First Sunday in Advent "A"

Today is the first Sunday in Advent, and we are wearing Purple Vestments today as a visual reminder to all of our Community that we as a church are in a Time of Preparation. We also have the benefit of wearing the Raven colors as our team plays each Sunday.

Today I would like to call attention and welcome to our Candidates and their sponsors from our RCIA program who like Joseph and Mary have set out on a journey. They have come with different stories and faith experiences in their choice to journey with us as a faith Community, we now walk along with them and pledge our prayers and our support to them as they journey to the Light of the Easter Vigil, when they will become fully and sacramentally part of our Holy Catholic Church.

They have made a choice and a commitment to become brothers and sisters in Christ with all of us here today all who are part of our living Liturgy, and also with those who came before us the ones who were the ones who showed us the Light.

Advent as I said earlier is a time of preparation it's an annual opportunity for us to count our blessings and to prepare our homes for the visitors that will travel to visit us.

Most importantly it is a time a season to prepare ourselves not just to commemorate the historical birth of the infant Jesus, but it's a time to prepare our own affairs for the second coming of Jesus our King.

The one whom we will each one fate filled day stand before, how then will we use this sacred season to prepare for this inevitable encounter, so that we will be ready on that day!

Paul in our second reading reminds us; that our Salvation is nearer to us now then when we first believed. He tells his Roman followers to put on the armor of light.

Dear friends I just yesterday returned with my family from New England after spending our families Thanksgiving with my brother and sister who both still live up there.

Any of you that have ever had a long drive with two small children will surely remember how it can quickly turn into "Are we there yet" or "How much farther" and the many driving games you had to invent to keep everyone focused and possibly from going crazy.

This year on the drive we counted and took note of all of the bright and varied Christmas lights that we saw along the way in our travels, It was obvious that some people go to great lengths to prepare their Holiday lights, some perhaps to the point of borderline OCD.

But what about our own preparations with our "LIGHTS", have we been as compulsive about making ourselves ready to shine? Are all of our bulbs lit just right are we lined up the way we were intended to be?

Have we taken the time to let the true light of Christ come into our hearts ?

and

THEN do we allow our new LIGHT to radiate the the peace of the Risen Lord. are we a beacon for those who might still be living in Darkness?

Like a Spiritual Lighthouse ready to steer others who like our RCIA candidates might be here with us searching for the Light that Paul speaks of to the Romans?

How many if us here have put on our own Armor of Light before coming to Mass today?

Do we like Isaiah the Prophet in our first reading SEE the light of the Lord in each other as we walk in and look around at our assembly?

Do we SEE the people of God gathered here to worship? Or do we see that SO and So is wearing that OLD coat again, or that family is here again the ones who just can't control their children.

It's kind of like the glass being half full or half empty, but if we are in a spiritual darkness we will never see the light in each other, the LIGHT that Christ sees in each of us.

Matthew tells us in his Gospel message the GOOD NEWS that some will be taken and some will be left, friends this is the time when we want to be sure that we are waiting in the RIGHT line, he says that we need to PREPARE ourselves for the day of judgement.

Isn't better to know what we can do, to prepare ourselves for that encounter to have a PLAN?

We can live in the moment or we can live for eternity. As I was writing this Homily and eating some take out Chinese I opened my fortune cookie and think that the Lord in the person of the Holy Spirit was talking to me through this cookie it said " Pray for what you want, but work for the things you need".

So as we begin the WORK of our Advent preparations let us be strengthened by the life giving blood and bread of life so that our WORK will be a labor of love.

That this Advent Season we will be all of the LIGHT that anyone would ever need to SEE!

Now is the time, now is the time to worship, now is the time to offer the gift of our lives to be Light to those who are possibly still living in some form of Darkness.

Now is the time to put on the "Armor of Light" for we are the sons and daughters of the LIGHT!