Readings Isaiah 61:1-2A, 10-11,  1st Thessalonians 5:16-24, John 1:6-8, 19-28

I hope everyone is waiting patiently as we get closer to Christmas, as Fr. Rolo mentioned we can all struggle with patience at times. We continue to wait but we can rejoice a little as we have moved past the halfway mark of Advent.

The question comes what we are waiting for. Are we waiting for Christmas morning in order to open the presents and celebrate with family or are we waiting for Christmas morning in order to celebrate the birth of our Lord 2000 years ago? I can certainly relate to the idea of paying attention to opening the gifts since we have been told over the last few decades that this time of year is all about buying gifts and exchanging them on Christmas morning.

Then of course we have the seemingly never ending bad news we hear every day, which can certainly seem to overshadow all of our preparations. We continue to hear of a myriad of things going wrong in the world and some closer to home. These can be trying times for many people for a variety of reasons among them family. We all have that story of the holiday we spent with family where we either were upset at someone in our family or we just seemed to be the focus of all jokes told that day.

We hear today about being able to bring healing to the broken hearted and glad tidings to the poor from Isaiah. We all would like to be able to participate in these wonderful endeavors to help all those around us. If we could simply do this we believe the world would be better.

We also hear again about the voice crying out in the desert keep straight the path of the lord from the Gospel today. This of course calls to mind the reading from Isaiah last week. If you put these two things together, what happens when we look in the mirror. We are all very good at looking at others and finding faults, and failings. We are usually not as quick to find the good in people. It can certainly be like the priests and Levites we hear about today who are trying to get John the Baptist to fit their idea of who he must be. We are called to meet people where they are not where or who we expect them to be.

A few things came to mind as I read these passages today. First off I knew I needed to look in the mirror and make sure that I was doing my best to make straight the path to the Lord. That statement is a lot easier to read than it is to practice, as Fr. Rolo said,  ” Advent is not for wimps”.

The next thing that came to mind for me was what if the readings today from Isaiah, Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, and John were not to make me look outwardly to see the good things in life, but to look internally and make sure I was following those precepts. The idea of me being poor in spirit can certainly make me feel broken hearted, and that straight path to the Lord looks more like one of those roads you see in a performance car ad on TV, lots of twists and turns.

When we look at our faults and failings we can certainly feel like John that we are unworthy to untie the sandals of Jesus. Of course we have the ability, which I hope all have taken advantage of, to confess our sins and receive forgiveness. This in and of itself is a wonderful blessing that should make us all rejoice. The question then becomes do we make the same wrong turns again or do we keep on the straight path.

The way to follow can be extremely difficult to find in today’s world with all the bad news that is reported and the instant access to a never ending stream of information. In order for us to insure we have joy in our life and cloth ourselves in a robe of salvation we need to be vigilant. We do find in Paul’s letter today a great way to help us determine what information we need to pay attention to.
“Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.
In all circumstances give thanks,
for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit.”
I know I can always find something to rejoice about, pray about and to be thankful for, I do have two children and a lovely wife after all.

This time of year of course it can be easier to do that as well since we are all looking for the Good News. The difference is that after the seasons of Advent and Christmas it can be a little more difficult to locate those things. We do not always find that information permeating Social media, and the 24 hr. news channels. We need to look harder for them and it makes it feel like we are crying out in the desert. When this happens all that we have prepared for during Advent should be what we fall back upon.

You see the preparation we do during Advent to celebrate a Christmas should be used throughout the year in order to make our lives continue to be joyful and faith filled. We need to remember to test everything and retain only what is good. I being an inpatient person does not help me in all of this, since many times it seems better to go for the quick gratification, rather than put in the work and do the right thing even though it requires more time.

As we have heard throughout Advent the path should be a joyful one. There will be bumps in the road, but there is always a way back to the straight path. John, Paul, and Isaiah knew this and remind us of it often. We will also celebrate the joy of the Eucharist shortly to remind us of the joy in following Christ. It may not be easy, which is why following the Gospel is not for the faint of heart.