Monday, November 29, 2010

1st Sunday of Advent - homily

You all begin to prepare for your final exams. I remember a final in high school that I didn’t prepare well for. It was pre-calculus in second semester of senior year. I slumped all semester (well, really, all year). I had to stay up the night before the exam learning a whole semester of material in one night. And, I needed to do really well on the final just to pass the class and graduate! At about 5 in the morning, I decided to get a little sleep with the hope of reviewing the material in time for the exam at 10:45 am. When I woke up, it was 10:53. D’oh! I freaked out. I threw on some clothes and raced down to school which was 30 minutes away. They wouldn’t let me take the exam because I was too late. The Dean of Students, who I knew well, even said, “I recommend that you fail the class and don’t graduate”. What?! Again, freaking out. I had to pull some serious strings just to take the exam just before graduation. At graduation, when I received my diploma, I actually had to look inside to make sure the diploma was there (instead of a “see you in summer school note”). It was there, so I gave a thumbs-up to my family who probably shook their heads in shame.


Hopefully, our students will be more prepared for their exams than I was for that one. In Advent, all of us are reminded that we are preparing for a BIG final exam. It is the biggest final of our lives: the coming of Christ…Judgment. And, oh yeah, it’s a pop final…a pop quiz. Jesus says it will come at “an hour you do not expect”. So, we always need to be preparing…we always need to be ready. We’re all preparing for a final exam, so we’re all taking a course together. It’s a course that I will call, “Life 101”. The course meets every Sunday here at Mass, as you know. The Teacher has told us we have to be here if we want to pass the course. He says, “Keep holy the Sabbath” and commands us to receive the Eucharist when we do. In John 6, He basically says that if we want to pass the course, we need to eat his flesh and drink his blood.

Our syllabus is big – it is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It’s probably the biggest syllabus you’ll ever see. Some people have dropped the class (i.e., left the Church) after seeing the syllabus and they are in trouble. Don’t be intimidated by it; if you need help in using it, I am always available. Like any syllabus, it’s a great guide in passing the class. The Teacher has told us that we not only need to know what it is in the syllabus, we need to believe and follow all of the main teachings in it. There is some beautiful stuff in it. Check it out!

Our required text is the Holy Bible. It is a unique “textbook” in that you can communicate with the Teacher when you read it. The students who do the best in the class are those who pray over Scripture. They talk to by opening the Bible and listen to Him in His Word. This leads them to do the lab work which is required. There is a lot of lab work to pass the class. In fact, most of the class is work done in the laboratory of the world. Lab work is described in the required reading as well as the syllabus and includes living out the traditions and devotions of our faith, receiving the sacraments, living the virtues, evangelizing, caring for the poor and those in need, doing corporal and spiritual works of mercy, etc. It’s a big part of our grade!

We also have some supplemental readings – handouts, articles, etc. These would include writings of the saints, the Fathers of the Church, as well as modern theologians writing on modern issues. We have a bunch of handouts at the back of Church as you leave tonight ranging from contraception to living simply. Again, some great stuff. Check it out.

Now, some people are not preparing for our final because they think that the Teacher is such an easy grader. They think that, because He is all merciful and all-loving, everyone passes Life 101. Well, He is all merciful and all-loving, but He just told us in today’s Gospel that 50% of the people fail the class! “One will be taken, one will be left. Therefore, stay awake!”, He says. We need to prepare well. Others are preparing for Judgment, but are not preparing well. They only do the bare minimum and simply just want to pass the final exam. Kinda like me with my pre-calculus final. Do not be like me and do not be like them! Prepare for Life 101’s exam in the same way that you prepare for your exams in the university. At GW, you do not just do the minimum in hopes of merely passing. You do your absolute best and try to get the best grade you can. You try to excel!

Some of you are doing this with Life 101. You are doing more than the bare minimum. You are digging in and trying to excel. For example, some of you are digging in with tonight’s second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. You are trying to throw off the works of darkness – lust, promiscuity, drunkenness, etc. – and making nor provisions for the desires of the flesh. You are trying to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and live chastity. You are coming to see the Teacher in his office hours by going to Confession and spiritual direction. You are doing your best in preparing for the biggest final of your life, the Coming of Jesus Christ. This is the model for all of us in Life 101 and in Advent.

Finally, the questions for each one of us is, in the class of Life 101, what grade are you aiming for? Are you aiming just for a passing grade or do you want to get the best grade you can? What kind of Advent are you aiming for? Will you do the bare minimum or try to excel? Suggestions on how to make a good Advent include reading some of the syllabus (we can help you buy one if you don’t have one), praying over the required text (maybe you can read one of the Gospels during Advent), taking and perusing the handouts at the back of Church, and seeing the Teacher in his office hours by going to Confession. With God’s help, if we excel in Advent and we excel in Life 101, then we will hear the words of the Lord at Christmas and at Judgment, “well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share your master’s joy”.

1 comment:

Liesl said...

cool analogy!