"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

Shine Like The Stars

Deacon Tom writes

Shine Like The Stars

Thirty –third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Our Liturgical Year comes to a close next Sunday on the Feast of Christ the King. As we reflect about the passing of another year, our readings today focus our attention on the “End Times”. The physical laws of the universe tell us that all things must come to an end. That pertains to our world as well. Today we read a prophetic account of those days and they paint of pretty grim picture. The Prophet Daniel says, “it will be a time unsurpassed in distress”.  Jesus tells his disciples, “the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give it’s light”. 

Hollywood has tremendous imagination when it comes to world-ending cataclysms. Our readings today, however, challenge us to see these apocalyptic signs through a much different filter, through the eyes of faith guided as we are by the two Prophets who speak to us today, Daniel and Jesus.

Daniel tells us that during these devastating days, “the wise shall shine brightly….and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever”.  Jesus tells his disciples that, “they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds… and he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds”.

Today’s readings tell us some truth about the future. Hollywood imagines the “how”; our Christian focus is on the “what”. For each of us must consider how we live our lives and prepare ourselves for that day which will be our last.   Through the eyes of faith we know that we have nothing to worry about on our “last days” if we have been faithful to our Baptismal promises and if we have let our light shine brightly to all around us so that in the words of St. Paul, we may “…shine among them like stars in the sky” Phil 2:15.

Aware of our shortcomings in this life, we place our trust in God and his abundant love, mercy and compassion in fervent hope that, at the appointed time, he will come and gather  to himself all who have let his light shine in their lives to be with him forever.   

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Image Credit -wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Brilliant_star_Merope.jpg