces off trees and power lines and Richmond was spared a catastrophe. While we’re not back to our normal balmy weather, and I’m still dripping my kitchen faucet at night to try and prevent frozen pipes due to the severe cold, I thank God the power stayed on for most everyone in the area. I’m sure there were others in the Richmond area praying that we would be spared great difficulties and those prayers were answered. I know other states did not fare as well as the Richmond area, and I pray God will assist them in their needs, especially as it looks like there is another winter storm heading our way this weekend. While this one is forecasted to be all snow, if it does come our way, I hope that I can approach it with more confidence that God will see me through. Yes, I do need to remain prepared as that is the prudent thing to do. 

God is bigger than any natural storm, be it a winter storm, or a storm of trials. We will face all sorts of storms throughout our lifetime. Each one is an opportunity to lean on our faith and hope in God. It can be challenging, since we have no control over storms or their outcomes. Sometimes we will give into anxious thoughts and feelings and other times we do our best to quelle thoughts that lead us away from the peace of God. When it is all over, let us praise God regardless of the outcome. Each storm is an opportunity to prepare for heaven, let us not fear the practice.

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No tear wasted

Throughout the Scriptures we are told to cry out to God and that no tear will be wasted. I’ve been pondering a recent juxtaposition of events and how God uses tears to soften our hearts.

I do enjoy my fiber crafts, but last year I didn’t have much opportunity to weave. As a result, I was a bit rusty in dressing the loom, reducing me to frustration and tears. It was ugly crying over nothing really. I think my frustration was not that I was struggling, but that I didn’t understand what I was doing to cause the issue. If I can learn from a mistake, then as annoying as it is, I can chalk it up to experience. But it was an issue I had faced several times and I’m still none the wiser. After what seemed like hours of trying and making no progress, I thought about how Mary would have woven the clothes for the Holy Family. I asked Momma Mary for guidance, but instead received persistence. It did take several days to completely finish the process, but I did make significant progress after my prayer. It may not be the best I’ve done, but at least I haven’t wasted the yarn. I won’t know how successful I’ve been until I’ve completed the project. 

After struggling with the loom for most of Saturday, I went to the vigil Mass. There were a number of children present and audible, but there was one who was particularly vocal. The child was old enough to talk, but still young enough to wail. I’m not sure what upset him, but he was crying with every fiber of his being. Thinking back to my crying bout earlier in the day, I could totally understand how he was feeling. He was spent and the only emotion he had left were his tears. Not that I was counting, nor did I look to see, but I believe his parent removed him about three times from Mass when he began wailing. I said a prayer for him. Then I said a prayer for his parents. I do commend his parents for bringing him to Mass and not leaving after his first cry. It would have been easy for them to say that they tried and didn’t want to disturb the congregation. But Mass is not about making things easy for us, it’s about putting God first and being nourished by Word and Sacrament. Is a crying child any different than our own thoughts that distract us at Mass?

I can’t say that I’m always this tolerant with distractions at Mass, but I feel like God was giving me an opportunity to learn to be more compassionate towards others. I was also able to appreciate how Father kept going no matter what part of the Mass it was, without stumbling over words or pausing during the disruptions. He may have spoken a bit louder in the microphone to make sure his words could be heard over the crying, but he displayed no evidence of annoyance or frustration of the circumstances. Sometimes I get distracted by my own thoughts when speaking, so to be able to concentrate on praying the Eucharistic prayers over a loudly crying child must be a gift of the Holy Spirit given to a priest. Glory to God for that blessing!

I’m sure there were members of the congregation who were displeased with the crying child and his family. But we are called to cry out to God in our distress, and perhaps that child is a reminder to all that we need to do exactly that. As adults we can cry out silently in our hearts and souls at Mass for our deepest needs and petitions. “My wanderings you have noted; are my tears not stored in your flask, recorded in your book?” (Psalm 56:9) Regardless of the cause of our tears, God shares in them, walking with us, and supporting us even if we can’t feel Him.  

Many times after a good cry there is a sense of release of the stress and anxiety that brought us to tears. It’s not quite peace, but rather an emptying of those negative emotions so that we can return to the issue at hand with a calmer demeanor. Tears may not solve the issues we have, but they are a gift from God to help us understand when we do need help and to lean on Him because He does care for us. Tears are never a waste and they are definitely not wasted when we lift them, and our challenges, up to God. He will see us through and as the Book of Revelation promises, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.” (Rev 21:4) 

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Free will gift

I agree with Fr. Mike Schmitz’s review, in that I can’t fully endorse the movie, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, but at the same time, it does portray aspects of Catholicism in a positive light.

I was scrolling through Netflix over the Christmas holidays, looking for a Christmas movie when I found it. I did enjoy the previous two Knives Out mystery movies, so I settled in to watch it. The movie opens with the young priest punching a deacon and immediately I felt uncomfortable. I thought this was going to be a movie that would bash religion and specifically, the Catholic Church. Instead of relaxing and letting the story unfold, I felt I had a bit more of a critical eye when watching it. As Fr. Mike points out, Hollywood doesn’t understand how to portray Catholics, and some of it is more of a caricature and to a Catholic, some scenes seem a bit “off.” Yet in watching the movie in its entirety, there are portions of Catholicism that do shine through.

After the initial scene, the young priest gets assigned to a parish that seems a bit rebellious and is anything but welcoming. There are deep secrets that come out through the story which explain the attitudes of the parishioners. Ironically, the scene that I thought was more of a moment of humor, was what Fr. Mike brought out as the highlight of the movie. The young priest, working with the detective, is trying to get information that could help identify the true killer and clear the accusations against him. After conveying the sense of urgency in a phone call for the information, the woman asks the priest to pray for her. The movie doesn’t give too much detail, but conveys this is quite a long conversation and the detective, a self-proclaimed atheist, shows his frustration at what he considers a waste of time. Perhaps Fr. Mike noticed it because he is a priest, but he calls out that the young priest recognized his calling and his duty to minister to the woman. While I saw humor in the eye-rolling exaggeration of the detective’s response, Fr. Mike considers the scene an illustration of our calling: to do God’s will in whatever role he has given us. The young priest is not called to be a detective himself, but rather to minister to those that God puts in his path. 

For me the power of the movie was at the end. Just like in the previous two movies in the series, the detective calls all the potential suspects into one place for the big reveal. He gets everyone’s attention, but then falters. He realizes the power of free will. It is up to the killer to confess. In doing so, his reputation for solving murders takes a hit. Yet the killer bares all in the final confession to the young priest. And while, yes, this is a movie angle to provide the details of how it was done, it goes deeper. The young priest coaches the killer to forgive the person who was the cause for all the actions that followed. The detective could have revealed who the killer was, but may not have been able to provide as much detail as the killer did. More importantly, the killer was able to confess, receive forgiveness, and find peace, not because they were forced to, but to freely make the choice to do so. 

Free will is a gift, but can be a two-edge sword. In granting us the gift of free will, God allows us to choose if we want a relationship with Him, if we want to live as children of God, and obey the commandments that reflect being part of the divine family. As dazzling as the world is, we do see it everyday and even the most spectacular aspects of creation can be just ordinary in daily life. God does not put on enormous displays of His power to convince us of who He is. He gently pursues us where we are and encourages us to become the best version of ourselves that we can be, sometimes allowing our worst traits to bring about a greater good. We can freely say no to God and live a life of lies that we hold as our personal truths, as if we, ourselves, are divine and responsible for our circumstances. We can also say yes to God, and live a life of truth in faith. The choice is ours in every decision we make. 

If you have enjoyed the other two Knives Out movies, and are prepared for a movie that does not portray Catholicism in an idealistic way, this may be one to add to your watch list. Perhaps you, too, will find a nugget of faith shining where you least suspect it.  

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Glory and peace

“And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’”
Luke 2:13-14

In those two simple lines from Luke’s Gospel that the angels proclaim to the shepherds is the entire mission of Jesus: glory and peace. These two lines are very familiar. We basically say or sing them whenever the Gloria is used in Mass, which is most Sundays excluding Advent and Lent. They were even included in Linus’s scripture passage he quoted to Charlie Brown in the namesake’s animated Christmas special. Sometimes the passages that are very familiar are the least pondered. Have you ever thought what that proclamation by the entire heavenly host meant? In thinking about it, it seems so obvious that this is such an important message, since the whole choir of angels proclaims it. It’s like it has a heavenly set of exclamation marks at the end of it! 

Jesus’ whole life was lived with and for God the Father. His life on earth is the most perfect example of a life giving glory to God. “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also.’” (John 5:19) Jesus, Himself, tells us that He is a reflection of God the Father and that all His works are works of the Father. As Jesus mirrors God, so we must strive to mirror Him as well. God has been very generous to us, so we, in turn, must share our blessings with others. Even if we lack material goods, our time, our energy, and even our very person can be used to show the love of God to others in need of it. The Blessed Mother did God’s will her whole life and that is why we show her the respect we do. When we pray a Hail Mary, we’re not praying to her, but rather through her and praising God for His most special creation that agreed to be the mother to His Son. When we praise God, we are giving Him the glory for His works. 

While our life objective is first and foremost to give glory to God, the angels’ proclamation assures us that we will be blessed with peace. If we look around the world today, one may begin to doubt, however, God’s peace surpasses any that can be achieved by man. God’s peace is gifted to us based on our response to Him. God would love to flood our souls with peace, but they need to be prepared. First, peace is brought through reconciliation with God. Jesus opened the door of peace through the forgiveness of sins when He was crucified, died, and rose again. He repaired the rift between heaven and earth and became our advocate to God the Father, since Jesus became like us in all ways but sin. 

When we acknowledge our sin — doing our will instead of God’s, we recognize we have a relationship with God. Another way God blesses us with peace is in our relationship to Him. When we seek Him out, return to Him through penance, and participate in the sacraments, we are cultivating a relationship with the Divine. A relationship with God does not demand special favors or only seeks to pray when one is in need. In both good times and troubles we seek to know God and to praise Him regardless of the circumstances. When we are able to rejoice in the moment we are at, we find the peace of God lifting us up. 

God is well aware of human limitations and frailties. He has given us the Commandments and the Beatitudes as the roadmap of how we should measure ourselves. Instead of looking to others and comparing our words, actions, and blessings, we need to weigh ourselves on how well we are living out the word of God. Here again we find the peace of God when our actions align with the instructions God has put forth. The more we act accordingly, the more we will be able to recognize the peace that comes from fulfilling God’s will for us. I sometimes think that when we are having particular trouble in making a decision, when we finally do choose God’s will instead of our own, there seems to be an extra blessing of peace bestowed on us that can almost seem tangible, and  at the very least, recognizable.

During this Christmastide, I do wish you joy as you glorify God for the blessing of His Son, and you are able to recognize the peace of God, which is truly beyond all understanding. (Phil 4:7)

Merry Christmas!

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Gift of acceptance

As we head into week three of Advent, the week of joyful anticipation, let’s turn our focus on Mary and her gift of acceptance.

The second week of Advent held two great feasts for Mary: the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mary does hold a dear place in the hearts and spirituality of Catholics. We see her guiding presence within the Gospels and even in the Acts of the Apostles. Many times meditations on the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel came to Mary asking her to be the mother of God, focus on the visit itself and what it must have been like for her. But what if we took another look at a different angle, specifically, her acceptance.

How many times have we had experiences that were drastically different from what we expected? At times like this my family will comment, “that’s not what I signed up for!” At the time of Jesus, the Jews were expecting a much different Messiah than Jesus. They expected Him to rid the land of the Romans and restore the earthly kingdom. If that’s what Mary was expecting, she was definitely mistaken. Perhaps throughout His life, Jesus prepared her for His eventual Passion and Death, but she could not have known what was going to happen when she said yes. Did she know He would be an itinerant preacher? As she is mentioned in the Gospel at the places where Jesus was teaching, perhaps she accompanied Him on His travels. If she was expecting a more militant savior, the travel probably didn’t surprise her, but perhaps the teachings did. 

If we put ourselves in Mary’s place at the time of the Annunciation, what we can expect is her assessing the risk she was taking by saying yes. As a woman who was only betrothed, she faced scandal by her family, her community, and even her future husband, Joseph. She could have been ostracized or worse, by law stoned to death. And she still said yes. While Mary was still quite young, thought to be a teenager, she was still of an age to marry and have children in those times. But even in her short life at the time, she trusted in God, no matter what consequences came from it.  

God asks us to trust Him like Mary did. While He probably won’t send an angel messenger to obtain our agreement, He still wants us to be open to His Will, even during trials and challenges. As the Church acknowledges Mary’s conception free from original sin, we see that God prepared Mary in a very special way for the special role she has in salvation history. God prepares us in a similar way, for each blessing and challenge is built upon our response to the previous opportunities in our lives. Each time we are free to accept God’s will or to choose our own way, and with each decision, we must also accept the consequences that come as a result of our choices. 

Mary’s gift of acceptance to God has become a role model for us all to follow, regardless of the risks or the consequences. When we accept God’s will, there will be many blessings but also many trials, however, He will always be there for us and help us through it. It may not be what we expect for our lives, but if we are truly doing His will, then our expectations are changed from secular, worldly matters, to the goal of reaching heaven and spending eternity with God and with Mary.

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Giving to the Giver

What do you get the person who has everything? We’ve all struggled with family and friends who are a challenge when it comes to gift-giving. But what about the One who truly has everything, since He created it all: God? 

Matthew’s Gospel contains the visit of the magi, or wise men (Matt 2:1-12). What did these learned men give the newborn king? Gifts of great value which included gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These also correlate to Jesus symbolically to indicate His Kingship, His Divinity, and His Sacrifice. These men took the time and effort to visit the newborn and they were not about to bring Him cheap and worthless trinkets. It’s not like they were in the area and figured they would pop round to the nearest market to pick up a few baubles and drop in for a quick congratulatory visit. They undertook this journey, which itself was probably costly to each of them, because of the significance they understood from their study of the stars. While they are not named, they do not seem to be known by the Jews, even though they are familiar with the Jewish prophecy to be able to correctly understand and interpret the sign of the star. They did bring gifts for the baby, but the biggest gift of all was their time and attention, willingly given.

God has given us everything we have. Perhaps the greatest gift of all is our free will. This means that we always have a choice: to serve God or to serve ourselves. God wants us to freely choose Him. If we want to have a relationship with Him, then all our words and actions need to mirror Him. And God is magnificently generous with us. Even in our trials and challenges, we can find little blessings amongst the thorns. Sometimes the very painful events of our lives end up being transformed into the greatest blessings, even if we can’t see it when we are making our way through. 

Advent gives us a special opportunity to ponder the gifts of God and to think about how we respond to them. Do we wholeheartedly accept them, or do we treat them like an ugly Christmas sweater an old family member gave us and we force ourselves to smile and say a hollow thank you? What about the gift of the sacraments within the Mass and of reconciliation? Have they become items on our holiday checklist that we accommodate within our schedule out of a sense of obligation instead of approaching them humbly to make them the greatest joys of the season? While we can receive these sacraments outside of the Advent and Christmas timeframe, the preparatory nature of the liturgical time urges us to fully embrace the ability to have our sins forgiven, as we forgive those who have wronged us, as well as to receive Jesus, not just in a symbolic gesture, but really and truly in the Real Presence. Do we ask God to help us be as generous to others as He is with us? Or do we play it safe when creating our gift lists? 

Christmas is a lovely time of tradition, but we need to be cautious not to get mired in a sense of obligation, not just towards the celebrations with family and friends, but more importantly to specifically avoid celebrating Jesus’ birth as a duty. The best gift we can give the Giver is to freely choose to celebrate His birth by opening our hearts to Him and being receptive to all the graces, blessings, and challenges He bestows upon us. Why are we preparing ourselves during Advent? Because we believe in Jesus, we have been touched by Him, and we want to continue walking towards an eternity with Him.

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The gift of haste

In just a few days, a new liturgical year will start, which is always the beginning of Advent. Notice that the year does not begin when Jesus is born, but rather with a time of preparation, a time of action. 

God gives us many gifts and blessings. He also provides us, through scripture, role models for us to emulate. Our circumstances will not be the same as those accounts in the Bible, but when we read of how people accept God’s Word, His Will, and His Blessings, we can better appreciate and accept the gifts He bestows on us. There are numerous places among the various books of the Bible where God or His messengers speak. Let’s look at three examples from the New Testament of how individuals responded to God’s message.

“During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah,” is how Luke describes Mary’s trip to her cousin, Elizabeth. (Lk 1:39) During the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary at the annunciation, she learns her cousin is also pregnant. While Mary needs to do nothing but give her assent to become the mother of God, she can, however, do something for Elizabeth. In a time when travel took much longer than it does now, it most likely took four to five days for her to reach Elizabeth’s home. While Mary would eventually need to prepare for the birth of her own child, Elizabeth was far closer to giving birth. Mary sensed that Elizabeth would be in need of another pair of hands and quickly made her way there. While Gabriel mentions Elizabeth’s pregnancy, he does not give any direction to Mary in regards to visiting Elizabeth. Mary didn’t need to be told what to do, she just went. How many times when we receive a message do we take action? Do we wait and try and figure out what we should do, or do we let God’s will lead us in the action we should take?

“So they [the shepherds] went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.” (Lk 2:16) Here is that lovely word again in Luke, this time it’s about the shepherds who are reacting to the angel’s announcement to them in their fields. The angels do give the shepherds a hint as to what they are to do with the wonderful news they received, they are to seek the infant Jesus swaddled and in a manger. Although the shepherds are still in shock from the angels’ visit, after a brief discussion and consensus, they do quickly make their way and find the circumstances just as they were told. We are the shepherds of today, each time we attend Mass and receive the Word of God. Do we reflect upon what God may be speaking to us through the Word we hear? Do we make haste to put into action what we hear? 

“John [the] Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.” (Mk 1:4-5) Instead of angelic messengers, God sent John, the son of Elizabeth & Zechariah, to prepare the people to receive His Son. Through John’s preaching, the people realized their sins and wanted to change. Their baptism was a symbol, to the world, that they knew how they sinned and they were going to change to avoid it in the future. In the action they took to both be baptized as well as to make the necessary changes in their lives to avoid sin, they were opening their hearts, minds, and souls to God. They found out it was possible to be redeemed and were actively preparing to be so. Advent gives us the opportunity to prepare for Jesus in a similar, but much more profound way. We are able to receive the sacrament of reconciliation, making our souls as if we just rose from the waters of baptism with all the graces God wishes to bless us. While John’s preaching and baptism was directed by God, it didn’t have the same power of absolution that the sacrament has. Advent is the time to open our hearts, be honest in acknowledging our sin, and truly want to not only be forgiven, but also to amend our ways to avoid the sins again. We should make haste in Advent to the sacrament to prepare our souls to receive the Word when He comes to us.  

God’s message is meant to touch our hearts so deeply that we take action. When we receive God’s Word, we are meant to respond, to do God’s will, not just to listen and think it’s someone else’s responsibility. Let us focus this Advent to make haste in seeking God’s Word and Will for us and respond in action with the same swiftness.