Second Sunday of Advent

Today's Mass Readings

Here at the seminary, we are entering finals’ week. I look around at students’ glazed-over faces. It seems like there is never enough time in a day to get everything done. For parents, between work and children’s seasonal programs, it’s particularly hectic. For the elderly, doing anything takes all day it seems. For all of our technological advances, we do not seem less, but rather more, burdened by time.

Yet time is a gift! Time heals wounds. Time can give us perspective. St. Peter says today, speaking of the Second Coming: “The Lord does not delay his promise as some regard ‘delay,’ but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” The mercy of God allows us time to repent, to be perfected in grace, and time to establish the Kingdom of Heaven. Time is a gift! Abbot Andre Louf writes: “How precious, then, is this time in which we may live with what is to us the most treasured thing in the world: our desire to see the Lord. For time is meant to awaken, intensify, and deepen our longing.”

Nonetheless, for all the happy talk, our feelings towards time are mixed. In Luke’s gospel Jesus says: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from the anxieties of daily life” (21:34). It’s an interesting image of a heart – that organ associated with passion, courage, and character – zonking out. Medical science shows that stress affects the body; does it affect the soul? The Christian sect, the Shakers, had the motto: “Hands to work, hearts to God.” What a wonderful statement! We can attend to the demands of this world while still making time for God.

Time allows for us to get in shape or slip into entropy. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus enters Capernaum, and a centurion runs to him to heal his servant. He was a Roman official who could have ordered the miracle-worker Jesus to come to him. Yet, the centurion runs to Jesus. When Christ agrees to visit his servant, the centurion gives us a phrase we say in each Mass: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed” (8:8). The evangelist remarks that this show of faith amazed Jesus. Consider that Christ traveled many places to preach or heal and yet He was only amazed at their lack of faith. Here the God-made-flesh is amazed at sinful man running to Him!

Time is a gift! Run and do not grow weary (cf. Isa. 43:1). We cannot imagine that we will find the spiritual life rewarding if for the rest of the time it seems to mean so little. Is finding time for prayer burdensome? Or are the various things asked of us part of a larger relationship with Jesus where He is looking for us and giving us time to respond to Him? In this time when we commemorate Christ’s coming among us and await His return in glory, we must go to Him with hearts open to receive Him now.

Reflection Question: In the dialogue between the priest and the people before the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest says, “Lift up your hearts.” The congregation responds literally in the Latin form of the prayer, “Our hearts are set in heaven.” If our hearts are set in heaven just before the consecration, we must ask where they were all the rest of the time? What is the first thing I think of when I awake? Is it Jesus or something else? Am I distracted and anxious at Mass or prayer? And what can I do to let go of worry and be present to God?

Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB