"I Come To Do Your Will, O God"

Deacon Tom writes,

“I come to do your will, O God”

Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C

Isn’t it strange that the one thing that can keep us furthest from God’s love is the very gift God intended to draw us closest to him?  It’s this unique gift of “Free Will” that flows from God’s unimaginable love for us that enables us to say “No” to him. When we misuse this gift, we are free to reject him completely; we can ignore him when it is convenient to do so; we can even deny that he exists.  Then we are completely free to live our lives with reckless abandon trying to find substitutes for those very things God intended us to have from the beginning – our complete joy and happiness. But striking out on our own to find “the good life” usually has dire and “unintended” consequences.

Of course, God did not intend for us to use the gift of “Free Will” to reject him.  In giving us this gift God revealed something about himself. He revealed his unconditional love for us and for all his creation. No “normal” parent gives their children something that would harm them. The giving of gifts reflects the deep love parents have for their children. Genuine giving is an intimate sharing of parents’ desire for their children to experience joy and happiness here in this life, to reach their full potential as they mature into adulthood, and one day to enter into eternal life for which we were all created.

In the Second Reading today, St. Paul quotes Jesus’ words letting us know that he is aware of the gift he has received from God, and that he knows how to respond to that gift. He responds to the precious gift of free will by saying “Yes” to God. In the Gospel, Mary is visiting her cousin Elizabeth to share with her the good news of how God responded to her saying, “Yes” to him.  Both Jesus and Mary use the gift of their free will by submitting themselves to God and disposing themselves to do all that God asks them to do. Jesus and Mary know and teach us that this is the only way for us to fully experience all that God has promised us in this life….and, in the one to come.   

As we prepare to exchange gifts this Christmas, let us recall the gifts that we have received from God. And, let us respond joyfully to the many other gifts we have been blessed with over the years by echoing Jesus’ words, “I come to do your will, O God” and then, sit quietly and await his response. He surely will.

God bless and keep you and your loved ones close to him, now and always.     

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

What Should We Do?

Deacon Tom writes

 “What Should We Do?”

Third Sunday of Advent, Year C

John the Baptist was like a magnet drawing people out into the desert. They came because they were looking for something, and perhaps, because John was so very different than anyone they had ever heard or seen, they may have thought that he had what they were looking for. So they came and listened. Some even went so far as to be baptized, a sign that they bought into what he was preaching - lock, stock and barrel!

The baptism that John was preaching called for a change of heart. They had to leave their old ways behind and start out fresh, as if it was a new beginning, or at the least, a new mindset. Those who desired to change their ways asked John an obvious question, “What should we do?” And so, to the Tax Collector, John says, “Stop collecting more than is prescribed”. In other word, do whatever is the right thing to do in all your business affairs. To the Soldiers who asked what they should do, he answered, “Do not extort…do not falsely accuse…. be satisfied with your wages”. That’s the equivalent of saying don’t abuse your power or misuse your authority. People from all walks of life came to John for his advice and it would basically be the same, “Stop the injustice; start doing what is right”.

John is preparing the people for the one who is to follow him soon, Jesus. John lays the foundation of justice that Jesus will build on. The call to justice requires that we look within and see how we have contributed to the injustices that surround us.

John calls us to conversion, a change of heart that comes from within. When we experience this conversion, we too begin to ask the question, “What should we do?”   While we still have some Advent time remaining, let’s pause and ask Jesus to help us answer this question from within so we may always “act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”. (Micah 6:8)

Enjoy the Day!

Deacon Tom 

Love Changes Everything

Deacon Tom writes

“Love Changes Everything”

Second Sunday of Advent, Year C

Paul tells his brothers and sisters in Philippi that he prays “…always with joy in my every prayer for you”.  He goes on to tell them, “And this is my prayer:  that your love may increase ever more and more” [so you may] “discern what is of value”.  Paul expresses that love is the most important virtue in his letter to the Corinthians in one of his most famous quotes, “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love”

1 Cor 13:13. Love, as a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber expresses so well, changes everything!

Advent is a time to embrace some of the changes we have put off for too long, a time to change course and head in a new direction on roads that have been leveled and filled in for us by the Holy One, highways and byways that lead us on the paths of forgiveness, and healing, and holiness. To turn our hearts and minds towards the Most High is to turn our backs to the malls and Main Street bazaars and barkers that normally inordinately usurp our time and treasures this time of year. If we truly love and discern what is of value, this will not be a difficult choice to make”. For where our treasures lie, there will our hearts be also.

Let us pray this Advent is different than all the past ones and that we enter into the grace which enable us to seek those gifts that last forever, that reflect the love that God has for us in giving us the gift of his only Son: a generous heart, a deeper sense of compassion and empathy for those who are hurting this year, physically, emotionally and spiritually, that God will use us when and where he sees fit to be instruments of his peace.

Yes, “Love changes everything” and, when it does, “Nothing in the World will ever be the same”.  Advent is that time of year when we dare to dream that the forces of love can cast out the darkness in our world and prepare our hearts for the King of Glory to enter within.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Image: Giotto Nativity

To You, O Lord, I Lift Up My Soul

Deacon Tom writes

“To you, O Lord, I lift my soul”

First Sunday of Advent, Year C

In the silence of our Advent reflection, the words of the Prophet Jeremiah can stir our hearts with expectant hope and longing for promises to be fulfilled, for the days when, “all shall be safe and dwell secure”.  This deep longing for safety and security is shared by all humanity in the aftermath of the Paris tragedy and the ongoing suffering countless victims of war, violence, poverty, and illness throughout our hurting world. For this to become a reality we must first, however, place ourselves in the presence of the Lord and breath the prayer we hear in the Responsorial Psalm today, “To you, O Lord, I lift my soul”.

Every year we all face the challenge of Advent; we need to get everything ready for Christmas, the shopping, the cooking, the visits to family and friends, the writing out of Christmas cards. And when do we stop to put it all in perspective and reflect upon the “Reason for the Season”?

This year can be different. We can break the cycle of insanity….if we want to. We can take a tip from St. Paul and ask the Lord to make us, “increase and abound in love for one another and for all”.   How our lives would change!  So some questions to ask during this Holy Season are these:  What holds us back?  What prevents us from seeking the holy?  Are we afraid of the changes that an injection of love into the fabric of our lives would cause?  Are we afraid of what the newborn Babe would ask of us? Are we afraid of the confrontation with self that can take place in the time we spend in holy solitude?  There are a lot of reasons that we avoid silence and fill our lives with business. But it doesn’t have to be this way. This year can be different!!!

Jesus tells us to, “Be vigilant at all times and pray… to escape the tribulations….and to stand before the Son of Man”.  This Advent gives us another chance to renew our efforts to center our lives around prayer and to create a quiet space where we can go and rest awhile with a friend, Jesus, who comes to us as a little child bearing many gifts to all who come before him singing the refrain, “To you, O Lord, I lift my soul”.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Waiting in Hope

Deacon Tom writes ©

 “Waiting in Hope”

                         Second Sunday of Advent, Year B

Several weeks ago we read the Prophet Isaiah raising this prayer to God on behalf of God’s chosen ones:  “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down”. Today we read from Isaiah again and he is instructing the people, “Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah:  Here is your God!  Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by His strong arm…”.

These two readings from Isaiah express a wonderful mystery of our faith, that God is with us right at this present moment, and yet, at the same time, we have not yet fully experienced His presence. Advent is a time to reflect on His presence in our daily lives and to know that there is more to come…And so, we wait in hope! We look ahead to the day when God’s fullness will totally reign in our hearts and in the world. We wait for that day when a new heaven and the new earth will replace the old order; we wait for the day when the justice, peace, and the realities of God’s kingdom replace the disharmony and chaos that are the dominant forces at work in our world today; we wait for our lives to be more complete and fulfilling.

Advent is a season of expectant hope. It is a time when we dream new dreams about becoming the person God has called us to be. It is a time when the spirit of hope leads us to new beginnings. Who do you want to be when that new heaven and new earth arrives?  Do you want to be a more caring person?  Do you want to be more gracious, more thankful, and more prayerful?  Or, perhaps, we want to leave behind memories of the past that are painful and full of sorrow. The beauty of Advent is that we get to fill in the blanks… and be filled with the hope that, with God’s help, we can accomplish all that we dare hope for. Advent is a time of waiting, a season of hope, for God to come into our lives and fill us with the true gifts of this season… peace, joy, love, those gifts that come from the Holy Spirit.

Each of us has the opportunity to reclaim Advent as a special time of hope. Each of us can make this a spiritual season by looking inward and hoping that the promises God holds in store for each one of us will become our reality… promises of newness, renewal, of our well being. That’s what hoping is all about. .

May this Advent journey be a time of new beginnings, new hopes, and new joys. May God’s gift of new life set us free to seek the giver and share the many gifts He has in store for those who place their hope in Him.

Enjoy the day and the Season!

Deacon Tom 

Can Anybody Help Me?

      Deacon Tom Writes ©

   “Can anybody help me?”

First Sunday of Advent, Year B 

There was a commercial on TV some time ago showing a man riding in circles on his new lawn mower while telling viewers about his financial problems.  It’s not that he was poor, quite the opposite.  He had a lot of money, he just didn’t know how to budget it…  In addition to the new lawn mower he had just purchased, he also complained of having bought a new car that he put in the new house and the list goes on. Now he is “up to his eyeballs in debt”.  As the focus of the camera narrows in on him,  he looks into it with glazy eyes and asks, “Can anybody help me?”  This is a sad but fairly accurate depiction of our human nature at work. We manage to dig quite a deep hole for ourselves before we recognize the trouble we are in and our need to ask for help.

Our spiritual lives can be very similar. In the reading from Isaiah on this First Sunday of Advent, the beginning of our new liturgical year, the prophet begs the Lord to come once more to the aid of His people who now humbly confess their sins… “Why did you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?” the prophet asks.

The first step in solving a problem is to recognize that we have one, like the fellow in the commercial reaching out to “anybody” who might be able to help him with his financial problems. We do well to take this approach with our spiritual shortcomings and reach out to God and ask Him to “rend the heavens and come down” to our rescue.

The image of God as the potter and we the clay is a powerful one for us to explore this Advent. Just like clay in the hands of an artisan, God shapes and molds our lives…if we let Him. And that’s the key; God does not barge into our lives but rather waits for an invitation.  Advent is a time for us to realize that we need to invite Emmanuel into our lives and renew us from the inside out.

Let us invite God into our lives in a deeper and more intimate way this Advent Season so that He can mold us and fashion us into whatever beautiful vessel will be most fulfilling for us to accomplish His will, the plan He has in store for us. On our part, we need to be watchful so that we may recognize how God is constantly shaping us through the events, people and the always-changing circumstances of our lives.  This Advent let us be watchful for the many ways God comes to our rescue…

Enjoy the day and Happy New Year too!

Deacon Tom