November 28, 2004: Letting Your Soul Catch Up With You

The First Sunday of Advent


You may have heard of a Jewish rabbi and author by the name of Harold Kushner. His best-known book is called Why Bad Things Happen to Good People, and it’s the story of losing his young son to a terminal disease. Rabbi Kushner wrote another book entitled The Lord Is My Shepherd. In it, he tells an anecdote about a group of tourists on safari in Africa. The travelers hired several native tribesmen to carry their supplies during the trek. After three days, the porters told them that they would have to stop and rest for a day. They were not tired, they explained, but said, “We have walked too far too fast and now we must wait for our souls to catch up with us.”

Today we celebrate the beginning of Advent—the four weeks of preparation leading up to Christmas. The Church sets out this special and hopeful season to help us prepare for Christ’s coming. There is so much mystery and wonder to savor and consider…

But who has time? Only four weeks ‘til Christmas? Just 28 short days? We’ve barely made a dent in the Thanksgiving leftovers, and it’s time to hit the ground running. We face a full schedule of shopping, decorating, wrapping and baking… parties, cards to write, school plays and recitals to attend… maybe travel plans to make—which means packing, and stopping the newspapers and the mail and a million other details… and many of us have money problems or health issues to deal with, too—ho! ho! ho!—making this not a joyful, peaceful time of hope and anticipation, but a busy, stressful and sometimes frantic marathon that doesn’t stop until after New Year’s.

Not exactly great spiritual preparation.

So… before embarking on that same old path this year, maybe, like those safari porters, we need to pause and wait for our souls to catch up with us.

All of us, I think—I hope!—want to go to heaven some day. That’s a fantastic desire! Hold onto it, and pass it on to your children and grandchildren and friends.

But how, exactly, does a person come to be admitted into heaven?

Well… First, Jesus had to come to open Paradise back up after we lost it through original sin. Jesus’ first coming to earth to be born at Christmas, then, was actually the necessary first step for us to get to heaven. The season of Advent helps us to savor that first coming of Christ and to stir up our hearts with joy and gratitude over the meaning of this event.

This Wednesday, our parish will welcome Bishop Jenky and a large number of priests, parishioners, family members and friends to celebrate Father Motsett’s 70th anniversary of his ordination as a priest. Priests get ordained at age 26—making Father Motsett 96 years old. In fact, he’ll be 97 in January.

I don’t know about you, but I can scarcely get through a single day without getting myself into some kind of hot water… much less 97 years! How then can we regular human beings stay on the right path… avoid sin and do good… keep the commandments… be loving and compassionate towards each other… throughout our long lives so we can get into heaven after we’ve drawn our last breath? On human power alone, forget it! It takes God’s blessings, His grace—and we need a good, daily dose! We especially need the Lord’s Body and Blood—also every day, if we can possibly swing it! Well, this, too, is another daily Advent to keep us going. This blessed liturgical season reminds of us this need also.

And finally, when our heart stops beating and the breath and spirit go out of the bodies that now serve as our earthly dwellings, we are ready for still another Advent: the time for our final union with Jesus for all of eternity. During these weeks leading up to Christmas, the Church encourages us to stop everything we’re doing and think about that day. It’s not sad or depressing or macabre. On the contrary, it should be exhilarating! Imagine! No more pain, no more suffering, no more struggles, no more utility bills or car repairs or mortgage payments, no more doctor visits or speeding tickets or arguments with people… just heavenly bliss. Ahhhh…

I know that we’re all going to walk out of Mass today and it won’t take very long before we get caught up in the busy activity of the world around us. But that doesn’t mean that Advent has to be a total loss.

Pause from time to time to catch your breath and “let your soul catch up with you,” as the safari tribesmen put it. Remember with joyful hope the three Advents we’re celebrating over the next four weeks.

Is there any chance you can come to daily Mass at all this season? The liturgies of Advent are so beautiful and prayerful—such a soothing antidote to the hectic and numbing pace of the outside secular world where twenty-seven times a day we relive the experience of poor Grandma getting run over by a reindeer. Give the poor broken lady a rest! It’s peaceful and quiet and holy in here…

Don’t forget to figure in a time for your Christmas confession. It does the soul good to unburden itself of a lot of spiritual debris and make a fresh start during this new church year.

And by all means, remember to smile. Patience, good manners, civility, gentleness… how much we need these virtues today. One-half second before you speak or react is all it takes to throw cold water on your temper and let you come across as Christ to the next guy.

Lord, during this holy and privileged season of Advent, help us to await your comings with joyful and prayerful hope. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.



Today’s Readings:
Isaiah 2, 1–5
Psalm 122
Romans 13, 11–14
Matthew 24, 37–44