Third Sunday of Advent December 14/15, 2019
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Third Sunday of Advent December 14/15, 2019 From The Pastor: All of history is about Christ’s coming I have been focusing throughout Advent on how Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes to us: in history, in mystery, and in majesty. St. Matthew’s Gospel readings from this Sunday and last focus on how Jesus the Messiah came in history and especially about how God “paved the way” by the work of the greatest and last of the prophets, St. John the Baptist. John was the culmination of a long line of prophets sent for many centuries to gradually unveil God’s plan of salvation, which would allow all who believed in God and remained faithful to Him to enter into His Heavenly Kingdom. God inspired these men with His words and His truth and allowed them the privilege to convey His message. But theirs was not an easy task, because often people resisted God’s word and blamed them when they didn’t want to hear it. Many were treated shamefully for their faithfulness. Some were even put to death. If we look at the big picture, we see that they were often sent at times when God’s chosen people were going off the rails and failing to honor His covenant. Others (especially Isaiah) kept alive in the Jewish people the hope in the Father’s promise that He would one day send a Savior to get us out of the mess they made of their lives due to our sinfulness. Why did this process take so long? We sinful people can be very hard-headed and hard-hearted. We sometimes demand God conform to our expectations, instead of carefully listening to Him and being open to His surprises. There was certainly the expectation that, when the Savior finally came, He would be rich, politically powerful, well-connected and take aggressive action against any enemies of the Jewish people. In other words, he would be a lot like the men they knew from history. When God revealed His saving plan, He turned nearly all of those expectations upside down: He wouldn’t build a great political kingdom, but a kingdom of love in the hearts of believers. He would not come by force, but into the hearts of those who would voluntarily turn away from sin and let the Lord heal them. In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of healing signs: the blind will regain their sight, the deaf will hear, the crippled will walk and so on. But these are merely that: signs of the far greater healing of the soul afflicted by sin that the Lord will grant to those who obey and follow Him. Only with that healing can we achieve the fullness of life with Our God. As the prophet chosen to announce the Savior when He finally came in the flesh, it fell to John to try to reverse many of those false expectations that had built up for so many years, and help people understand the shocking truth that this humble man from the middle of nowhere, who would be hated by many, abused, tortured and crucified, was actually the Lamb of God who would saves us from all sin. All history teaches, if we are open to its lessons. But the history of our salvation teaches the most important things of all, especially the history of St. John the Baptist, who was right there at the pivot point of history when Our Lord dwelt among us. His life of penance teaches us that we, too, need to make voluntary sacrifices, so we can grow in holiness. His call to repentance reminds us that we need to examine our lives regularly and go to confession often, so that God can heal us. His symbolic baptism (washing with water) remind us that we should be eternally grateful for the true baptism of Christ, which makes us sons and daughters of the Father and washes away the stain of original sin. His willingness to preach God’s truth to the powerful, even to the point of martyrdom and death, remind us that we too must proclaim the truths of the Catholic faith – even the unpopular ones -- no matter what it costs us. Because no matter how much people harden their hearts against it, only the truth of Jesus Christ can set us free and bring us to everlasting happiness. We call today, the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, from the antiphon we sing at the beginning of Mass: Rejoice in the Lord always! He is near! (Philippians 4:4-5) At first glance, these might seem contradictory to many Catholics: living a life of penance and making sacrifices for the faith on the one hand, and rejoicing on the other. But that is because we might not understand Christianity in all its depth. It is about far more than just “feeling uplifted,” gaining earthly pleasure or being accepted by the world. It is about the abiding joy that comes from knowing that we are cooperating in whatever it takes to allow Jesus Christ succeed in His mission to save us, according to his beautiful plan of salvation, so that we can experience the fullness of eternal Communion with Him in Heaven. Fr. Reutter DID YOU KNOW...that when you call your parish office and the recording comes on you can still get information from our information line? Just hit“7”. On line 7 we have listed up-coming events, various Mass times and any closures due to inclement weather. And Fr. Reutter also has said that (on St. Peter daily Mass days of Monday and Friday), even if the schools are closed, since he lives there he will still have Mass. But he wants to make sure that you use your own judgement on getting out in the weather. Father does not want anyone to take any risk to get to Mass. "The Knights of Columbus has set up a "Building the Domestic Church" Kiosk in the gathering space at St. Mary’s that contains engaging, religious literature that will energize and educate all members of the family! Please feel free to browse the selection of booklets and take one or more of them home to read and share with your family." Thank you Knights of Columbus!! “We would like to extend our sincere thank you to our dear parish family for al the love, support and prayers we received at our son, George’s passing. Thank you to all those who offered Masses. Please keep us in your prayers.” The Phillips Family Gaudete Sunday, makes a breaker about midway through a season which is otherwise of a penitential character, and signifies the nearness of the Lord's coming. Of the "stations" kept in Rome the four Sundays of Advent, that at the Vatican basilica is assigned to Gaudete, as being the most important and imposing of the four. Gaudete Sunday is further marked by a new Invitatory, the Church no longer inviting the faithful to adore merely "The Lord who is to come", but calling upon them to worship and hail with joy "The Lord who is now nigh and close at hand". The Nocturn lessons from the Prophecy of Isaias describe the Lord's coming and the blessings that will result from it, and the antiphons at Vespers re-echo the prophetic promises. The Epistle again incites us to rejoicing, and bids us prepare to meet the coming Saviour with prayers and supplication and thanksgiving, whilst the Gospel, the words of St. John Baptist, warns us that the Lamb of God is even now in our midst, though we appear to know Him not. The spirit of the Office and Liturgy all through Advent is one of expectation and preparation for the Christmas feast as well as for the second coming of Christ, and the penitential exercises suitable to that spirit are thus on Gaudete Sunday suspended, as were, for a while in order to symbolize that joy and gladness in the Promised Redemption which should never be absent from the heart of the faithful. SHARING OUR CHRISTMAS CHEER! The St. Peter's/St. Mary's Women's Bible study visited the Steamboat Trails Senior Home last Friday bringing Christmas cheer in the form of food, song, crafty gifts, and fellowship! We all had a wonderful time! Maybe you have an elderly neighbor that you might want to remember this year. Share your faith, your time, your love to those around you. God Bless You. PREP & YM Advent means “coming.” It denotes an action: Confirmation Schedule something or someone is moving toward Preparation something or someone else. Of course we know December 15 we await the coming of Jesus in this season. All classes are at St. Mary’s Youth Center, But that’s not the only movement we look for. Winter Gathering in the basement of There’s also our choice to move toward God. We Sunday, Jan 5 11:00-12:30 at St. Mary the old church, from January 5 don’t think about it all the time, but it’s critically Family games, lunch, 7:00-8:30pm. Winter Gathering important. During Advent, here’s two possible fellowship, time to January 12 ways to reflect on our advent toward God. December 19 catch up with teachers January 19 First, how do we need to return to God? What sins January 26 - have we committed that have damaged or broken January 9 off our relationship with Him? It’s a great time for K-6 Youth Night February 2 Confession, to literally move back toward God.