First Sunday of Advent
If you asked a seminarian for a description of Hell, he would likely say that Hell would be remaining in seminary forever. Don’t get me wrong, seminary is a great place, and were some of the best eight years of my life (four in college, four in theology), but it had a goal: ordination to the priesthood. Of course, there’s no way to teach us all the things we’ll need to know in seminary, but if they kept us until we knew everything we needed, we’d never become priests; we’d be seminarians forever; which would be Hell.
It think sometimes we forget that history has a goal. History is not aimlessly meandering throughout the centuries and millennia. History is proceeding to the final judgement. History is going towards Jesus. And our goal, as Catholics, is to make sure that we’re on the right side of history.
History for the Jews was going towards Jesus, their long-awaited Messiah. Jeremiah speaks the Lord’s message that God was going to “raise up for David a just shoot.” God was going to fulfill His promise that a son of David would sit on the throne of Israel forever, and that promise was fulfilled in Jesus. Of course, the Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but He is the Messiah, and proved it throughout the Gospels .
For us as Catholics, as the fulfillment of Judaism and even the Gentiles (those who were joined to Judaism who were not originally part of the Chosen People), our goal is to remain faithful to Jesus the Messiah until He returns to judge the living and the dead. St. Paul reminds us that we know how to conduct ourselves as pleasing to God, through the instructions that St. Paul gave us. And not just St. Paul, but the apostles, joined in union with St. Peter and his successors, the popes, who are called to authentically teach us how to live out our faith, and how to follow Jesus in new times and places.
Jesus Himself reminds us in the Gospel not to become drowsy from immoral behavior and the daily grind of life. Instead, we are to be vigilant, waiting for that culmination of human history in the return of the Messiah who, at the end of time, will bring to fulfillment the victory He won on the cross.
What will remain? Jesus and all that is in Him and His Mystical Body, the Church. What will pass away? Everything that is contrary to Jesus and His Mystical Body, the Church. Sadly, we tend to see things more in a political view than in a Gospel view. We give allegiance to this or that political group, but not as much to Jesus and His Church. The Gospel and the unbroken teaching of the Church tell us that we cannot support abortion, artificial contraception, homosexual activity, and the philosophy that we can determine our gender independent of the way God has created our bodies. Of course, to our American ears that sounds like I’m attacking women and diversity and the Democratic party. And certainly, we are called to love those who try to promote or get an abortion, those who engage in homosexual acts, and those who are confused about their gender. But at the same time that we love them we cannot endorse their actions. The Gospel and the unbroken teaching of the Church also tell us that we have an obligation to assist the poor, especially those who cannot care for themselves, and to care for the stranger, the alien, and those in prison, to strive for just working conditions and a fare wage. Of course, to our American ears that sounds like I’m supporting laziness, like I don’t care about national security, and am in the pockets of the unions, and attacking the Republican party. But God the Father doesn’t call us to be part of a political party. He calls us to follow Jesus with all that it entails, which cannot be entirely encompassed by one political party (at least not one that I’ve seen). We can have strong borders, encourage others to work, and make sure that employees are not taken advantage of for profit. But we also have to make sure that we are treating all people with human dignity, no matter what their circumstance in life.
Our goal is to advance our life and the lives of those around us, towards Christ, following what He teaches in its fulness, not picking and choosing the parts we like. Our goal is to be part of the trajectory of history that is going towards Jesus, committed to Him entirely, not committed to other groups or ideologies before Jesus. During this Advent, let’s recommit ourselves to moving towards the goal of history, towards Jesus, and avoiding being on the wrong side of the judgement of Christ.
