Today we begin a new year for the Church and we focus our attention on preparation for the Lord's birth, a time we call Advent.

I hope you get a chance to reflect on this homily and reset your priorities.

God Bless

I was recently at my brother's house for dinner and we were engrossed in a normal conversation when their youngest boy, near 3-year-old, Sean started to pull at my leg, "Oncol Bridan, Oncol Bridan!" He was so persistent we had to stop our conversation and ask, "Yes Sean, what?" He looked straight into my eyes and asked "Are you happy, Oncol Bridan?" I was so startled by the question; I was really thrown off guard, "Am I happy, Sean?" I said in reply. And he repeats it again, as if it was a new mantra, "Are you happy, Oncol Bridan?" Of course I got down on my knees and said , "Yes Sean. I am very happy." He smiled widely and asked the same thing to my brother and every other person who came into the house. The question definitely threw me off since I was not expecting it.

IThat's the very thing that happens in today's gospel and scripture readings. The Lord asks, "Are you ready?" Are you ready to meet your Maker, the Lord God? It's a really sharp and pointed question and it's not for the light-hearted. And so we ask it as we begin a new year for the Church and celebrate Advent in preparation for Christmas and the celebration of Christ's birth and his second coming. The question comes at all of us, "Are we ready? Have we got things in order? Are we ready to meet the Lord?" It kind of throws us off as we assume this is time of levity and celebration and it is but it's more, it's a time of preparation too. If we are honest with ourselves we often get caught up in life and we get busy doing what we need to do. We forget to examine what are and where are our priorities. We rarely ask the question about the priorities or even more rarely ask the question, Are we happy? Let's face it we only examine things when we feel we will lose them. So what's the motivation to examine our lives.

Let's talk about it for a minute. There are lots of people who say why bother living a good or moral life when at the end of lives, we can just turn to the Lord and say, "Oh yeah, sorry! Whoops! Please forgive me for all my selfishness." According these people we are better off living it up and enjoying ourselves in whatever way we want; God has to forgive us because he's all-forgiving and all-loving. But what happens if we die before we get a chance to say those words! The reality is that we don't know the time or the hour of our death. So are we really ready to meet our maker? Instead of playing a game with the Lord we are called to prepared to meet the Lord at any time. We are called to lead the life of a faithful Christian here and now. That's what the scriptures are telling us tonight.

Paul's letter to the Romans challenges us to step out of the darkness and into the light, the light of Christ and the truth he bears with his life. Christ is the light of the world and we are called to move toward it. We are called to move out of the darkness of our sins and into the grace of God's presence. We need to ask ourselves how we can move toward the light of truth and be prepared to meet the Lord. Is there anyone with whom I have said words that I need to take back or at the least be reconciled with? Is there anyone with whom I need to say some words that I need to? Is there some action I must do to be reconciled with my God and our world? Maybe we need to find a way to be kinder and gentler with our children. Maybe we need to find a way to be less demanding of our parents. Maybe we need to find a way to be reconciled with someone in our family or with someone in our community that we are at odds with.

Whatever it is, we all have some darkness in our lives in which we need to shine the light, the light of Christ. We are called to wake ourselves up and ask ourselves if we are ready; ready to look at our lives and our priorities and make some changes in preparation for Christmas. We are called to wake ourselves up and not be just swept along with the world's set of priorities, slavishly doing one thing after the next thing. As we come closer to Christmas, this process of lack of priorities seems to slip into higher gear, moving us ever faster along.

The challenge for us then as we begin Advent and our preparation for Christmas is to pause and ask the tough question, Am I ready to meet the Lord? And even more fundamental we ought to ask that question of a 3-year-old "Are you happy?"

First Sunday of Advent

Psalm: Sunday 41

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