Rev. Paul A. Hottinger God Is Always Arriving! First Sunday of Advent/A December 2, 2001 7:00 a.m. Is 2:1-5; Rom 13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44 (Stay Awake!) “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.” There is a movie out now—I haven’t seen it—I actually don’t know what it is about, but the title is Life As a House. It’s an intriguing title; the image is taken right out of Scripture. Our life is a house, and each of us is the master of our house; but our house is not secure. There are thieves who can break in—and want to—and take away our security, our peace, our sense of well-being. If you’ve ever had your house burgled, you know how unsettling it can be, how vulnerable it makes you feel, how exposed. Well, the same is true for the house we call “life.” We live in a dangerous world, not primarily because of drive-by shootings and terrorist attacks. We live in a dangerous world primarily because we’re vulnerable to the thief who can break into our house, into our insides, into our souls, and steal away the peace that comes from God—a peace, which is not the absence of conflict, but a peace, which is the presence of God abiding within. And this is what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel. So he says, “Stay awake!” Actually, people usually exaggerate problems; they exaggerate dangers—for a while. Then after having exaggerated them, they forget about them! The point is “Stay awake!” Don’t exaggerate, but don’t forget either. “Stay awake!” Be aware. When we don’t stay awake, we get distracted from the real issues of life; and there is an enormous amount of energy that is poured into trying to distract us, the entire industry we call “entertainment.” It is said that entertainment is the second largest industry in the world, second only to the making of armaments. Entertainment tries to relieve us of our anxieties, but it also tends to lull us to sleep. For example, right now you will be seeing all kinds of movies about wars and military missions. And part of this is to bring security to the populace, but there’s a danger of it being the wrong kind of security. It God Is Always Arriving! will not only relieve an element of useless anxiety, it will relieve us of all anxiety; and thus we will start forgetting about the real, ever-present dangers that are part of life in this world. Thus we come to the season of Advent, the meaning of which is “arrival.” “Advent” means “arrival.” Well, what does that mean? It doesn’t mean we’re getting ready for Christmas! That is not the religious or the theological meaning of Advent. Nor does it mean, nor should we think, that God is coming to us at Christmas. Christmas is a celebration, not a reenactment of the mystery of God’s incarnation, God becoming one of us. But God is always arriving! And if God is always arriving, we need to be always preparing! We pay special attention to that during this liturgical season. And we need to ask ourselves how ready are we? The first coming of Christ into the world was a coming in secrecy in a little place hardly on the map a long time ago, as we count years. This is merely the beginning of something. The real coming of Christ is his coming in glory, which is also his coming in judgement—and how ready are we for that? How ready are we to give an account of how we’ve spent our years in our house, our life on earth? We can become very distracted from the real issues. Advent is a time to return to what’s important. Even the institutional Church can become preoccupied with all kinds of petty issues and peripheral concerns. The gospel now is calling us back and asking us to take stock of where we are on our journey to God. And as Isaiah said, “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” 2 God Is Always Arriving! Rev. Paul A. Hottinger God Is Always Arriving First Sunday of Advent/A December 2, 2001 5:00 p.m. Is 2:1-5; Rom 13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44 (Stay Awake!) “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.” There is an intriguing movie out now, and I don’t know what’s is about, but the title is Life as a House. And that is a theme or a motif that is taken right out of the gospel—life is a house. And that’s what today’s gospel is about. Our life is like a house, and we are each the master of our own house. But our houses are not secure. There are thieves who want to break in and take away our security, our peace, our sense of well-being. If you have ever had your house burgled, you know how unsettling it can be, how vulnerable you feel, how exposed. Well, the same thing for the house we call “life.” We live in a dangerous world, not primarily because of drive-by shootings and terrorist attacks, but primarily because our house can be broken into; our insides can be assaulted; our souls can be attacked. And the thief can steal away the peace that comes from God, a peace that this world cannot give that is not merely the absence of conflict, but is really the presence of God abiding within. And this is a thief that Jesus is concerned about. And he says, “Now you must stay awake!” What we usually do about all dangers is first exaggerate, overdo, and then forget about it! This is a great danger. We can see it playing out every day. Everyone is overly concerned about flying, for example. But just give it time, and people will be completely oblivious once again—you can be sure of it! And this is what’s called “going to sleep,” becoming oblivious to the dangers that lurk within life, getting distracted from the real issues, being preoccupied with pseudo-issues, of which of course there is an innumerable number. God Is Always Arriving Now in our society an enormous amount of energy is poured into the entertainment industry. There’s a reason for this: we are anxious people, and entertainment is an escape from anxiety; and so there is a big market for this. To some degree it may be legitimate, but there’s a great danger that as we allow our anxiety to be, as it were, assuaged through entertainment and other diversions, we are lulled into false security; we are lulled into sleep. And this is exactly the danger that Jesus is warning us about. Now today we begin what we call in the Church the “season of Advent.” Advent is not a time to get ready for Christmas. At the end of Advent we celebrate the historical moment when God became man, when God entered into life and became one of us— that’s true. But Advent is mostly a time when we recognize that God is always arriving, because the word means “arrival.” God is always arriving in our lives. It’s not just once for all. God is always arriving in many different guises, in many different ways; and therefore, we must always be preparing! That’s the idea of Advent. And then the question comes up, well, how ready are we? The readings also speak, especially the second reading, of a different kind of coming, different from the secret coming when Jesus was born in an obscure stable somewhere. There is a different coming, called often the “Second Coming.” It’s the coming in glory and judgment. And although we know nothing about the future of the world, what’s going to happen when, we know that all of us will face the glory of God and the judgment of God when we die. And that could be any time now. Are we ready? Are we ready to give to God an account of our time? That’s the only thing we have, after all, is time; and that’s what we give an account for. How have we spent it? Even the institutional Church has a way of getting distracted with petty or peripheral concerns. Again, you could say it’s human nature, but let’s not use that as an excuse; let’s use it as a warning. It’s time to take stock. And in the words of Isaiah the prophet “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” 2 God Is Always Arriving Rev. Paul A. Hottinger Missionary Zeal First Week of Advent Monday, December 3, 2001 8:30 a.m. 1 Cor 9:16-23; Lk 5:1-11 (St. Francis Xavier) (Lessons from St. Francis’ life) Today is the memorial of St. Francis Xavier. And St. Francis is a man that perhaps we should get to know, one of the founders of the Society of Jesus with Ignatius of Loyola.