Mommy's Homilies

Isaiah 2:1-5 This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come, The mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say: "Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths." For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD! Psalm 122 R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord. I rejoiced because they said to me, "We will go up to the house of the LORD." ...

Mark 13:33-37 Jesus said to his disciples: "Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'" ........................ Watch. Today is the first Sunday of Advent. We lit the first candle, the candle of hope. Hope in God. Hope for the joy of the incarnation. Hope for resurrection and new life. It's the first day of the new year. Clean slate? (If not, get yourself to the confession box.) The whole year is ahead. Catholics do a lot of really screwy things and Advent is one of them. We are simultaneously preparing for a great holiday celebrating...

I think Advent is my favorite time of year. It took me awhile to realize it. I'd spend the season irritated by commercial Christmas. Commercial Christmas started a few weeks ago. It'll peter out. By Actual Christmas, Commercial Christmas is almost over. Revellers are exhausted by the nonstop merry-making. By the 26th, trees are coming down. A couple years ago I let go of my anger about what other people are doing. After all, I'm not bothered by Jews or Muslims or Atheists celebrating other holidays. If they give a glance to Christmas, it doesn't trouble me if their iteration doesn't look like mine. Why let Christians bug me? They are doing a different thing and that's ok. Still, it took time to sort things in my head. What does this season mean? How do we celebrate it? It's all well and good to insist that Christmas wait until Christmas, but unless I want to be grinchy I still have to figure out how to interact, no celebrate , with the early Christmas ...