Homily for December 15, 2019

When I was a kid at summer camp, moonless nights would be so dark because we were far from the lights of the city. On such nights, it seemed as if we could see every star in the universe. On a few occasions, when there were meteor showers, some of us would lie outside on the soccer field in our sleeping bags and watch the “falling stars.” One night, we counted more than a hundred of them.

When we would lie there looking straight up at the expanse of space, it seemed as though there was no such thing as time itself, only the stars darting about a motionless world. Time was irrelevant.

Many of us long for the experience when time is irrelevant but, it seems to be a very difficult thing to find. One thing that I’m pretty attached to is my calendar. It is synchronized to my computer, iPad, and iPhone, so I always have it nearby and it really is helpful with keeping me aware of what I’m supposed to be doing on any given day. However, I sometimes feel like a prisoner of time.

Our Season of Advent can be much like this dichotomy of time. Advent — a time of patient waiting, preparation, and joyful anticipation —often degenerates into a hectic round of making lists, pushing our way through stores, as well as gatherings of family and friends and coworkers.

James, in our second reading, says: “Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the LORD.” James tells us to be like the farmer who plants seeds and, seeing no results for months, still patiently waits for the fruit of his labor.

The value of patience, the true understanding of what time needs to be in our lives, is a part of our Advent reflection. We believe that the eternal, all-loving God has made us, man and woman, to be born and to grow, to live and to love and, to serve Him and one another, to age and to die and to be raised to eternal life with Him. God is both our origin and our destination.

Time is not a curse or a trap; time is a divine gift! Time is where God’s plan unfolds.

We can take time to focus on the LORD. Jesus said the first great commandment is to love your God. There is no way to build a relationship of love with someone without spending time with them. God takes no lunch breaks; God always “is” for us. These minutes that we spend here in church are not enough.  We need to schedule prayer time in our calendar — if that’s what it takes — but we must take time to be aware of God’s presence.

We can take time to focus on the needs of those around us. Jesus said the second great commandment is the love of neighbor. The sign of the presence of God, as Jesus says in Matthew’s Gospel today, is that healing and love and care of those in need is happening. Whenever we take time for others, to listen to them, to help them, to love them, to forgive them, to heal them, to touch them…whenever we do these things, we are using time as our divine gift.

If we take time, our souls will, as Isaiah describes the parched land, exult and rejoice and bloom… and we will see the glory of the LORD. +