Homily
4th Sunday of Advent Year B
Christ the King Topeka
21 December 2014
Daily Readings
Father, are you ready for Christmas? I do not like this question. I do not like it at all. I react violently when I hear this question, because the question fills me with guilt. I am a priest of Jesus Christ. I have one job, and one job only, to get ready for Christmas, and for the life of me, I can't get ready. I can't stay focused on the one most important thing. So don't ask me if I'm ready for Christmas, unless you're trying to turn me into the grinch. I do not like the question. Advent has been a mess again this year. It has not been a season of quiet and prayerful anticipation. I do not have a perfect Christmas meditation put together yet. I haven't even begun shopping yet. I've never heard so many confessions! Advent has been the opposite of what it's designed to be - it has been noisy and busy and schizophrenic. It feels like a lot of the Christmas celebrations have already happened. I'm not only not ready, I'm half confused. Say an Amen if you're with me!
I'm scared, dear friends, that this Christmas could go by without a lot changing in my heart. My one job is to be ready for that moment when I receive the Eucharist on Christmas Eve, to allow my Lord Jesus to be born in a new area of my heart that I have never let him touch before! That's my one job, and I'm afraid of not being ready. I'm afraid that this will not be my best or most perfect Christmas, that I will approach that sacred mome
nt with as much distraction and doubt as readiness and faith. What is more, I'm scared that if this year is not my best and most perfect Christmas, when I truly allow the Lord to be born anew in my heart, then will such a Christmas ever happen.
Don't get me wrong. It has been an amazing Advent, and the Christmas promise is bright. But I want to have the Christmas of all Christmases, don't you? I really don't want to celebrate another Christmas without knowing it will be the best yet. I don't like treading water. I don't want my best Christmas to be behind me - I want it to be staring me in the face. But I'm afraid I may never get there.
Again, to have a perfect Christmas is to have prepared deep within us, in a new place, a worthy space for the Lord to be born. David wanted this for the Lord - he offered in the first reading to build a house worthy for the Lord to dwell in. Yet the Lord reminded David that He couldn't possibly build such a house. The only one who could build a house worthy of the Lord is the Lord himself.
This is what we see happening within Mary. The Lord promised David he would build his own house, and this house was ultimately the womb of Mary. There's nothing we can do, you see, to have a perfect Advent. There is no checklist to complete that would convince the Lord we are ready for Him to be born within us. The Lord himself has to build the house, from deep within us, and Mary teaches us how Advent is really done.
As we see in the Annunciation, Mary can rescue an imperfect Advent. She can even save us from a terrible one. We are not ready for Christmas, nor could we ever be ready, but She is ready, and that is all that matters. We only need to entrust ourselves to her, and we will be ready too. What is more, Mary is more excited for this Christmas than she was for the first Christmas, for that same Holy Spirit that once overshadowed her, wants to give birth to our Lord not just in one place, in Bethlehem, but in millions of places, wherever He can find an echo of Mary's great Magnificat - let it be done to me according to your word. Mary expects this Christmas to be the best yet, and so should we.
Jesus is so madly in love with us, this year more than ever. Mary is more ready than ever, begging us to surrender to Jesus' being born deep within us, where we have never given permission for Him to be born before. All of our Advent preparations distill in these final days into the only words that really matter - let it be done to me according to your word. Lord, build your sanctuary within me, and then come, Lord Jesus, come. Come and be born in those places where I have lost hope of ever changing.
The perfect Christmas can only happen if we follow the pattern of Mary. She alone can make us ready. So it really doesn't matter if Father is ready for Christmas. It doesn't matter if you're ready. It only matters that She is ready. We will never have a better Christmas than Mary, so entrusting ourselves to Her is the surest path to our best Christmas. Only she can lead us to a perfect Christmas. Amen.
4th Sunday of Advent Year B
Christ the King Topeka
21 December 2014
Daily Readings
Father, are you ready for Christmas? I do not like this question. I do not like it at all. I react violently when I hear this question, because the question fills me with guilt. I am a priest of Jesus Christ. I have one job, and one job only, to get ready for Christmas, and for the life of me, I can't get ready. I can't stay focused on the one most important thing. So don't ask me if I'm ready for Christmas, unless you're trying to turn me into the grinch. I do not like the question. Advent has been a mess again this year. It has not been a season of quiet and prayerful anticipation. I do not have a perfect Christmas meditation put together yet. I haven't even begun shopping yet. I've never heard so many confessions! Advent has been the opposite of what it's designed to be - it has been noisy and busy and schizophrenic. It feels like a lot of the Christmas celebrations have already happened. I'm not only not ready, I'm half confused. Say an Amen if you're with me!I'm scared, dear friends, that this Christmas could go by without a lot changing in my heart. My one job is to be ready for that moment when I receive the Eucharist on Christmas Eve, to allow my Lord Jesus to be born in a new area of my heart that I have never let him touch before! That's my one job, and I'm afraid of not being ready. I'm afraid that this will not be my best or most perfect Christmas, that I will approach that sacred mome
nt with as much distraction and doubt as readiness and faith. What is more, I'm scared that if this year is not my best and most perfect Christmas, when I truly allow the Lord to be born anew in my heart, then will such a Christmas ever happen.
Don't get me wrong. It has been an amazing Advent, and the Christmas promise is bright. But I want to have the Christmas of all Christmases, don't you? I really don't want to celebrate another Christmas without knowing it will be the best yet. I don't like treading water. I don't want my best Christmas to be behind me - I want it to be staring me in the face. But I'm afraid I may never get there.
Again, to have a perfect Christmas is to have prepared deep within us, in a new place, a worthy space for the Lord to be born. David wanted this for the Lord - he offered in the first reading to build a house worthy for the Lord to dwell in. Yet the Lord reminded David that He couldn't possibly build such a house. The only one who could build a house worthy of the Lord is the Lord himself.
This is what we see happening within Mary. The Lord promised David he would build his own house, and this house was ultimately the womb of Mary. There's nothing we can do, you see, to have a perfect Advent. There is no checklist to complete that would convince the Lord we are ready for Him to be born within us. The Lord himself has to build the house, from deep within us, and Mary teaches us how Advent is really done.
As we see in the Annunciation, Mary can rescue an imperfect Advent. She can even save us from a terrible one. We are not ready for Christmas, nor could we ever be ready, but She is ready, and that is all that matters. We only need to entrust ourselves to her, and we will be ready too. What is more, Mary is more excited for this Christmas than she was for the first Christmas, for that same Holy Spirit that once overshadowed her, wants to give birth to our Lord not just in one place, in Bethlehem, but in millions of places, wherever He can find an echo of Mary's great Magnificat - let it be done to me according to your word. Mary expects this Christmas to be the best yet, and so should we.Jesus is so madly in love with us, this year more than ever. Mary is more ready than ever, begging us to surrender to Jesus' being born deep within us, where we have never given permission for Him to be born before. All of our Advent preparations distill in these final days into the only words that really matter - let it be done to me according to your word. Lord, build your sanctuary within me, and then come, Lord Jesus, come. Come and be born in those places where I have lost hope of ever changing.
The perfect Christmas can only happen if we follow the pattern of Mary. She alone can make us ready. So it really doesn't matter if Father is ready for Christmas. It doesn't matter if you're ready. It only matters that She is ready. We will never have a better Christmas than Mary, so entrusting ourselves to Her is the surest path to our best Christmas. Only she can lead us to a perfect Christmas. Amen.
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