Planning and Preparing

 Second Sunday of Advent

    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.].  My best friend often teases me for how much I plan.  Just the other day in a text he said, “nobody plans like you do.”  And I do tend to plan and prepare.  As an example, September 2023 will see (if the Lord tarry) my 40th birthday, and I already have plans on how to celebrate and am preparing to execute those plans.
    Last week I preached about how Advent is a time of waiting.  Advent is also a time of preparing.  St. John the Baptist is the quintessential Advent figure, proclaiming, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”  As a Church, we prepare for three things during Advent: to celebrate Christmas, we prepare for Christ to come into our hearts each day, and we prepare for Christ to return in glory.  As individuals we are probably preparing for family to come over at some point in the next month, perhaps even buying some food now; we clean our house and get it ready for a Christmas tree (real or fake) and the Christmas decorations; we make lists of presents we want and presents we need to get for those we love.  
    Of the three comings of Christ (2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, daily in our hearts, and at the end of time), the one that we probably default to at this time of year is the first Christmas, when Christ was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.  Perhaps we even think, especially as we just closed out the month of November, about Christ returning in glory and the final judgment.  But today I’d like to focus on preparing for Christ to come into our hearts today, and how we prepare for that.
    Because while the Incarnation was a unique event, as Christ took flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and we could know about that Incarnation when He was born, Christ, in an analogous sense, becomes incarnate every day, as we offer to God ordinary bread and wine, and, by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the ministry of the priest, Christ changes it into His Body and Blood.  Each Sunday is a little Easter, as we celebrate the Resurrection, but each Mass is like a little Christmas, when God miraculously takes flesh before our eyes and we can look upon the God whom the heavens and earth cannot contain.
    Just like preparing for Christmas, there are practical ways that we get ready for Mass.  We get dressed (thank you for not coming to Mass without clothes!), hopefully donning nicer clothes than we would wear to go to a movie or a sporting event.  We make sure we don’t smell too gamey, and maybe comb or brush the hair, and maybe the ladies put on a little make-up.  If we have kids, we try to ensure that the socks match, the shoes are on the correct feet, and they won’t be too cold or too hot.  We leave (or should leave) so that we’re not walking into Mass after it has already begun, allowing a little time in case we catch every red light, or construction makes our detour from our regular route.  Those are all necessary preparations that we personally make for Mass, but which are altogether secular.  But how do we prepare ourselves spiritually?  Do we prepare ourselves spiritually?
    We can prepare for Mass by doing a good examination of conscience, and going to confession.  We especially need to go to confession if we are aware of mortal or grave sins, but we can also go even if we only have venial sins.  Allowing the Lord to cleanse us of our sins removes and obstacles that may get in the way of our reception of the Lord’s grace.  
    Preparation for Mass can also begin six days before Mass even begins.  Thanks to hand missals and the Internet, we probably always know what the readings will be for the following Sunday.  A great way to prepare is to read over the readings for Mass each day before the following Sunday.  Reading the Word of God is a great preparation, as the proclamation of the prophets was the same way the Chosen People were prepared for the Incarnation.  Reading something multiple times also helps us go deeper into the meaning of the sacred text.  And, if you have a child who is a bit squirmy and you have to step out, or if the homily is particularly boring, you can think about what you might say about those readings, and how God has spoken to you through the Word of God.
    Another proximate way of preparing is by fasting.  We are required to fast from all food and drink except water and medicine for 1 hour before receiving Holy Communion.  This means no gum, no walking in with a cup of coffee, or no other little food or drink delights.  The Communion fast prepares our body to hunger for the Eucharist.  It draws our mind and our body to the Body we will be receiving, the Body of our Lord.  Of course, this fast can be modified if our health requires some sustenance (such as those who are hypoglycemic, diabetic, or even simply pregnant).  But it can also be extended as a means of devotion.  Some of you remember when you had to fast for 3 hours before receiving Holy Communion, and a handful of you may even remember requiring the fast to begin at midnight (which is why the first meal of the day was usually had after Mass and was called breakfast–literally, breaking the fast).  I myself try not to eat any food before my first Mass of the day.
    On the day of Mass, proper preparation continues, as much as possible, by arriving at Mass before it’s scheduled to begin.  Again, with kids that can sometimes be tough, and even the best planning and preparation can sometimes give way to the practicalities of getting kids ready who may not always be helpful or enthused when it comes to going to Mass.  But generally, do we plan to arrive a little before Mass begins, or do we wander in sometime during the first reading, or second reading, or homily?
    Having arrived at Mass early, with whom do we spend that time?  There’s nothing wrong with catching up with friends before Mass, but God wants your time as well, and deserves it more than your friends.  Do you take time to quiet your heart, to make space for God’s voice, that so often comes in the silence by silent prayer before Mass?  There are a variety of prayers before Mass that one can say, or perhaps pray a decade of or an entire Rosary.  
    So often I hear the trite phrase, “I don’t get anything out of Mass.”  You might hear it as well.  I would encourage you to respond (of if you say it yourself, think on): “What did you do to get ready for Mass?”  Just like if we are not prepared for an event, we don’t get as much out of it, so with the Mass, if we have not prepared, we may not experience as many of the fruits as God desires for us.  You don’t necessarily have to be a planner like me, but make time to prepare to come to the celebration of the Passion of the Lord [who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, for ever and ever.  Amen].

An icon of St. John the Baptist from the place where he was hidden during the slaughter of the Holy Innocents

How Much or Little We Prepare

 First Sunday of Advent

    In one of the final building scenes of the movie, “A Few Good Men,” Lt. Daniel Kaffee, played by Tom Cruise, questions Col. Nathan R. Jessep, played by Jack Nicholson.  At one point, Lt. Kaffee asks Col. Jessep what preparations he made to travel from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Washington, D.C., for the trial of two marines under Col. Jessep’s command who allegedly had killed Private Willie Santiago.  Col. Jessep says that he wore his utility uniform on the plane, but packed his dress uniform.  Lt. Kaffee continues asking if Col. Jessep brought his “Toothbrush, shaving kit, change of underwear,” which Col. Jessep confirmed.  Col. Jessep later states that he called a family member, a Congressman, and a friend in DC to let them know that he was coming.  Lt. Kaffee skillfully compares the preparation Col. Jessep made for a short trip to the total lack of preparations Pvt. Santiago made for being transferred from Gitmo for the rest of his life.  Without giving away the climax of the movie, the truth of what happened is revealed through the preparations, or the lack of preparations, made by Pvt. Santiago.
    As we begin our season of Advent, we are in a season of preparation.  We are not Marines begging to get away from a tough commanding officer, but followers of Christ, waiting to celebrate with joy the annual celebration of the Nativity of the Lord, and waiting for our Lord to return.  But our preparations, or the lack of preparations, tell us about how or if we will be prepared for when Christmas comes and when Christ returns.  Because the Gospels are clear, through many parables, that if Christ catches us off-guard, it will not be good for us.
    When we think about preparing as a Church, we generally put more emphasis on Lent as a penitential time to prepare for Easter.  But Advent, too, is a time of penance and denying ourselves so that we can be ready to celebrate with joy.  Advent is a kind of mini-Lent, shorter, and leading up to a celebration that is not as big as Easter.  But it is still meant to help us grow in prayer and the life of virtue.
    We may not always think of sacrificing as a good thing.  But we are good at sacrificing for things that we really want.  Perhaps you are working overtime during these weeks leading up to Christmas to pay for the extra expenses for family and friends.  Kids, who usually like to sleep in, will deny themselves those extra hours of sleep on Christmas morning to see what kind of presents they received.  When we treasure something, we are willing to change our lives for the thing we treasure.  Are we willing to do the same for our Lord this Advent?
    It is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of these days leading up to Christmas.  Besides our usual responsibilities at work and/or home, there’s the decorations that will need to go up (or have already gone up), the parties with families and friends, and Christmas music has been playing on some radio stations since just after Halloween.  There’s also the stress of trying to find that just-right gift for the ones we love, the question of how much we can afford to spend, and how much we want to travel as snow starts to fall and make our commutes a bit more difficult than usual.  If we are not purposeful about taking time to prepare, before we know it, we’ll be getting ready to go to Christmas Mass and wondering where the time went.  I know that November, for me at least, has flown by; I’m not sure exactly why it went so quickly, but it did.  Even more so will December likely fly by.  So we should make plans now for how we can prepare, rather than fall into Christmas.
    Like Lent, the Church invites us to pray more during Advent.  During Lent we pray especially for mercy and recognizing our sins, as we “turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”  During Advent we can also pray for mercy and seek conversion, the avoidance of sin and the embracing of good.  But we do so with the view of preparing for Christ to return and wanting to keep our baptismal garments white with purity, as our parents or we were instructed to do at baptism.  
    We can also make our own the prayer of the early Church, marana tha, “Come, Lord,” and ask for Jesus to return.  We know that this world is not the way it is supposed to be.  And we know that when our Lord returns He will set everything right.  Our prayer should be for that to happen soon, so that pain, sorrow, and suffering do not have to last any longer, but can come to and end and wholeness, joy, and happiness can be the only thing that we disciples experience.  
    In Advent, we also focus on bringing more light into our lives, namely, the light of Christ.  In our part of the world, it’s dark–a lot–this time of year.  You wake up in darkness, and you eat dinner in darkness.  And yet, we are preparing for the Light of the World, Christ, to come forth from the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to shine upon the darkness of our lives and our world so that we can see clearly.  Our Advent candles remind us of the growing light.  And again, Advent is a time to reflect on our baptism, when we received a baptismal candle and were told to keep it burning until the return of Christ in glory, like the wise virgins with their lamps in the Gospel parable.  How do we keep the light of faith alive in our hearts?  How do we share that light with others so that they, too, can see?  What guides are enlightening our pilgrim path through this world?  Is it simply worldly wisdom, which often leads us away from God, or is it the wisdom of Scripture and the teachings of the Church, which guide us to the sun that never sets in heaven, Jesus Christ our Lord?  
    Advent, like Lent, is also a time of almsgiving, of helping the poor.  We have our giving tree that is up at St. Pius X, and so many organizations collect money and toys for those who do not have the financial resources to celebrate this time of year with food or presents that many of us take for granted.  Especially in the cold, winter months, we can assist others with donating gloves, hats, and coats to keep people warm, especially if we no longer use them and they are just taking up space in our closet.  Service to the poor is a year-round call for us as disciples, but especially as we prepare to welcome Christ at Christmas.  In centuries gone past, the preparation for Christmas began closer to St. Martin’s Day, 11 November.  St. Martin was a soldier who became a bishop in France, but as a soldier he cut his cloak in two to give to a poor man who was cold along the side of the road.  That night in a dream, he saw Christ with that cloak, and knew vividly what our Lord said in the Gospel of Matthew: Whatever you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do for me.  Our own charity can mimic St. Martin’s in our shorter preparation for Christmas.
    Our end is in our beginning.  Our preparations dictate how the actual event will go.  Advent is an easily-missed season, because it is so short, and because we have so much going on.  But take time to prepare, not only for all that is going on in your work and personal life, but for our Lord’s Nativity and His second coming in glory.  Don’t let Christ catch you off-guard when He comes!

Spiritual Comfort Food

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Probably each of us has a comfort food that we go to in times of distress or trial.  Sometimes it’s a particular recipe from a loved one, sometimes it’s just a type of food like homecoming or an ethnic cuisine.  It may betray my youth, but for me, pizza is definitely one of my comfort foods.  There’s nothing quite like a few greasy slices of bacon and pineapple pizza to make me feel good inside.

The Eucharist is, or should be, our spiritual comfort food.  It was prefigured by the manna in the wilderness that satisfied the Israelites in the desert for 40 years (which we heard about in our first reading).  Psalm 78, speaking about the deliverance from Egypt and the sojourn in the desert for 40 years was meant to be a reminder of this spiritual food as it said, “God rained manna upon them for food; grain from heaven he gave them.  Man ate the bread of the angels.”  The very popular Corpus Christi hymn, “Panis Angelicus” in fact means, “Angelic Bread” or “Bread of the Angels.”  

But the Eucharist is not simply a reminder.  St. Paul tells us that when we receive the Eucharist, we participate in the Body and Blood of Christ.  So many Catholics (a 2010 study by the Pew Forum put that number at 50%) do not believe that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, a cornerstone teaching of our faith.  And yet, we heard Jesus very clearly in our Gospel today: “‘Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.’”  In order to share in the life of Jesus, we need to be connected to Jesus, and the best way that we can be connected with Jesus is by receiving His Body and Blood into ourselves in the Eucharist.  And our belief about what the Eucharist is changes the way we act.

During the Eucharistic Prayer, as the bread and wine become by Transubstantiation the Body and Blood of Jesus, we kneel.  We lower our bodies to express what is (hopefully) happening interiorly: the humbling of our souls as this miracle takes place.  Even before we get to Mass the Church asks us to refrain from any food and drink which is not water or medicine for 1 hour before we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, so that we may truly hunger for Jesus.  Some of you are old enough to remember a Communion fast which was much longer than just 1 hour!  But we try to prepare ourselves by not brining in coffee or juice to the church, by not chewing gum during Mass, and by doing our best to focus all our senses on Jesus who humbles Himself to become truly present under the appearance of bread and wine.  

The Church also asks us, based upon St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, to examine ourselves to see if we are in a state prepared to receive Holy Communion.  Does our life witness to what the Church teaches as true?  If not, if we find ourselves rejecting, either in thought or in deed, a major teaching of the Church, then we are asked to refrain from the Eucharist so that our communion with Jesus, which always means communion with His Mystical Body, the Church, may be real, and not lip service.

But besides the before of the Eucharist, there is also the after.  If we receive the Eucharist worthily, then it should transform our lives.  From time to time we may think, ‘If Jesus was walking this earth, then I would follow Him and live as a faithful disciple.’  Jesus does come to earth, especially through the Eucharist.  In fact, we don’t even need to have the separation of Him being outside of us that the Apostles and disciples experienced.  Jesus, in the Eucharist, enters into us so that we can be a faithful disciple.  The reception of the Eucharist is meant to have an affect on the way we live our lives.  It is meant to give us hope, give us strength, and help us to bring the gift of Jesus to those we encounter every day.  Maybe people who encounter us wouldn’t know exactly why we’re different, but could people recognize the difference in us after we receive the Eucharist?

Jesus promised at the Ascension that He would be with us always, even until the end of the age.  And He fulfills that promise in the Eucharist.  Do we prepare to receive our spiritual comfort food?  Do we examine our lives before receiving Holy Communion?  And does our reception of the Eucharist transform us to be more and more like Jesus each week?

Advent: Good to the Last Drop

First Sunday of Advent

            When I was still in school, this was a very treacherous time of the year.  Not because of the ice, not because of the snow, but simply because, despite what science may say, a time warp seems to happen.  It doesn’t matter that just the week before each minute of the day seemed to go as quickly as molasses in the wintertime.  As soon as Thanksgiving passed there was never enough time in the day to get everything done.  All you have to do is blink, and then finals are here, and then you blink again and Christmas is here.

            Advent surely is a quick-moving season.  It’s only four weeks long.  And yet, the Church asks us to prepare for two great mysteries: the coming of Christ at the end of time (what our readings focused on this week) and the coming of Christ in the fullness of time at the first Christmas (what our readings will focus on as we get closer to the day of Christmas).  These are no small mysteries, and yet it is so hard to actually get ready for them.

            Because, besides the religious season, there’s also the secular season, which actually began November 1, All Saints day, but which kicks into high gear after Thanksgiving: the office or school Christmas parties; the shopping for gifts; the sending of cards; and the list goes on.  If we are not purposeful about Advent, it slips right past us and we don’t have the proper time to prepare for Christmas.  We can become like the people in the days of Noah, who “were eating and drinking…up to the day that Noah entered the ark” and not know that Advent is here until it’s gone.  Christmas can become as much a surprise (even though we know the day!) as the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time.

            So how do we make this a purposeful season?  How to we make sure that we can enjoy every drop of Advent so that we are prepared for the Second Coming of Christ and Christ?  How do we not let the season pass us by?

            Well, I could tell you all to not listen to any Christmas music, and to make a huge new schedule of prayer, and to draw away from the world.  And all of those things are good, and if you can, wonderful.

            But, for those of us who can only take baby steps, consider the following options for fully getting into Advent:

1.    1.      Try to incorporate more silence into your life, even if it’s just a few minutes.  It could be turning off the radio in the car, taking 5 minutes before Mass to silently pray, setting aside a few minutes at home where the TV is off, the computer is not logged in, and you can just focus on listening to God.  This is a good practice because it was in the silence of the night at Bethlehem that Jesus was born, and it is in the silence that God often speaks to us.

2.     2.     Utilize a home Advent wreath.  Even if you just take four candles and put them in a circular shape, and light them for a few minutes at dinner, it’s a great way to remember the progression of Advent and the coming (or advent) of the true Light of the World, Jesus, by lighting one candle for the first week of Advent, two for the second, and so on.

3.     3.     Make sure we confess our sins and receive sacramental absolution.  In order to receive the full graces that God wants to bestow upon us, our souls have to be cleansed from the sin that blocks the reception of those graces.  We can go to the usual reconciliation schedule, or go to the regional Communal Penance Service (and believe me, I remember the joy of knowing that I was confessing to a priest that I would never see again until Lent) and maybe start a habit of going more often, which is never a bad thing (because even with a priest we know, he can’t say anything or act any differently based upon something he learned in confession).

4.    4.      Invite someone you know who’s Catholic, but maybe you haven’t seen them at Church in a while, to come to Mass with you.  It might mean you have to pick them up on your way here, but what a great way to prepare for Jesus who came to earth to save you by inviting others to the banquet of salvation and help them prepare for Christmas as well.  And, if you’re not comfortable asking them to join you for Mass, then even just to pray for them to come back to the Church.  Advent is a great time of grace to recognize the Messiah, Emmanuel, God-With-Us.  Our prayers that others might know how close God is to them are always heard, but especially during this time of year.

     There are other good practices as well, like reading Advent reflections, and many others that your family might have as a usual Advent practice.  But the point is that we have this short, but powerful, four weeks of Advent to prepare for Jesus.  Let’s really makes sure that it doesn’t pass us by because we’re too busy to get ready for Jesus.  If there’s anyone for whom we should be preparing this Advent, no one is more important than Jesus.  And, as a great gift, if we do prepare for Jesus, then our Christmas celebrations will be even better, because we will not be caught off-guard, but will be ready to greet Jesus and will say with all our hearts, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”