Advent I

The First Sunday of Advent

Cycle B – 2021 – Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7; Psalm 80; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:33-37

One of the great hardships of the pandemic is that we can’t plan much of anything into the future. Vacations, parish programs, family gatherings, weddings… Events hang suspended. Postponed. Pending. Unresolved. The indefiniteness of life is draining, it is not? There isn’t even an incentive to plan.

On occasion the staff has encouraged me to get out of the office and go for a ride. My response? Drive where? I want to drive to somewhere, to something. In these days there is no goal. It is similar to running. Isn’t there a difference between running for exercise and running a race? In a race there is a goal to run toward and all that that goal represents. Running a 5K in Montréal a few years ago, it was in finally seeing in the distance the huge ballooned arched goal that I really became energized, I picked up speed and ran like I never have before or since.

The future gives us something to strive toward; an expectation with which to look forward. The future gives us hope. And you only need a glimmer to make all the difference. After walking a month and over 550 miles across Spain to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela, it was just such glimpses of the spires of the cathedral that caused my heart to begin to race, my steps picked up speed hurrying through the narrow streets, parts of the great church appearing, disappearing, appearing again, until I turned into the plaza.

The same experience can be found in running through a crowded airport to embrace a son or daughter returning from college or a longtime childhood friend visiting from across country. Did you ever run toward your date, knowing deep down that he or she ‘may be the one’? The shear energy of anticipation filling your whole being by seeing from afar the person or a destination. And we run.

Have you ever had such an experience?

Advent gives us those glimpses of hope so sorely needed and longed for in these days. They are found in the dreams of the prophet Isaiah and the candles that we light to dispel winter’s darkness. The petition of the Opening Prayer in these first hours of Advent reveals a future, a glimmer of hope. “Grant your people, almighty God, the resolve to run to meet your Christ…”

Do we engage with Jesus Christ as the hope of our lives?                                                           Does our heart race, our steps begin to hurry so as to meet him?

But there is a dark side to running as well. For we can just as much run away from something as we can run toward something, can’t we. People in love run toward each other. People who want to avoid a situation run away from it. People who are lost in life run in all sorts of directions with no goal; often seeking a good but in all the wrong places. How many people are running away from themselves?

It’s amazing how many ways you can run from yourself and others. For pretty much any aspect of life from work to sex, possessions to recreational activities to shopping, medications to good intentions can become ways of running.

So, from whom or what are you and I running away at this time in our lives?                    What or whom are you and I running toward? Because you see we are always running.

Jesus tells the story of a son who could not wait to get away from his father. The story ends with the father running toward the son. It was sunrise when the women ran fr0m the tomb with frightening and joyous news. God had a job for Jonah. Jonah didn’t like the job so he got on a ship and ran away. [He didn’t get very far by the way. God doesn’t like losing.] With good news, Mary runs to her cousin Elizabeth. Shepherds run to Bethlehem. A rich young man runs to his possessions, of which he had many and backs away from Jesus. The tax collector Zacchaeus runs up ahead to climb a tree to see Jesus. After running away in the darkness of night from Gethsemane garden, Peter and the beloved disciple run with excitement toward another garden; a cemetery garden.

Motivation seems to be at the heart of whether we are running toward or away from something or someone.

The days of the Advent – Christmas – Epiphany Season is a sacred space given to us for running. So we prayed for “the resolve to run”.  These days are set apart for us to have an encounter. So we prayed “to meet your Christ…” 

And whether you are engaged in celebrating the secular holidays or entering the holy season of Advent, Christmas & Epiphany, for they are different festivals to be sure, ask yourself at each step: does this activity, will this attitude, will attending this event or gathering, cause me to run from Jesus or toward Jesus?

Ask yourself what you are emotionally experiencing along the way? Be in touch with your feelings. What memories or thoughts are they causing to well up within you? Do you discern a movement toward or from Jesus Christ?

The pandemic has raised up within all of us a confused mixture of feelings. It has caused us to consider and question, what are the essentials of life? I would offer, one of the essentials is running. For isn’t it strange that we so often seek out and run toward that which is mortal, temporary and perishable, yet forget or run from God and the Christ, who are immortal.

“Grant your people, almighty God, the resolve to run to meet your Christ…”

Which direction are you running in? And are you running toward hope? …toward an encounter?

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PLEASE NOTE: Homilies presented here are also being videotaped and put up on the Saint Mary, Oneonta website: http://www.SMCCOneonta.org.