First Sunday of Advent 2007

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

Homily by:
Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
First Sunday of Advent
December 2, 2007

So, too, you also must be prepared. For at an hour you do not expect the Son of Man will come.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen

The picture on the front of the bulletin is a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but she has all the attributes of the Immaculate Conception. As you can see in your bulletin, Friday is the Vigil of the Immaculate Conception, and that Saturday is the actual Feast Day.

In Mexico the Patron of the country is Our Lady of Guadalupe. In that country December 12th is a Holy Day of Obligation. In this country the Immaculate Conception is the Patroness of the USA, and December 8th is Holy Day of Obligation. December 8th cannot be moved to a Sunday or ignored because she is the patron. Some people are confused about other Holy Days, and I completely understand and sympathize with their confusion, but this one cuts right through the Gordian Knot and it is never transferred and is always observed.

I remember a while back a man told me that right after Mother’s Day his wife was very mad at him. I asked what happened, and he said that he got her a really good gift for Mother’s Day, and I asked what it was and he told me he’d bought her a brand new iron and ironing board. Such a romantic, I know! He is fortunate she didn’t heat up the iron and throw it at him. [Laughter]

In your bulletin I have a note on Saturday’s schedule that says that the 11:00 am is the last Mass for the Holy Day of Obligation. How tempted some are going to be and say,

“Well, we will just go to that morning Mass on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and it will serve for Sunday too.”

Oh, you are so sentimental. You can do as you please, but that is not appropriate.

Pope Benedict says that the Immaculate Conception is a Dogma for modern times and people have scratched their heads and wonder what in the world he is talking about, as if you and I are keeping up with the theological studies at the rate that he has all his life. I think I will dig into this and find out that he is right, and he will be found right. On page eight in the bulletin, there is more on the Holy Day and the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

The reason Pope Benedict has declared a Jubilee Year, a Holy Year of the Immaculate Conception beginning Saturday is because this coming February is the 150th Anniversary of Our Lady’s apparition to St. Bernadette in the South of France. St. Bernadette knew the score. Later in her life while in the convent some nun, who was born into a well to do family, was very intelligent, but haughty. You can just picture her standing there looming over Bernadette with her hands placed on her hips saying,

“Well, why would the Blessed Virgin appear to you? Why not to someone like me?”

And St. Bernadette answered her the way she’d answered so many before.

“It was impossible to find someone more unworthy.”

St. Bernadette and her family lived in a condemned jail’s basement and only until…they could find better arrangements on their own. She could not read or write, but spoke so clearly and she understood who she was. Yet, you and I need to admit who were are and that we are sinners.

The Immaculate Conception appears to be a Dogma, and in fact, it is a Dogma, but, also a person, who is the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception tells us about the person, the Blessed Mother, who is indeed the Immaculata. I am not the Immaculate Conception and you are not the Immaculate Conception.

Look at the beginning of Mass, just before the Confiteor, and how we have to take moments to just think about our sins, and during that time that is set aside for nothing else, it is very difficult to focus even there. Any time we approach spiritual work we are often met with the same lack of results. Now, if we set time aside to think about the sins of others, especially those that affect us…. no problem! Thinking about our own sins seems to be a difficulty.

This time of Advent, these four Sundays have been truncated; have been abbreviated. You will notice on page nine of the bulletin it states that purple vestments indicate penance. You see these purple vestments during the 40 days that lead up to Easter, and you see them during the four weeks of Advent, but some monasteries adapted a policy in Europe of beginning Advent on November 11th, kind of mirroring the Lent that prepares us for Easter. This is referred to as Saint Martin’s Lent. We have a more abbreviated version, and during these four weeks we don’t have the benefit of the culture helping us.

Since before Halloween you would walk into a shop or hear on the radio, Christmas music and songs. News Flash! Christmas ain’t here yet! I have a very dear friend that, on the day after Thanksgiving she decks the house with all of the Christmas attire, and there is one place you do not want to be on the day after Christmas, and that is between her, the Christmas tree, and the front door. She can’t wait to get rid of it all.

“Get that out of here, blah, yuck.

I wish I could translate that. What was the treasure of the family the night before Christmas is now trash on the 26th of December. The entire family is set on edge because of her determination to get this “thing” out of the house.

We are Catholics and we believe in extending it. Look at the Walgreen’s special, you know, the Twelve Days of Christmas that they play all the time. Well, day one starts the 12 Days, not the last 12 shopping days before Christmas. So, we do not have the benefit of culture to help us; Advent is all we have and we must support each other.

The First Reading today is from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, and in the Divine Office today is Chapter 1 of the Prophet Isaiah. In the New Testament, on the lips of Christ, He often quotes books in the Old Testament. His favorite, most quoted book from the Old Testament is Isaiah the Prophet. Perhaps sometime today you might read the first chapter. It is not long and it is the Lord’s Day so why don’t you find it and read it when you get home? Here is part of what God says in Chapter 1 of the Prophet Isaiah to Israel:

Your hands are full of blood; wash yourselves clean. Put away your misdeeds from before My eyes. Cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim, redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, and defend the widow.

These are very direct instructions by God to Israel, and by extension to you and me. Earlier in the same chapter God says to Israel:

As an ox knows its owner and a donkey knows the manger of its master, but Israel does not know; my people have not understood.

It is interesting that these two dumb animals know more than we do when we are focused on ourselves and on sin. I am Not the Immaculate Conception; YOU are not the Immaculate Conception, but Our Lady is and so she is very helpful to us.

When Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette one hundred-fifty years this coming February, she appeared to her over a series of days. St. Bernadette asked her the same question at every appearance. Bernadette never said she saw the Blessed Virgin Mary, but on that she’d seen a beautiful lady. During the ninth apparition, on February 25, 1858, in part here is what the beautiful lady said to Bernadette:

Penance, penance, penance; pray to God for the conversion of sinners. Kiss the ground.

Well, people who had been following her to the grotto, surrounded Saint Bernadette and you can imagine how she started to lose some of the “audience” when she bent and kissed the ground.

Since yesterday was the last day of the last Liturgical Year, and just on the threshold of the beginning of Advent, at the beginning of my Holy Hour I bent down and kissed the ground. Now, if you try this you will find out the same things that I realized. There is no problem getting down to kiss the ground; the problem is the part where one has to get back up again. As you can see, I did manage. If you do this, think of an out of body experience where you can look down on yourself; you look ridiculous! But…Our Lady said to kiss the ground. She understands where the ground is and where you have to be to kiss it. She doesn’t say to let someone hold your ankles and kiss the ground…just kiss the ground. Right?

I recall that when Pope John Paul II was newly elected pope and he bounded down the stairs of the plane after arriving at a destination while on a Papal voyage, the first thing he would do is kiss the ground. Why, because the pilot was rotten? Or was it because he loved that country and just wanted to kiss the ground there, or was it because he, like St Bernadette was doing penance for the conversion of the sinners in that particular area or of the world? The Moslems do something very similar to this throughout the day.

You and I must recognize the need for penance and this time is short. On page four of the bulletin you will notice that there were two hours of Confession yesterday non-stop, and I couldn’t even get a nap in. Uh huh! [Laughter] There was one penitent right after the other. I am saying this because perhaps you have stopped going to Confession.

“No one goes to Confession anymore!”

Yes, yes they do! Today there are Confessions after the Masses, including a Holy Hour at 2:50 pm along with more Confessions. If you look at Wednesday’s schedule there are four hours of Confession from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. You may think this is an odd time and you would be right, but most people can get away from whatever they are doing at some time during a four-hour period if they need to. I have to do what I can to spread a wide net. You see, Our Lord says to you and to me,

So, too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect the Son of Man will come.

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen