TEXT: Second Sunday of Advent, December 8, 2024
December 8, 2024 Father De Celles Homily
2nd Sunday of Advent
December 8, 2024
Homily by Fr. John De Celles
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
Springfield, VA
It is said that Advent is a season of waiting in “joyful expectation.”
But this begs at least two very important questions:
What is it that we’re “waiting” for,
and how do we wait for it—what does it mean to “wait”?
What are we waiting for?
Well, we’re waiting for several things.
In the less immediate sense, we’re waiting for what St. Paul,
in today’s second reading, twice calls “the day of Christ Jesus.”
This is the day we speak of in the Creed every Sunday when we say,
“He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and His kingdom will have no end.”
In a more immediate sense, though, we’re waiting to celebrate
the birthday of our Savior, Jesus Christ…Christmas.
For many, Christmas means things like lights and trees
and presents and parties.
And more than that, it means warm feelings and family gatherings,
Christmas cheer, and a spirit of generosity.
But no matter how wonderful or genuine or good
those things, occasions, and sentiments are,
what we’re actually waiting to celebrate goes way beyond that.
We celebrate the historic fact
that that Almighty God became a little baby,
the Creator who came out of eternity and entered into time,
to come to us to share His life and love with us forever.
We celebrate the anniversary of that day in history 2000 years ago when,
again, as we confess every Sunday:
“The Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages.
…true God from true God,
…through Him all things were made.
…He came down from heaven,
…and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.”
This is not simply about feelings or a nebulous “Christmas spirit”
—it’s about something that really happened.
That’s why St. Luke, in today’s gospel,
goes to all the trouble to give us the exact timing
of the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist:
“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee [etc]…”
And it’s why this same St. Luke earlier in his Gospel carefully lays out for us
the historical timing of the Birth of Jesus:
“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus…
when Quirin’i-us was governor of Syria…
Joseph also went up…to…Bethlehem…
with Mary, his betrothed…
And she gave birth to her first-born son.”
All this to emphasize it really happened!
But, again, that’s not all we wait for.
If we believe Christ really historically came,
we also believe He remains with us still,
just as He once promised,
“Behold, I will be with you always, even until the end of time.”
And He does remain, as we find Him in His word, in His Church,
and in His sacraments, especially in the sacrament of Penance,
and most sublimely in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.
And He comes to us as we encounter Him in prayer
and in the many graces He pours out on us every single day of our lives.
So, during Advent we wait, looking forward to His second coming in the future
and looking forward to celebrating His first coming in the past,
but all the time remembering that
He has come, He’s arrived, and He’s already here with us right now.
This is where we find the answer to the question,
“How do we wait during Advent?”
We wait like St. John the Baptist did.
Today’s Gospel tells us,
“The word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.”
Like John, during Advent we should spend time
away from the commotion of the world,
and come away to be with the Lord,
to talk to Him, and most importantly, to listen to Him
—to let “the word of God come” to us.
But how do we do that during the “Holiday Season,” when there’s so much to do:
presents to buy, parties to go to, decorations to hang, loved ones to visit?
In an Advent homily given almost twenty years ago by Pope Benedict, he said:
“We all experience in daily life having little time for the Lord…
We end up being absorbed in “doing.”
Is it not true that often activity possesses us…
that we dedicate much time to amusements and leisure of different kinds?
Sometimes things ‘trap’ us.”
Things do trap us, especially this time of year.
But in Advent we have to get out of this trap.
We have to make ourselves spend time with the Lord in prayer,
to be in His presence.
Fortunately, the Church gives us lots of ways to do this,
especially at St. Raymond’s.
There’s daily Mass at least three times a day during the week
and daily confessions every day.
There’s the Advent Series every Thursday evening at Mass
and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament every Wednesday and Friday.
There’s the Family Rosary, Bible Study, RCIA, and the various prayer groups,
not to mention all the other spiritual activities of the parish,
from the Mom’s group to youth ministry.
Maybe you can’t make it here to Church so often.
Okay, a church is usually the best place to pray, but you can pray anywhere
—and you should pray everywhere, especially in your homes.
Are you doing any special Advent prayers at home,
especially if you have children?
A family Rosary at home, reading the scriptures,
or even prayers around the Advent wreath?
And if you live alone, all the more opportunity and reason
for dedicating time for prayer at home.
But that time in prayer, in the desert of Advent,
shouldn’t end your awareness of Jesus’ continuing presence.
As Pope Benedict went on to say in his Advent homily:
“Advent, this intense liturgical time that we are beginning,
invites us to pause in silence to grasp a presence.
It is an invitation to understand that every event of the day
is a gesture that God directs to us,
a sign of the care He has for each one of us…
Should not the certainty of His presence help us…
to see our whole existence…
as a way in which He can come to us and be close to us,
in each situation?”
If we are aware of His presence “in each situation,”
shouldn’t that change the way we live in each situation?
Advent should make us ask ourselves,
“Do I live as if I truly believe that God the Son
was born on earth and remains with us even now?”
How could we fail to love our neighbor, especially spouses and family,
if we’re aware of Christ’s presence next to us as we do that?
How could we fail to love God when we remember He’s with us, loving us?
How could we not keep his commandments–
lie or cheat, or overindulge in food or drink, or think impure thoughts?
How can our focus be on presents and parties and “holiday” stuff,
when Christ is here?
We read today that as John comes out of the desert he does so
“proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
Part of our waiting is repenting,
recognizing and being sorry for the times we’ve sinned
in Jesus’ presence.
Part of our waiting is going to Jesus, especially in the sacrament of penance,
to confess our sins and change our lives
because our sins not only wound Jesus and push Him away,
they also make it all that much harder to recognize His presence in our lives,
and so the chain of evil self-perpetuates.
Our lives become crooked paths, winding this way and that,
from this sin to that sin,
from this thing that attracts us here to that one over there,
all the while making the path between us and Jesus
all that much harder to navigate.
And so, St. Luke reminds us that John came to
“prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths.”
Advent is a time to prepare, to stop bouncing from thing to thing, from sin to sin,
and to work at making a straight path for Jesus,
free from all stumbling blocks, from anything that would come between us.
But again, our preparation, or waiting, doesn’t stop there,
with us and our personal prayer and behavior.
Our preparation continues to follow the example of John the Baptist:
We must go out and proclaim all this to the world around us.
We do this in lots of ways.
Sometimes it’s simply by the life we lead–
Our lives should be a living witness to
that fact that we believe that Jesus Christ was born 2000 years ago
and that His birth has changed our lives.
Sometimes, though, it involves actually opening our mouths
and telling people this in one way or another.
Sometimes this means sitting down and having a conversation
with someone about Jesus.
Sometimes it means simply not being afraid to say,
“Merry Christmas!” instead of the insipidly secular “Happy Holidays.”
Sometimes it even means risking losing friends or the affection of family members
in order to either help them come to know Christ
or to avoid personally denying Christ.
It’s hard to know what to say or do in these and other difficult situations.
Sometimes He wants us to tread lightly,
not to “bruise the bent reed,” to “be gentle as doves.”
On the other hand, sometimes He demands a more direct approach, saying,
“If your brother sins, rebuke him,”
and He warns us,
“Whoever denies Me before men,
I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
So, how can we know what He wants us to do or say in these situations
if we don’t talk to Him? If we don’t pray?
He tells us,
“Do not be anxious about…what you are to say;
for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.”
But how can He give us what to say
if we don’t even recognize He’s here!
____
For many people, the idea of waiting for Christmas seems absurd
—and so they immerse themselves in a false “Holiday Season.”
That is only because they do not understand
what, or rather Who, we wait for and how we wait.
But we do.
So, as Pope Benedict writes:
“If something is expected, but at this moment there is nothing…
waiting is transformed into a weight that is too heavy…
When, instead, time is gifted with meaning
and we perceive in every instant something specific and valuable,
then the joy of waiting makes the present more precious.”
Our waiting is not a heavy weight;
it is not wasted, empty, or inactive, but rather filled with meaning
because it’s filled with the presence of Christ Himself.
And so, in Advent, we prepare and we repent even as we are filled with joy.
Brothers and sisters, let us get busy now
preparing to celebrate the Lord’s coming
by first taking time and effort to remember, in prayer and in works,
that He is already here.