Fr. Tom's homily for the first Sunday of Advent

Wake up!

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, November 30, 2008:

“Be watchful! Be alert! Stay awake! You do not know when the Lord of the house is coming…May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.”

Here is a quiz for you. Let’s say you are asleep and dreaming. In your dream, a big lion is chasing you. You try to run away from the lion, only to see a tiger coming right at you. You keep running in a new direction, but no matter where you turn, you find a ferocious animal coming after you. How can you escape? The answer is simple: Wake up.

By waking up you enter a whole new world of reality, different from that of the dream world. What was a huge problem in the dream world becomes a non-issue in the waking world. Dream world concerns lose their importance and new concerns take their place. For example, you discover that your problem is no longer how to escape from wild beasts but how to beat the morning rush and arrive early for work.

As we enter the season of Advent today, we can relate to the change that occurs between a dream state and consciousness. Advent hopes to wake us from or spiritual slumber; to effect a change so that we move from a state of being spiritually asleep to that of being spiritually awake, when the soul is awake and alert not to worldly realities, but to spiritual realities.

In today’s gospel Jesus admonishes and encourages... (Continued here)

The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord the other day

I really like Fr. Tom's homily on the SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD which we just celebrated the other day.

He said:

"Today’s feast gives us one of the most familiar scenes of our Christmas readings – that of the three Magi coming to see the child Jesus. We sing the familiar hymn, “We Three Kings,” and we all know the story well. We all know how many gifts the wise men brought – three. But, today, I want to propose that there are actually six gifts in this Gospel story.

We all know the scene; three men in their rich oriental clothing, bearing three gifts. Our eyes are riveted on the gold. Our noses respond to the scent of frankincense and myrrh. They bow before the Son of God. But, in the midst of this great show, the Magi are slipping something in, on the quiet, that we might not see if we don’t look closely enough. It is something that they share. They have it tucked up in their sleeves, right next to their hearts. Even though the gold, frankincense and myrrh get all the press, this is actually their finest offering – even more precious than the gold. It is the fourth gift – the gift of their faith – the trust they place in a baby, their recognition of a Savior..." (Continued here.)