This is a homily Deacon Bob gave for the first week of Advent. Unfortunately, I forgot to post it in a timely manner. Shocker!!! It is a wonderful reflection on preparing oneself during this Advent Season, even if it is a couple of weeks late. Please don’t let my delay interfere with you receiving this gift of Deacon Bob’s inspired words…

The theme from our gospel today is pretty obvious – Be watchful. Be alert.

I checked the commentaries to see what we are watching for and there’s at least 2 meanings – the first Christians in Jerusalem were to watch for the signs of the destruction of the Temple that Jesus warned about, and when they saw them, they were to flee, which they did. It also points to our meeting Jesus either at the end of our life, or the end of the world. Either way, it points to our judgment, when we come face-to-face with Jesus.

So, I want to share some of my own personal thoughts on the judgment because on the one hand, scripture speaks very positively about it. For example, 1 Jn 5:13 says this, “I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” Wow, you may know that you have eternal life. And in Lk 21:28, after speaking about his 2^nd coming, Jesus says “Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” So, there’s no fear, no worry, I’m coming to save you, so lift your head. But, then there are also many others that make it clear that our salvation is conditional and that we must be victorious. For example, we’ve been reading from the book of Revelation at Mass the last couple of weeks and Revelation begins with 7 letters to the 7 churches in Asia Minor and every letter is a warning to stand firm and ends with a statement like “he who conquers”, or “the victor” will be saved. Or, in Lk 20:35 Jesus speaks of “those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead “. I don’t know about you, but when I hear words that speak of being victorious, or deemed worthy, I get very nervous, because I know I’m not worthy. So, I’m just going to share what helps me and hopefully you will find it helpful as well.

First, I take the warnings of Jesus very seriously and so I’m trying, trying to respond to His love, trying to be obedient, trying to love my neighbor; but I have come to the point where I have no hope the my efforts alone will make me worthy; but, here’s the good news, I have come to believe totally in the mercy of Jesus Christ.Here’s why.

The good thief. The good thief was a thief. He didn’t have a lot of good works. Yet, at the end of his life, he repented and turned to Jesus, and that was enough. Jesus said today you will be with me in paradise.

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus said “Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” Lk 17:3-4.

You see there is a world of difference between those who are obstinate in their sin, and those who sin from weakness and ask forgiveness. Jesus always forgives the latter, always.

I’ll share one little story in our family of how this can play out. Several years ago, Joni went to her cousin Janet’s house to be with her Aunt Selma. Selma is Janet’s mother and she was dying. Now Joni went up because she loved her Aunt Selma; but, also because her family is Jewish so she was a little concerned. After she was up there for a little while, Selma started talking with her about death, and Joni shared a piece of advise she heard from Fr. Groschel. He said, if you die and you see 2 doors, and 1 says “Mercy”, and the other says “Saved”, go through the Mercy door. So, Selma nodded her Okay. Then, later that evening she asked, what’s that door again? Mercy, take the Mercy door. Oh yeah. The following day was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar where Jewish people do a total fast for 24 hours and Selma didn’t want to eat; but, Janet said that doesn’t apply to people who are sick, to which Selma responded, “but I have so much to atone for”, and when Joni heard that, she was at peace. She gave her a big hug and said “You’re going to be okay Aunt Selma”. The following day, Joni came home and 2 days later Selma passed; but we have great hope. She went to God repentant and seeking mercy.

And we see this in the saints as well.

In her Dialogue, St. Catherine of Siena shares what God told her about the judgment. He said that eveyone upon death knows where they belong and goes there straight away. He said “the righteous, who have lived in charity and died in love, if they have lived perfectly in virtue, illuminated with the light of faith, with perfect hope in the Blood of the Lamb, when the extremity of death comes, see the good which I have prepared for them, and embrace it with the arms of love… Others who have passed their lives, and have arrived at the last extremity of death with an ordinary charity… embrace My mercy with the same light of faith and hope that had those perfect ones, but in them, it is imperfect, for because they were imperfect, they drew My mercy, counting My mercy greater than their sins.” And so arrive at purgatory. “The wicked sinners do the contrary, for seeing with desperation, their destination, they embrace it with hatred…” Notice the imperfect; they draw down God’s mercy, counting His mercy greather than their sins.

Many of you are probably familiar with the story of St. Therese of Lisieux of how when she was still a young girl, she saw an article in the newspaper about a man who was going to be executed because of murder and that he was unrepentant. She felt called to pray and sacrifice for him and a few days later read that just before he was executed, he turned and kissed the crucifix that a priest was holding up for him. She rejoiced! She prayed that he would receive the grace for repentance and at the last minute he responded. That’s enough.

According to Fr. Andrew Apostoli, St. Teresa of Avila had a younger brother who committed suicide, and of course in the 1500’s, it was just accepted that a person who kills himself will go to hell. St. Teresa prayed to Jesus that out of His (that is Jesus’s) love for her, to please have mercy on her brother. How beautiful. The heart of a saint pleads for mercy, and God loves that because it’s his heart also.

This is our hope and like I said for me personally, this is the hill I will die on.

There’s a 2^nd part to the good news that I will close with and that is the virtue of hope. The virtue of hope enables us to believe that God will bring to completion the good work that He has begun in us. So, even though I know that right now I am absolutely not worthy, hope allows me to believe that eventually He will make me worthy, either in this life or the next, and the better I cooperate with Him, the sooner it will happen.

So, brothers and sisters, here we are in Advent, a great season of grace preparing us to meet Jesus. Ask Him what is the best thing you can do this Advent to grow in intimacy with Him. I hemmed and hawed a bit before asking Him but as soon as I started to ask, I felt like He gave me an answer. I spend far too much time worrying and thinking about myself and the problems I have to deal with; instead I need to spend more time in friendly conversation with Jesus. I need to develop a real friendship with Him. So, that’s what I’ll be working on and I encourage all of you, ask. Don’t let this season pass by. God bless you.