Excerpts from - Homily December 1, 2019

In the darkness that envelopes our world, ADVENT reminds us that Christ’s light burns brightly to show us the way to Him and to His PEACE.

In Isaiah we heard, “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares & their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another …. let us walk in the light of the Lord.” [Isaiah 2]

What a Magnificent Vision, a beautiful portrait of peace on earth!

Imagine nuclear missile silos changed to grain storage bins, aircraft carriers transformed into hospital ships and armored troop trucks into ambulances!

Reflect on that vision for a few seconds and experience peace flowing through your heart.

“… one of the reasons we read the O.T. during Advent is to listen to what to hope for.  The people of the O.T. had the courage to Hope for big things:

the desert would be turned into fertile land; that their scattered and divided people would be gathered again; that the blind would see, the deaf would hear, the lame would walk; that not only their own people, but all the peoples of the earth, would be united in the blessings of everlasting peace.”  [Ordo, 2020 Advent, Taken from Mark Searle’s “The Spirit of Advent”]

Leo Tolstoy wrote a lovely story “Martin, the Cobbler” about a lonely shoemaker who is promised in a dream that Christ will come to visit his shop.  The next day Martin rises early, gets his shop ready,

prepares a meal and waits.

In the morning an old beggar showed he asked for rest.  Martin gave him a room he had prepared for his divine guest.  In the afternoon came an old lady with a heavy load of wood who was hungry and asked for food.

He gave her the food he had prepared for his divine guest.

As evening came, a lost boy wandered by. Martin took him home, afraid all the while he would miss the Christ.

That night in his prayers he asks the Lord, "Where were You?  I waited all day for You."  The Lord said to Martin: "Three times I came to your friendly door, three times my shadow was on your floor, a beggar with bruised feet, the woman you gave something to eat and the homeless child on the street."  [Sermons.com]

Don’t spend your time looking for Christ, be Christ for those you meet!  

May God Be Praised!