A Homily for the 1st Sunday of Advent, 2008-(B)
We all have cravings of our hearts, desires that are just so profound, that we get to a point where we feel as if these desires and cravings are just going to cause us to erupt. I am not talking about simple needs like for food or drink or even for companionship. Those needs we can satisfy, at least for a time. When we are hungry, if we grab something to eat, then that desire, that craving or need is satisfied. Of course we will become hungry again, but at least for a brief time our need for food will be satisfied.
While those needs are very important, they are not the deepest desires and needs of our heart. No, those deepest desires of the human heart are for Truth, Beauty, and Love. We can never get enough of those. In fact, we have an infinite yearning for those goods. Often we might try to fulfill those deepest, infinite needs with finite things – such as food, drink, material possessions, drugs or sex – and when we try that they become our addictions, because in the end those finite things never satisfy the deepest desires of our heart no matter how much of them we get. The deep desires and cravings just continue to build within us until our hearts reach a point of eruption within us. At that point we can either embrace reality or slip into delusion.
If we choose to embrace reality and reason, then we humbly acknowledge that we do not have inside us what is needed to fulfill and satisfy our deepest longings and desires. We come to recognize that there MUST be a being that IS infinite Truth, Beauty and Love. We come to recognize that there is an Infinite Mystery, an Infinite Presence that alone can satisfied our deepest desires. It is then that we encounter God, and like the Prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading, we cry out to the Infinite Mystery, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down.”
Advent is a time of desire. Advent is the season when we recognize our need for the Infinite Mystery, who alone can satisfy the deepest yearnings of our hearts, and we cry out to God. Often we do not realize that Advent is a penitential season in the Church’s liturgical year. It is the reason that we wear violet during this time, and we prepare ourselves for the celebration of Christmas. Advent is a time for us to look at all the things that keep us from recognizing our infinite need and desire for God, so that we can let go of them. We prepare our hearts for the Infinite Mystery who alone can satisfy our deepest desires, by turning away from our sins, and we pray, “Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.”
Our experience of helplessness before the reality of our boundless desire “moves us to ask for fellowship with God’s Son, Jesus Christ the Lord” (P.J. Cameron, Magnificat, Vol. 10, No. 9, November 2008, p. 409). We come to recognize our need for a Savior, so we should “Be watchful! Be alert!”
Today we are joined by six people on a journey. They have been looking at the deepest desires of their hearts, and they have come to recognize that Jesus is the Infinite Mystery who alone can fulfill their deepest longings. They have discerned that they need to follow Jesus; the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Four of them are preparing themselves to receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. We welcome them, and will be accepting them into the Order of Catechumens; members of the household of God. The other two are already a brother and sister in Christ through their baptism. We now welcome them as candidates for full communion in the Catholic Church.
Together we prepare our souls from the coming of our Savior. Let us be watchful and alert, so that we will not miss welcoming Christ who comes to be present among us.
