First Sunday of Advent year A 2016:
I just love
Advent. It has always been one of my
favorite seasons. I can remember being a
kid and just loving to see the Advent wreathe go up in Church. It meant 2 great things. 1, school was coming to an end for vacation
soon. 2, Christmas was right around the
corner with feasting and presents. I
have always loved Christmas like no other day.
So to see these candles on display meant the time was coming near, the wait
was almost over.
But, as I’ve
gotten older I’ve come to value Advent in a new way. No longer do I see it simply as a time of
waiting for Christmas. Now, I see it as
a time of preparation. And a time of
preparation not only for celebrating Christmas as a parish. But, Advent is also a time to prepare for
meeting Jesus. I don’t want to sound
morbid, but we will all meet Jesus someday.
We don’t know the day nor the hour.
But, he is coming for each one of us.
Advent is a yearly reminder to be on watch for him. But, I’ll let you in on a little secret: the
Advent of Jesus is not simply something that happened at Christmas, or
something that will happen at the end.
The Advent of Jesus takes place every day.
If we want to be
prepared for meeting Jesus, we have to meet him in our daily lives. If we get to know Jesus while in this life,
then we will have communion with him for eternal life. But, on the other hand, if we don’t know
Jesus in this life, we won’t be able to recognize him on the last day.
So, make this
season of Advent a powerful time to refresh your relationship with Jesus. Get to know him all over again. Of course, the key to any good relationship
is communication. When it comes to
communicating with Jesus, we call this prayer.
During the next 4
weeks here at St. Jude we are going to reflect on prayer. So, if you already have a perfect prayer
life, I want to apologize right now.
Because the next 4 weeks are only going to be important if you feel like
prayer is a challenge, if you feel like you would like your prayer life to
improve. It will only be good if you
need some guidance on facing the challenges and obstacles of prayer. But, if you already have those things all
handled, it might be a bit dry for you.
If so, please bear with us…
Today we begin by
simply trying to answer the question: what is prayer? If I had you write down answers to this
question, what would you say? For some
people, prayer is specific: the rosary, or the mass. For some it’s really generic: it’s having a
nice thought… But, I think for most
people prayer is something sort of ambiguous or difficult to pin down. Well, if we don’t have a good understanding
of what prayer is all about, it’s going to be really hard to have a good prayer
life.
So, here is a
definition that I like: prayer is living with God. Prayer is living with God. This definition is simple to remember, but it
includes perhaps the most important part: prayer is about our experiencing God
in the midst of our lives. Think about the
people you live with: maybe a spouse, a sibling, parent. What kind of a relationship do you have with
that person? Maybe some days it’s
great. Maybe somedays it’s a fight. Maybe some days there’s lots of
communication, maybe some days it’s just peace and quiet. But, if you think about these people you will
see that there is sharing. There is a
sharing of space, a sharing of thought, a sharing of burdens, a sharing of joys,
blessings, food, etc. The one thing that
is usually implied when it comes to living with people is sharing.
So, what about
seeing your life as being lived with God.
Do you see him as being a living part of your everyday lives just like
those very real and tangible humans with whom you share your life? Or, does God seem distant and remote? Prayer is living with God. So, it means sharing with him. Share your burdens at the beginning of a
stressful day. Share your morning cup of
coffee with him, and just chat away like you might with a friend. Share your blessings, your joys, your griefs,
your struggles, your pains. Most
importantly, share, talk, love, laugh.
In my experience as
a priest, when I say prayer, I’m suggesting the building of a living
relationship with the living God. But,
when people hear “prayer” they think of specific concrete forms of prayer, like
Mass, Adoration, Rosary, Divine Mercy, etc.
Of course, all these prayers are great, and they certainly have a place
in a prayer life. But, I’m not just telling
you to add one more thing to your already busy life; rather, I’m saying we need
to make our lives prayerful. Prayer is living with God. It includes prayer events, but it’s also a
mindset, a lifestyle, a way of seeing the world that could change just about
everything.
So, take some time
this week and think about your understanding of prayer itself. Do you see it as something overly formal,
something overly general, do you have a solid understanding of what prayer is
all about? Do you live your life with
God?
Now, I should warn
all of you. Living with God is not
easy. It’s not always easy to live with
other humans either. But, living with
God is certainly worth it. Having God in
our life literally changes everything.
Jesus wants us to be prepared for that day when he will come to meet
us. The only way to be prepared for
spending our eternity with God is to live with God now. Make this Advent a month of prayer and
discovery so that you can grow in your relationship with God.
