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Homilies
December 7, 2003
People, Get Ready
by Robert Dunn
The other night, I was getting my cards written and things organized. As I was sitting there, the ‘Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ came on and I was listening as I worked. Linus began his performance of St. Luke’s nativity account – introduced by “lights please” – and I found myself getting choked up. After more than 30 years, that scene still knocks me over. I even found myself singing along at the end with ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing.’ In the middle of doing what I needed to do, there was a moment of grace because it was part of what God said through John the Baptist: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’
But Christmas doesn’t happen on its own. Decorations do not fly onto the tree by the hands of elves. The angels do not write your cards. And presents do not wrap themselves. This is a season of work. Oh yes, for the children it is magic, but not for adults. Look at all the happy shoppers! Honestly, how could it be otherwise?
Anything worth doing requires some one to do it. We are people in need of redemption from our attempts to control the world and play God. Having said that, there is no magic to our faith in the Incarnate Word of Christmas. It doesn’t happen on its own. God began this as a conversation; now it’s our time to respond. True religion is never a monologue. In the offer of grace, we have to actively react.
Sounds easy doesn’t it? We think to ourselves: I wonder if God will be happy with doing a little something more in church? Do you think a little less dessert will do? Alright, alright, we’ll stop doing something bad. And we tend to leave it at that. It’s like Lent – just shorter. Doesn’t that answer the call to ‘prepare the way of the Lord?”
Not exactly. We hear the call to repentance from John the Baptist ask: how in the middle of everything going on can we prepare for something we are getting ready to celebrate? Clearly, we can’t stop time and nor should we. John began preaching in the real world, in real time. Today, St. Luke goes to great lengths to show us this in the Gospel with all those historical facts and people. Faith in a fantasy of monastic leisure is just that – fantasy. This is real. This is about coming to know the Child of Bethlehem as we have never before even when life is pretty much the same as it always been.
The whole point of the Incarnation is that God broke into our history and interrupted what we were doing. Like the Peanuts special or the unexpected guest, God reminds us that getting ready is about being ready. It’s not a call to go into a trance but to tackle each day as we come closer to the 25th.
How to prepare? There is no set schema or program. Instead, we need to ask ourselves a simple question. If God’s grace interrupts what we are doing, do we see it as an interruption or a grace? Think about it. How many times does that phone call or run-in get dismissed? The present moment is all we have and it is the only time and place when God is present to us. Do we throw it away or miss it? Or do we grab it and see the way of Lord in it?
We use Advent for self-examination and the Sacrament of Confession [like this Wednesday night]. We ask that we see the promised light of grace amid the twinkle of the lights. And it can be whatever God chooses: a card, a letter, a song, cartoon – whatever. Talk about the wonder of it all! When we allow God to act in us and in our day, things are changed. As we prepare for God, God prepares us for Himself. Irrational, unplanned and unexpected: welcome to faith.
We hear the message of John and the gentle call of a Child laying in a manger. We hear this whisper of comfort over the din of silver, jingling and any other type of ‘holiday bell.’ Light up a tree, a house, a lamppost or a cat. No brilliance will come close to the light which shines in the eyes of those who see the hand of God in the valleys of the daily grind.
John promises – quoting Isaiah – that things will be smoothed out. But like grace, not in the way we think. Let God get you ready for this wonderful feast. Take advantage of the Advent wreath and the Sacrament of Confession. But more than getting ready, be ready. God will come and will not delay. Our most true and authentic response is to see it. And that would be the best gift this or any other Christmas.
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