{"id":3044,"date":"2019-12-01T11:21:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T16:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=3044"},"modified":"2019-12-29T15:14:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-29T20:14:03","slug":"1st-sunday-of-advent-year-a-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/1st-sunday-of-advent-year-a-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"1st Sunday of Advent, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1st<\/sup> Sunday of Advent, Year A<\/a>
Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:37-44
December 1, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon it will\nbe Christmas but not yet.  If you look at\nthe stores, Christmas items have been out for a while.  That doesn\u2019t make it Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we can\ncelebrate Christmas, we first celebrate Advent. \nThe season of Advent always has four Sundays.  Today is the first.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we do\ncelebrate Christmas, it is the First Coming of Jesus that we will\ncelebrate.  The word \u201cAdvent\u201d means\n\u201ccoming\u201d.  Advent is a season that we\ncelebrate to prepare us for the coming of Jesus.  As we get closer to Christmas our readings\nwill from the time just before Jesus\u2019 birth (his First Coming) but we begin\nAdvent with a gospel reading that points us to the Second Coming of Jesus.  We are to ask ourselves if we are ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referring to\nwhen it will be, Jesus says, \u201cAs it was\nin the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man\u2026They did not\nknow<\/em>\u201d when the Flood was coming. \nThey didn\u2019t even know there would be a flood (one would think seeing\nNoah building the ark would have raised questions).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to who\nwill be saved, Jesus says of people that are together at that time, \u201cone will be taken, and one will be left.<\/em>\u201d  Some people today think everyone gets into\nHeaven.  That\u2019s not what Jesus says so we\n\u201cmust be prepared<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to \u201cthrow off the works of darkness and put on\nthe armor of light\u2026put on the Lord Jesus Christ<\/em>.\u201d  Or, as Isaiah puts it, \u201cCome, let us climb the LORD\u2019s mountain.<\/em>\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is time to\nturn to the Lord\u2019s way, to put God first. \nWe can\u2019t keep putting it off.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What keeps us\nfrom putting God first?  Are our lives\ntoo busy?  Maybe we aren\u2019t as involved in\nour faith as we should be?  Sometimes\nthat is because we don\u2019t always understand why we do what we do as Catholics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where\nwe need to pay attention to what we hear from Isaiah today, \u201che may instruct<\/strong>\nus in his ways, and we walk in his paths.<\/em>\u201d \nWhen we hear the word \u201cinstruct<\/em>\u201d,\nwe might think of the religious instruction we give to our children.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religious\ninstruction for children is necessary and important but, regardless of our age,\nwe all need to learn more about our faith. \nThis stands at the heart of why I offer the presentations that I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It has been the practice the last couple of\nyears for our parish to adopt a \u201cmission\u201d or \u201ctheme\u201d for the year.  We start a new year today with \u201cfamily\u201d at\nthe core.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it\nmean to be a \u201cfamily\u201d and how do we live as good Christian families?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Families are\nimportant in the Bible.  For example,\ntoday\u2019s psalm refers to the \u201ctribes<\/em>\u201d.  This is a reference to the twelve tribes of\nIsrael that started with Jacob\u2019s twelve sons. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we refer\nto family, at the core traditionally are a mother and father living together as\nhusband and wife with children, all in the same household.  This isn\u2019t always the case.  My own parents divorced when I was eight to\nten years old.  That is the reality but\nit doesn\u2019t change the ideal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family isn\u2019t\nlimited to just parents and children.  It\nincludes grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and more.  Again, at the core is parents and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some families\nare close while others drift apart for no particular reason.  Unfortunately, some families fight.  For those who have fought, I point to Advent\nas a time for reconciliation.  We talk\nabout reconciling with God through the Sacrament where we confess our\nsins.  Can this be a time to reconcile\nwith estranged family members?  It can be\na time to follow the words from Isaiah today, \u201cThey shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into\npruning hooks.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going back to\n\u201cfamily\u201d as a theme\/mission for our parish for the coming year, we are making\nplans to develop activities for families and ways to help you live out your\nfaith.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will\ninclude some gatherings related to our regular Sunday morning classes for\nchildren that parents will be part of.  You\nwill find a calendar for the month of December with a suggested activity to do\neach day.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who\ndo not have children in the house, you can still use the calendar as way to\nhave God in your life.  When it speaks of\nfamily, pray for your family wherever they might be.  Maybe you pray for the family with children sitting\nin church that you don\u2019t really know. \nPray for families that don\u2019t come to church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will hear\nmore about Christian family life in the weeks to come.  For now, think about what family means to\nyou.  Think about how you can make faith\na bigger part of your family life. \nPerhaps think of how we can better support families in living out our\nfaith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we move\ntowards Christmas, remember to keep Christ in your heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1st Sunday of Advent, Year AIsaiah 2:1-5Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9Romans 13:11-14Matthew 24:37-44December 1, 2019 Soon it will be Christmas but not yet.  If you look at the stores, Christmas items have been out for a while.  That doesn\u2019t make it Christmas. Before we can celebrate Christmas, we first celebrate Advent.  The season of …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘1st Sunday of Advent, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[223,672,82],"tags":[664,149],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-N6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3045,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044\/revisions\/3045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}