Homily

Patience, Wait for God and Don't Loose Hope!

Sunday, December 16, 2007, 3rd Sunday of Advent, Cycle A
Assumption Grotto Parish, Detroit

            (Note: My commentary on the Pope’s Encyclical will continue at a later date. Today is my first Sunday homily at my new parish assignment, Assumption Grotto in Detroit.)

            The darkest day of the year will come upon us, in this year of 2008, on Saturday. During these dark days, we know what it’s like to wake up in the morning only to see it’s still dark outside. And so we wait for the sun to rise. When we wait, we need to be patient, for none of our eagerness to fill our hearts with the sun’s cheer can be accelerated. We simply have to wait, and be patient. It will come.

            St. James also notes this: he discusses the farmer, who needs to wait until nature bears the fruits at the time God appointed for them. And he also says, “Be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.” You know Jesus has already come… once. He will come again. When the first coming was in humility and mercy, the second coming will be in majesty and justice, so we need to be awake – meaning free from the sleep of sin – and we need to be patient. Patient for Christmas, the liturgical celebration of the first coming, and also patient for Christ’s second coming.

            My heart and mind has been moving lately towards Mary, the Mother of God, drawn by love much as a stone is drawn to the earth by gravity. She too had to wait, wait nine months. Imagine how parents are, as the time for the birth of their child draws near, and they wonder what he or she will look like, act like, and later what this baby will say and do, what he or she will become when all grown up. And if you have experienced that as a parent, imagine Mary. How she must have wondered about Jesus, whose body the Holy Spirit alone created in her womb; for she was a virgin before the birth, during the birth and after the birth and forever. God was there resting in her womb. Her creator was now to be born from her. How overwhelming it must have been for her to perceive that she was the one prophesied through the Old Testament as the mother of the Messiah.

            No woman can speak to her baby, and hold conversation with him, while he is still hidden and secret in her womb; but Mary could speak to God who was in her womb. God lived in her by grace, now the eternally begotten Son of the Father lived inside of her in the flesh. So perfect was her love that she never sinned. The perfect wife, the perfect mother, the perfect woman, the perfect human being. But she still had to wait. Perhaps now, nine days out from the birth, she was on the way to Bethlehem, David’s city, or preparing for the trip, with all of its concerns. She did not know what would happen in the short term or long, but was ready for whatever God’s will would be. This is the waiting of Advent, and Mary is our school and teacher. Yet this is the waiting also of the whole universe, until God comes in majesty and glory at the end of days.

            Recently I too experienced this great waiting. Those of you who know me more are aware of the endless obstacles which my vocation has faced. I cannot even discuss them openly, because the obstacles were often posed by men, men who did wicked things; and lest I sin against the eight commandment, I shall refrain from detraction. (I also expect all of you to refrain from gossip on such matters.) For we must love our enemies, and forgive them.

            In the midst of some very hard days in the recent past, I drove out here to Assumption Grotto. Strolling through the cemetery behind our parish Church, I recollected my thoughts, like one who is about to be presented to the greatest of all the queens in the universe. I knelt down in front of the image of our Lady in the Grotto, and prayed for a long, long time. I don’t know how long. But there I reminded our Lady, Mary, the Immaculate Conception, the Mother of God, that I belonged to her. I have consecrated my life to her again and again, but most especially I did so right here in this church, on that step right there, on the day of my first Mass. And so I simply asked her to take me to her, to bring me to this wonderful parish, so full of devotion, of doctrinal orthodoxy, of liturgical observance, of love for Mary. Let me say before all of you: she answered this prayer, and here I am. Some of her faithful sons served her, I am sure, but in ways I do not know, in answering this prayer. But I had to wait. The waiting was long, and it was hard, difficult, very challenging. However, belonging to Mary, being a student in her school, she taught me what it is to wait.

            For we Catholics do not simply wait, and wonder if things will turn good. The good of God’s will shall triumph definitively over all things. Good always conquers. We wait not as one who muses on what gifts they might get for Christmas. We wait with hope, just like we await the dawn: we know it will come, and we have to wait. And so we also hope for eternal life. We expect it from God our Father, who sent his Son to give us his Spirit. We expect it, and boldly so, just like Mary expected Jesus to be born, and just like all men await the rising sun. There’s no maybe to our hope, but a person which is the foundation of our hope. This person is Jesus the Lord, who makes the sun rise, who was born from Mary, and who will come at the end of time.

            My dear brothers and sisters, never loose hope, even if your waiting is long and hard. Can a mother forget the child of her womb? Can Mary forget Jesus? Just so, God has not forgotten about you. Pope Benedict teaches us this in his recent encyclical about hope, which in future homilies I will continue to comment: that God knows you, that God loves you, and that God awaits you. Yes, he awaits you, the Pope says. You not only wait for him, but he waits for you. He waits for you sinners to come back to the Catholic Church. And he waits for you saints to enter eternal life.

           Let us wait then for all good things, and let Advent be the way to learn, and let us learn to wait with patience, and wait with hope, learning from the Blessed Virgin Mary. For she never abandons any of the sons of God. Amen.