Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
First Sunday in Advent
December 3, 2006
And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Recently a friend of mine passed away and she had a nice family, a large family. She and her husband started their family in the service our country. You can see on page 7 of the bulletin the list of intentions we should pray for everyday and after receiving Holy Communion. Look at number 37. It says Veterans of Pearl Harbor, December 7th. This is the 65th anniversary of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Well, she, my friend, was with her husband. They were stationed at Pearl Harbor. Their first baby had just arrived. She was at home and he was in the Navy. That morning she would never forget. My friend told people everywhere how she took the baby out of its crib and headed for the safety under the kitchen table. She baptised the baby in an emergency baptism. This, of course, is common practice any time there is a possibility of death. Many died that day. Don't you know that just days before, the people were enjoying the warm spot out there in the Pacific Ocean?
I just came back from Detroit and it is nothing like Hawaii in December. (Laughter) It's amazing at how beautiful and idyllic a spot like Detroit isn't and Hawaii is, especially in December. The attack was definitely a sneak attack and we do well to pray for those who died on that day unprepared to meet their Maker, which they did. The Lord says that He does not wish that the day of His Coming should catch us like a trap. Like those terrible words in school,
"Take out your papers and pencils. We are having a pop quiz."
“Oh no”
The Lord does not want us anxious and upset walking around in anxiety about His Second Coming. Instead He says that, when these signs begin to happen stay erect raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. If today were not a Sunday we would be honoring Saint Francis Xavier. In fact this year is the 500th anniversary of his birth. St. Francis Xavier along with St. Ignatius Loyola, in the mid 1500s, began the Society of Jesus, the Company of Jesus. We know them as the Jesuits. St. Ignatius of Loyola right there with St. Francis Xavier, on the hill overlooking Paris, where now stands a basilica in honor of the Sacred Heart. It is interesting that the Jesuits would go on to promote the Sacred Heart. This man, St. Francis Xavier, ordained around the age of 30, thought he would spend his life in the Holy Land. Instead he was sent to Japan, India, and on to China. It was his great desire to evangelize in China.
Along the way in the years, which remained in his life he baptized, the records say, A MILLION people. That is a lot of people. A million people is one thing but to baptize a million people is something more. Astounding! It is amazing to see what God can do in the grace of one person if that individual empties himself to allow God to fill him with grace. St. Ignatius chose wisely in asking St. Francis Xavier to be in his Company of Jesus. You couldn't have better Company than being in the Company of Jesus. The Jesuits had a high standard and yes, some have fallen from that high standard but there are Jesuits remaining who will correct it. Jesuits are great at correcting things. I have great confidence that this will indeed correct itself. St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier got their order started just a few years after Our Lady appeared in what is now known as Mexico City. We are talking about Our Lady of Guadalupe.
If you open the bulletin to page five you see there Thursday and Friday, December 7th and December 8th, have listed the Masses for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a Holy Day of Obligation. Then on page 6 you see that Saturday is the Feast of Saint Juan Diego. This Saturday is the 475th Anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She first appeared to Saint Juan Diego on December 9th and then on December 12th, after her last apparition, she left us an image of herself. It is the only time in the history of the world when Our Lady did that.
You see on the front of the bulletin the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe arranged similar to that of Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception. That statue over there of Our Lady of Guadalupe is not an exact statue but it is a beautiful representation of Our Lady. You can see on the front of the bulletin that much of what we hear in the Book of Revelation, the Apocalypse, is represented there. There is that great dragon there at the bottom spewing water in an attempt to kill the woman who is awaiting the Birth of her Child. The Book of Revelation says,
Then a great sign appeared in the sky. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
The image is definitely clothed with the sun and she is standing on the moon and yes, there is a crown suspended by two angels. Perhaps it is a reference to the beautiful mantle where many stars circle her beautiful head as she is raising the Child aloft. This particular image was chosen for the cover of the bulletin because, in a sense, it combines the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In fact, the priests in Mexico on December 9th would have been celebrating an Octave of the Immaculate Conception the same way we hear in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" song about something we can not savor in a single day. We really need twelve days for Christmas with parents going to bed so late and getting up so early so that we can savor this Most Important Moment in the history of salvation, namely the Birth of Christ. It is the same with the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. So when Our Lady appeared to St. Juan Diego on December 9th the mind would go immediately to Our Lady and her Immaculate Conception. The same would be thought the next day and the next day and on December 12th it would still be so. Those eight days following the Solemnity would remind us to savor the flavor of this tremendous teaching. So Our Lady was identifying herself by leaving us her image and she was identifying herself as the Immaculate Conception just as she did centuries later to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830.
Last Monday was the Feast of the Miraculous Medal and the following day was the Feast of St. Catherine Laboure. The Miraculous Medal identifies Our Lady as Conceived without Sin. The prayer on the Miraculous Medal is,
O Mary Conceived Without Sin, Pray For Us Who Have Recourse To Thee.
The real name of the medal is the Medal of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a real mouthful so people reduced it to Miraculous Medal because so many miracles are connected this medal in honor of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception. In 1858 to a peasant girl in the south of France at Lourdes, Our Lady finally identified herself to St. Bernadette,
I am the Immaculate Conception.
She said this in the patois dialect of that area.
The Immaculate Conception is here upon us and yet we think so seldom of the Immaculate Conception. It is rather odd since we live in a country that has the distinction of being Consecrated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is a church of tremendous proportions and beauty in Washington, D.C. called the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. This honor of being a country Consecrated to the Immaculate Conception has been lost but something that can be regained. In fact, the Immaculate Conception is placed strategically, in my opinion, by the Church to help us, during Advent. The Advent Wreath has been placed over there by Our Lady of Guadalupe. There are four candles in the Advent Wreath, one candle for each Sunday of Advent. But of course you know that Christmas is early this year. No, it is not early this year. It is always December 25th.
Easter can be early or Easter can be late but Christmas is always a set date. It is always 9 months after March 25th, the Feast of the Annunication. This year Christmas falls on the Monday after the Fourth Sunday of Advent. We have four Sundays that begin the new Liturgical Year of the Church. Last Sunday we ended with the Feast of Christ the King and we heard the words of that priest in 1927, who was also of the Society of Jesus, Blessed Miguel Augustine Pro. His last words as he raised up his arms like that of Jesus on the Cross were,
"Long live Christ the King!" "Viva Cristo Rey!"
And then the soldiers in the firing squad of the Mexican Government riddled his body with bullets. This was 1927 not even 100 years have lapsed. It is interesting how we crown the year with Christ the King and we invoke this great man from the Company of Jesus, Blessed Miguel Pro, and we start this Sunday in Advent this year on the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, one of the
founders of the Company of Jesus.
St. Ignatius of Loyola is given credit for founding the Jesuits. He taught St. Francis Xavier and other Jesuits who are true to their founder, that every day they should make a personal examination of how they are doing. Three questions were to be used that he posed to himself and every Jesuit since then. There are some Jesuits not worth the title of being called Jesuits. The three questions are:
What have you done for Christ? What are you doing for Christ? What ought you be doing for Christ?
Advent helps us prepare for the coming of Christ. This year we have a special anniversary. I know that Y2K, the year 2000, we celebrated the 2000th anniversary of the Birth of Christ but many put the chronology closer to 2006. So, this year we have another shot at celebrating Y2K + 6. I will pass out the pencils and papers for the pop quiz. What is that the Y2K + 6, I hate algebra! No, it is not an algebra problem but it's the closest estimation we could come up with for the Birth of Christ and to prepare for the Birth of Christ, the Immaculate Conception, and Our Lady of Guadalupe, which help us.
Yesterday in the Church here the parents sat with their kids for CCD from 9am to 12 pm. The kids had to wake up so I said,
"What if someone gave you a million dollars? What would you do with it after you gave $5 to St. William's? What would you do with the rest of the money? You would probably give some to your parents and your family.”
Of course, they would buy the candy store next to the Toys-R-Us and knock out the wall in between them. How can I fill my room with a million dollars worth of candy? I would have to eat my way out to the biggest dental appointment ever. That is what most kids would do.
“What if there was a condition? You had to go to the bank to pick up the money so that they wouldn't have to be responsible for hiring security guards and an armored car to deliver your million dollars and of course, being a bank, they want your business. You would need to open an account, so you had to go to the bank to pick it up. But what if you were tired say… from doing homework. You know how tiring homework can be, especially when you are doing a poor job at it. Or what if you had spent a long time out playing. You would be really tired but you have to get to the bank on a certain day in order to get your prize or the prize goes to someone else. What would you do? Would you go even though you are tired? ”
The kids said yes.
And yet, the same is extended to you and to me every Sunday of our lives. Millions or millions or as Carl Sagan would say, he probably knows now since he has died, billions and billions of graces and blessings come to us. In fact billions is not an accurate term; infinite would be more accurate. The infinite and eternal graces that come to me and to you are made available every Sunday, and yet there are times when through every fault of their own, some people can not get up and turn off the TV and come to Church. It is really sad. In fact, the Pope, the week after Thanksgiving was in Turkey; the country not the animal! He was visiting Turkey, which seems fitting this time of year, and one of the things he said on his return was that Sunday is the “primordial nucleus”. He referred to Sunday as a primordial nucleus. Now he is sounding a bit like Carl Sagan using a scientific, biological term. The graces and the blessings that I need over the next week God is giving me today.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is adding to the 52 Sundays that will populate this year. The Church gives me another Sunday on a weekday. In this case it will be Friday and will be a Holy Day of Obligation. St. Therese said that we manage our affairs here on Earth rather poorly. People look at a Holy Day of Obligation with an emphasis on the word "obligation" instead of "holy." The blessings and the graces that come to me on a Sunday will be repeated for me during the week if I am so moved to cooperate with the graces and blessings that God will give me this week.
The Immaculate Conception however is misunderstood. Name for me something in the Catholic Faith that is not misunderstood. So we will just put this Dogma of the Immaculate Conception along with all the others in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. If you just ask people, children or adults, whose Immaculate Conception we celebrate, many will point to Jesus and that is to confuse the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first moment of the first in the minute of her nine month life in the womb of St. Anne, her mother, with the Virgin Birth of Jesus at Christmas.
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the tremendous graces that are ours if we are properly disposed to receive them help us to answer more fully those three questions of St. Ignatius.
What have you done for Christ? What are you doing for Christ? What ought you do for Christ in the future?
These graces help us to prepare.
Already everyone knows the significance of Christmas; you can go to any mall. Save yourself the trip. I 'm going to tell you about something that happened here in Greenville on Friday. A family in the parish entered into the Christmas parade here in Greenville and their entry was a float depicting Jesus, Mary and St. Joseph in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. This family was the only entry in the entire parade representing the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and St. Joseph. They were given the Spirit of Christmas Award. A lady said to the family that she was glad that someone still understood the significance of what Christmas is all about.
Of course we know that these four weeks leading up to Christmas are very important because of all of the Christmas parties we have to attend, and with that comes drinking too much. We know it is alright for every Catholic adult of legal age to get drunk two or three times a year, especially at Christmas; then you get an extra one on New Year's because you are starting a new year? (Laughter) No of course not. That is not true.
“Oh sure Father, I was told by Father “So and So” that it is ok to have a wee bit of brandy now and then.
That is right, a wee bit is fine but don't get drunk and lose your senses. Remember what it says in the Gospel? Jesus says,
Beware that your hearts don't become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life and that day catch you like a trap.
Now if you will look in your bulletin at the readings please; I am sorry to say that we don't have the Missalettes. You know a lot of parishes have the Missalettes, and you know when you get to those readings that you would rather not have.
Wives be submissive to your husbands as if to the Lord...Husbands love you wives.
You can cut out that part about wives submitting to their husbands. It says St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians and then it says,
"Have a nice day!" (Laughter)
You can just cut out all of that stuff that is going to make somebody mad. I imagine that if I picked up a Missalette today that this line would be taken out just so we could use the shorter version.
"Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkeness and the anxieties of daily life and that day catch you like a trap.
The shorter version would have that. It is a short Gospel anyway. You know I make a joke about this and I bet sooner or later it happens. The fact is that we don't know how to prepare as we should appropriately for this Holy Day, which is Christmas… and so the Church helps us.
The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is not something that is to be tossed away lightly. This is the only time in the history of the world when Our Lady left her image. The twelve years before Our Lady appeared in Mexico City the priests in Mexico baptized around 200,000. The ten years following Our Lady leaving her image in Mexico more than 9 million were baptized. People came streaming in. Good records were kept. But grace upon grace was given when Our Lady appearing in Mexico City, which is, pretty much the heart (center) of the Americas. Again, it is the only time in the history of the world that Our Lady has left her image.
We will be carrying an exact digital copy of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in procession each night at 8 pm. We have to be certifiable, crazy, or intent in picking up all those graces that others don't mind driving by. Oh life is so difficult. You are right. There are so many things about which we can complain. It is indeed a great cross to live in this valley of tears and we make it more of a cross when we fail to lift a finger to go to Mass on Sunday, on the Holy Days and to invoke Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is "holy Wisdom" referencing the pope's latest trip, to see the Church giving up opportunities to prepare not only for the great Solemnity of the Birth of Christ but for this day which will come for us all.
I remember December 7th, the first December that I was out of high school. My father called me while I was at work. It was the first time I had heard my father cry. His father, my Godfather has passed away on December 7th, 1977. This will indeed happen for me and for you either before the Second Coming or at the Second Coming. Our Lord does not want us to be caught like a rat in a trap. He doesn't want us to see His Second Coming as a zero sneak attack at Pearl Harbor. I am sure that good Japanese today are embarrassed at their leaders for having made such a sneak attack.
The Lord doesn't want those who are in His Company to feel like He is waiting to trip them up and catch them off guard. If we are truly in the Company of Jesus, true followers of Christ, then we will be like the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception says that the Blessed Virgin Mary from the first moment of her life on this Earth was without Original Sin. But why would God give her such a special privilege? It is not a special privilege. God had already given it to two other people, Adam and Eve, but Adam and Eve chose to sin. That is the Original Sin. Ever since then parents have passed down the Original Sin to their children. God planned for our redemption. God planned to save us by sending His Own Son. The grace of the Immaculate Conception can be traced back to this Cross of Jesus Christ which reaches back all the back in history to Adam and Eve, reaches as well to the present and reaches forward to everyone who will ever be born. The Blessed Virgin Mary is called the New Eve and Jesus Christ is called the New Adam.
You can see that Adam and Eve dropped the ball, if you will. Through scripture you can see how God let man try again and again to start over. Remember the flood and Noah? The same results happened that had happened with Adam and Eve.
Our Lady was conceived without Original Sin. The other team never had her flesh, not even for a minute in its possession. Christ has been called the New Adam and Our Lady the New Eve. There is NOT the marital intimacy between these “Two” as in the original Adam and Eve. They are a mother and her Son, a mother and her God. God has started the human family over again and those who wish to be in His Company are able to do so. When we see someone like St. Francis Xavier who emptied himself, surrendered himself over to God, look what He can do with someone so willing to cooperate with the blessings and graces. The million people he
Baptized and the millions that were affected by those baptisms all are traced to St. Francis Xavier just as we trace Christ back to His Virgin Birth at Bethlehem 2000 years ago.
It takes some preparation. It takes our meditation and our prayers. You see the color of these vestments; it is the same color as the stole I wear around my neck when I hear Confessions. I am going to make it to Confession during Advent and so should you. You can see there are extra hours in the bulletin for Confessions.
The Lord wants us to be preparing so that we are not caught off guard.
Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkeness and the anxieties of daily life and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen