Advent is coming
Advent: The Lord came once and He’s coming again.
Christmas is coming Christmas cards have been on sale for several weeks. I’ve already seen a garden centre advertising Christmas trees and a shop selling all you need to make a crib. All around us the world of commerce is gearing up for Christmas.
Harry Potter films do Christmas well – a flurry of snow, Hagrid dragging in a huge tree (presumably from the creepy forest), everyone riding in horse-drawn sledges and that magic happy snow music. To many people looking forward to Christmas is to chase a fantasy of lost childhood which often fails to meet the expectation. What kind of Christmas did you have? ‘Well you know, um, quiet. It’s nice for children though isn’t it?’ To say Christmas often turns out to be an expensive anticlimax has been said many times before. For many people it’s the looking forward to the great day that matters, rather than the day itself. To me the best bits of Christmas are not fantasy at all – seeing the family together again, and celebrating the birth of the Redeemer at Midnight Mass.
Advent is coming Advent does involve preparing to celebrate the birth of the child Jesus 2000 years ago, but the first two weeks are about staying awake for the Lord’s second coming when we shall meet him face to face. On the third Sunday we do commemorate the earthly life of Jesus but the Gospel is about John the Baptist sternly exhorting us to ‘repent for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand’. Only on the fourth week do we hear about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem but even this is full of harsh realism, a typically heavy handed piece of bureaucracy which sends a young pregnant women on a stressful journey and a birth in completely unsatisfactory circumstances because there was no room at the inn.
The second coming of Jesus Christ will not be as a baby but as King and Judge. The scriptures speak of difficult times with a final assault by the powers of evil before the final fulfilment of the Kingdom and they speak darkly of the antichrist and end of the world. The Church’s teaching is neatly summarised in the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 671 to 679). I explained some scripture to someone to whom I take Holy Communion recently by saying that one day we shall meet the Lord face to face and she said, searchingly ‘and do you believe that?’. It was Jesus who taught us the ‘Our Father’ and he included the line ‘thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven’ and we often say ‘he will come in glory to judge the living and the dead’. The real meaning of Advent is very challenging to catechists as well as catechumens and candidates. Do we look forward to him coming in glory and majesty or do we secretly think to ourselves ‘well that probably won’t happen just yet’. When we say ‘thy Kingdom come’ do we not only believe it’s going to happen – but are we looking forward to it. And what we are looking forward to is the ultimate opposite of an anticlimax. It is about that which lasts even after heaven and earth have passed passed away. This is our faith.
How literally are we to take the details? The word Armageddon appears only once in the Greek New Testament. Some of the events prophesied in the New Testament, such as the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD70, have already happened. Members of the New Testament Church seem to have expected the Lord to return within their own life time which he clearly didn’t. Does time have any meaning in eternity? Prophesy may contain deep truth but it may be attempting to describe the indescribable. St Paul observes that we ‘prophesy imperfectly’ (I Corinthians 13:9) and that ‘now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face’ (1 Corinthians 13:12).
In a recent Gospel (33rd Sunday of the year, Luke 21:5-19) Jesus
- Warns people not to rely on things like the Temple which will pass away
- Warns them not to try to predict when the end will come and not to be taken in by dangerous distractions like false messiahs
- Warns his people not to be afraid when disasters happen
- To use every opportunity to witness to the Gospel and to trust him in it. He promised to give them the eloquence and wisdom they needed to witness
- Reminded them that not a hair on their head would be lost
- Pointed out that endurance would save them their lives.
And how anxious should we be when we meet the Lord face to face? If we are in Christ then we are adopted sons and daughters – we are members of the family. We are not relying on perfection produced by our own muscular spirituality to justify us but on the sacrifice of the One who was crucified. His warning to stay awake is really about staying close to him and not being distracted by things that will not last, by fantasies and by false messiahs. When we meet him we shall be aware of our unworthiness and developing such an awareness is a feature of the life of faith.
I once had the privilege of briefly meeting Her Majesty the Queen. I remembered that, at the age of six, making red, white and blue decorations for her coronation. I had followed the events of her life ever since then and so I already knew her when I finally met her face to face. She looked at me thoughtfully and kindly and I wanted to be polite and respectful. During my life of faith I have slowly been getting to know the Lord and one day I shall meet him face to face. One of the ways that this meeting will differ from that with Her Majesty is that he will already know me and will have known me since before I was born.
The importance of grown-up thinking I am writing this blog on the Feast of Christ the King. The second reading (Colossians 1:15-20) emphasises that Jesus is King - the first-born of all creation whilst in the Gospel (Luke 23:35-43) he is a man being crucified with two thieves. One of them recognises his own unworthiness in the presence of someone special yet feels he can say ‘remember me when you come into your kingdom’ and Jesus replies ‘today you will be with me in paradise’. The fact that Jesus is both King and someone with whom we have an intimate relationship is so truly awesome that we shall never fully understand it until we meet him face to face’.
I tried to explain this to someone on my Holy Communion round, although it might just as much have been someone in the RCIA group. She replied thoughtfully that it was quite a difficult idea. Do we have to understand it? No, I don’t think so. If it’s getting complicated we only have to go back to Jesus the carpenter of Nazareth – for he is ‘the image of the unseen God’ (Colossians 1:15). What a wonderful thing for God to reveal himself through a person. You don’t need to be able to read or talk theology to understand a person. The ‘good thief’ was able understand what Jesus was about. In fact, Jesus likened himself to a ‘good shepherd’. Sheep cannot read and neither can they talk theology but they know a good shepherd when they see one and all they have to do is trust him. The potentially fatal mistake a sheep can make is to wander off to where it can’t hear the Good Shepherd’s voice. The Shepherd will leave the others and come and look for it – but a roaring lion might have found the sheep first.
So does it matter, trying to understand some of the huge ideas in scripture? If it’s starting to confuse and is leading catechumens away from the shepherd it is better to avoid it. But the understanding that is pitched at just the right level can deepen faith, release praise and promote faith sharing. St Paul exhorts ‘Brothers, do not remain children in your thinking; infants in wickedness – agreed, but in your thinking grown-ups’ (1 Corinthians 14:20).
But my real life is the faith I have in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2: 19-20
A Reflection for All Saints
Holiness- A Gift Offered to All the Baptised
Once again we are invited to celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints. We can admire and be inspired by the example of all the saints and be aided by their prayers. But as we celebrate we can also be challenged, challenged with the invitation to become one of their number!
Our reaction to this may take many forms, perhaps it is ‘Lord, I am not worthy...’ or alternatively we may share the sentiments of Groucho Marx who famously said “I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.” And yet the challenge and the invitation remain. By God’s grace we are called to become saints.
Many will know that this theme was emphasised at Vatican II and again significantly at the turn of the Millennium with these words:
“stressing holiness remains more than ever an urgent pastoral task. It is necessary therefore to rediscover the full practical significance of Chapter 5 of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, dedicated to the ‘universal call to holiness’. The Council Fathers laid such stress on this point, not just to embellish ecclesiology with a kind of spiritual veneer, but to make the call to holiness an intrinsic and essential aspect of their teaching on the Church. The rediscovery of the Church as ‘mystery’, or as a people ‘gathered together by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’, was bound to bring with it a rediscovery of the Church's ‘holiness’, understood in the basic sense of belonging to him who is in essence the Holy One, the ‘thrice Holy’ (cf. Is 6:3). To profess the Church as holy means to point to her as the Bride of Christ, for whom he gave himself precisely in order to make her holy (Eph 5:25-26). This as it were objective gift of holiness is offered to all the baptised.”(NMI 30)
This striking last sentence deserves some consideration, it tells us clearly that the gift of holiness is offered to all the baptised. This gift of holiness is offered therefore to us and to all those that we journey with on the RCIA process, all seeking baptism and full belonging to the Church. It reminds us that we are all on a journey. Some of us may be on a journey of initiation, but all of us are on the journey towards holiness. On this journey we accompany each other. And it is ultimately, from an eternal perspective, it is the only journey that really counts.
Pope John Paul II goes on to stress that the gift of holiness “in turn becomes a task, which must shape the whole of Christian life: ‘This is the will of God, your sanctification’ (1 Th 4:3). It is a duty which concerns not only certain Christians: ‘All the Christian faithful, of whatever state or rank, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity’”. (NMI 30)
So as we celebrate together, as we journey together, let us take this opportunity to be open to holiness, to be open to the gift that it is, and open to the task that it entails. And as we do so let us remember that many have trod this path before us, and pray for us to join them.
And Renew the Face of the Earth
Pentecost - the Celebration of the Spirit; the Birth day of the Church; the fastest fifty days in the calendar.
The time between the celebrations at the Easter Vigil and Pentecost seems to be caught by the image of the Spirit which blows when and where it will leaving the neophytes, parish RCIA teams and communities in a spin.
In theory the process of the RCIA should still be engaging in the period of Mystagogia of reflecting on the experiences preceding and proceeding the Easter Vigil, but in reality many parish groups have by now stopped gathering. Some may have come together for a few weeks after Easter to share their Vigil stories and perhaps had a party of celebration. Some groups may have continued with a few sessions in order to cover some of the items left out of the schedule and other groups haven't met again, now that everyone is 'done'.
The Feast of Pentecost reminds us that in these past 50 days we were meant to gather in upper rooms and other rooms, not out of fear any longer but in anticipation of the coming of the gift of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, which animates all of us together, sending us out into the world as witnesses to God's power and Gods' presence in our lives.
The period of mystagogy is extended well beyond the 50 days, in reality the mystagogy of going deeper and reflecting on our faith experience is a life long activity...we are all still in this period. Reminding our newest members that we are also joining them in this life long journey gives them the assurance that we continue to be with them even after any formal meetings stop.
Now is the time to integrate them more fully into the community at whatever level and pace is best for them. Afterall, it is into the life of the Christian experience that has been the goal, not the meetings. However, even though teams and the neophyetes themselves may be 'tired', it is crucial that people are not just left alone and this is where the role of the whole faith community comes into being. It is in this period of mystagogia that the people of the parish, of all ages, become real and tangible for our neophytes. A welcoming, consistent, authentic community will gather the neophytes in as if they had always been there.
As we reflect on the fire of Pentecost which kindles and sparks us into a community which accepts and respect all, we remember that each person has something to offer in spreading the Good News and building up the Kingdom of God. When we are tired or fearful or doubtful we could recall this excerpt from Nelson Mandela's Inaugural Address, May 1994:
'Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask oursleves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God; your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. '
As we embrace the power of the Spirit, reaffirmed at Pentecost, we look forward to the life long period of mystagogy and the variety of ways in which together we will renew the face of the earth.
This is the season
In the words of the Exsultet, This is the night! The Easter Vigil, often described as the high point of the liturgical year. For the people who have been preparing to receive the sacraments of initiation on this night, the description is a good one; but in the whole of our Christian life we might do better to describe the Vigil - or, better, the whole of the Paschal Triduum - as the centre of the liturgical year, the centre of our lives as Christians. Each year we prepare for it during Lent by prayer, and by thinking about how we live our lives, making a conscious effort to follow Jesus Christ more closely. We enter Holy Week ready to hear again the Scriptures which bring the mysteries of God's plan before us, and walk through the events of the Last Supper, Good Friday, the awfulness of death, the hope of the Vigil, the joy of the Resurrection. By Sunday morning we are very properly ready for a bit of a rest.
But what's this? Fifty days for our delight! It often seems that parishes are great at the seasons of preparation - in Advent and Lent you can't get stirred for shared lunches, Scripture study, Stations of the Cross and days of recollection, but Christmas and Easter arrive in a blare of trumpets, then fall away to white vestments and extra flowers. The effort we put into preparing for them is all too often not balanced by the actual celebration throughout the season.
One of the ways in which the Church shows that it is still celebrating is by continuing to highlight the sacraments of initiation and those who will receive them. Many parishes invite the Bishop to confirm their young people and schedule their children's First Holy Communion during the fifty days, recognising that every sacrament has its roots in Baptism, knowing that the most appropriate time for a Christian community to make new members is during the Easter season. The liturgy itself makes all the connections: light, water, oil, the story of the young Church in the Scriptures, the eucharist we share. In mystagogia new Christians explore the Church and the world with new eyes, from the point of view of those who have just been baptised. But it is an exploration we all need - and this is the season!
Entering the City Gates
“This week instead of reading the story of Palm Sunday - we will walk the journey” 
It was my first journey to Jerusalem during Holy Week. We set out and walked the road to Bethphage and joined the motley group of pilgrims, from all corners of the world, along with our Palestinian brothers and sisters from the local Christian communities. Waves of people, led by the Scouts from Bethlehem, moved across the Mount of Olives. A mighty procession, each group singing in their various languages hymns of praise. It was a day of great excitement full of rumors that the procession wouldn’t get permission to enter into the city. (This is the only time Palestinian and others are allowed to march into the old city of Jerusalem). We entered and gathered in the grounds outside the Patriarch’s house for Benediction of the True Cross. Then we went our way reflecting and meditating on what had taken place. Our Palestinian brothers as they returned to Bethlehem marched around the old city with fife and drum – the Church in Bethlehem has one of the largest Bagpipe bands outside of Scotland - It was a day to remember.
A real insight into the tensions within the land of Israel and Palestine: - The experience removed any romantic or pious imaginings of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. It reflected some of the dangers inherent in the time of Jesus when according to tradition he entered into the Temple Mount through the Golden Gate. To enter through the Golden Gate was a sign of enormous significance – a sign of leadership and power. ( Tradition has it that when Saladin, the great military leader who defeated the Crusaders entered the city he did so through the Golden Gate leading his horse with one of his servants mounted on the animal as a sign that he came in service and humility). Today the Golden Gate is sealed, closed and overlooked by soldiers as it still carries great symbolic significance – a place of richness and tension.
That Palm Sunday walk took place in 1979.
To day the journey is even more surrounded with tension and difficulty. A substantial wall separates much of Bethphage from the road across the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem and the walk of witness of the first Palm Sunday is even more fraught with difficulty.
Will it or won’t it be allowed to take place. By the time this is read we will know and we will have taken part in our own Palm Sunday walk of witness and been moved by its strength. However we won’t have the tension of entering the City Gates and the sense of foreboding that surrounds each walk in Jerusalem – yet as we enter this Week of Weeks the contrast between Palm and Passion is tangible indeed. We are moving into a downward journey, into the very depths of what it is to be in solidarity with all that is truly human. In solidarity with the best and the worst of us.
In Luke’s Gospel chapter 9 we are told that Jesus ‘set his face to go to Jerusalem’. There was no turning back – there he would face palm and passion and on Friday of the week of weeks on the Cross he would say those truly amazing words “Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” As we journey though this week in solidarity with our Elect who have ‘set their faces to the new Jerusalem’ may we do so in solidarity with our brothers and sisters both Christian, Jew and Moslem in the Holy Land and pray that we all may learn to forgive the wrongs done to one another ‘for we do not know what we are doing’.
The coming of the Magi – a message for our time
To many people the Magi are the ‘three wise men’ of Christmas cards and nativity plays, and of the carols we learnt as children. Yet what little we know of them suggests that they were on a journey of faith. Whatever their religious background we presume that they were not Jews yet they made the connection between their own observations of creation and the Jewish scriptures. They were earnestly searching for the truth. They were prepared to think outside of their cultural box. Yet ultimately, beneath all the historical and cultural baggage, there is only one truth. Their appearance in the Christmas story emphasises that The Word was made flesh for everyone. The Catechism (819) recognises that ‘many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside the confines of the Catholic Church’. This is largely referring to non-Catholic Christians, accepting them ‘with respect and affection as brothers’ (818). It also reaches out to those of other religions (839 to 843) and to ‘those, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart’ (847). There are a lot of such people around us these days.
Is RCIA about helping people to become Catholics or Christians? The short answer to this question is, of course, ‘both’. Most people who embark on an RCIA programme want to explore the possibility of being received into the Catholic Church. But RCIA is more than just instruction in what the Catholic Church teaches, important though that is. It is where a group of people at various stages on their faith journey share their experiences and deepen their personal relationship with Jesus Christ together. The Magi were neither Jews, Catholics nor Baptists but I imagine them as deeply spiritual people who, in the words of the catechism, had come to ‘seek God with a sincere heart’.
Some years ago our RCIA group was joined by a lady who was a Baptist minister. She wasn’t considering becoming a Catholic herself but she came to bring a friend. Her friend had been baptised a Catholic but had never been confirmed. The Baptist minister wanted to help her friend to grow in faith in the living reality of Jesus Christ in her life and she thought the best way to do this was to bring her along to RCIA. We enjoyed having our Baptist friend with us each week. She shared her spiritual experience with us and enjoyed sharing ours. She came along to the Easter Vigil to see her friend being confirmed. RCIA is not, of course, primarily preparation of baptised Catholics for Confirmation, but, in this case, it was very appropriate.
I often wonder how we would feel if someone were to come to RCIA and, after getting a great deal out of it and growing in personal faith, were to decide to become a Methodist. The Holy Spirit can surprise us but it’s exciting to see him at work.
What many non-Catholic Christians respect about the Catholic Church is its spirituality - the distillation of 2000 years of reflection and spiritual experience. What we do in RCIA is to share what we have with each other as well as with our enquirers and catechumens. Not all of Our Lord’s disciples are Catholics by any means. If we share our spirituality, our personal relationship with God, rather than focus on just recruiting more Catholics, we shall help to build up the Church in a way that will stand the test of time. Many of the enquirers probably would want to be received into the Catholic Church – because they were hungry for more of spirituality which it offers. And those who do not become Catholics may well go on to build the Kingdom of Heaven in some other way that we would wish to support.
Ecumenism has come a long way since the 1960s. Back then it sometimes seemed that ‘Christian Unity’ could be a case of fudging differences in doctrine. Some cynics would say being united by not being sure what you believed. It soon became accepted that the way to be an ecumenical Catholic was to understand our own tradition better so that we were more able to share what we have with others of different traditions and discover the reality of our shared spirituality. Discussion of doctrinal differences is a job for theological experts and church leaders. Meanwhile there is plenty for the rest of us to get on with at grass-roots level.
John Ortberg wrote a challenging book called ‘if you want to walk on water you’ve got to get out of the boat’. Going into the world and making disciples does call for water-walking. The lives of many Saints, and of Christians in general, shows that it is amazing what people can do when they keep their eyes on Jesus rather than on the stormy waters around them.
But I’d like to focus on the importance of having a good strong boat to get back into when our attempts at water walking don’t quite come off. A boat where we can dry our clothes, get some encouragement from our friends, and, when necessary, learn some useful theory.
I chose to become a Catholic because it offered me a safe boat from which I could gingerly try a bit of water-walking. Non-catholic Christians who I meet whilst water-walking come from different boats yet they have been enticed out of them by the same Lord and they walk on the same water. We don’t always understand each other but what unites us is the common spirituality which lies beneath what we say.
Now we see through a mirror darkly but one day we may compare notes with the Magi.
The Messiah Is Among You
The Messiah Is Among you.
In one way it may seem the ideal if our Journey in Faith groups were to continue to meet over the Christmas season. It would be so good to share experiences of this and other Christmases in the light of the rich liturgies we will celebrate. As a catechist part of me wants to explore the richness of Word and prayer and living traditions. However, in the absence of dismissal catechesis at present, we have already bade farewell until January. This is ‘right and proper’. Family and other commitments also need to be honoured. I suspect it may be another reminder for us that the Spirit of God was at work calling our inquirers, catechumens and candidates to Christ in their familiar places, long before we met them.
Hopefully the next two weeks will also be a time when parishioners, with varying degrees of awareness, will have particular scope for their essential role:
“…the people of God should understand and show by their concern that initiation of adults is the responsibility of all the baptised… Hence, the entire community must help the candidates and the catechumens throughout the process of initiation… They should therefore show themselves ready to give the candidates welcome into their homes, into personal conversations, and into community gatherings…” RCIA n9
I am reminded of the story of the holy Rabbi living in the woods near a monastery that was declining in fervour and numbers. When the Abbot consulted him about his concerns the Rabbi told him that he had, indeed a message for him that he could repeat only once: the Messiah was living in his community. Returning to the abbey the Abbot told his brothers what the Rabbi had said, with the feeling that he had not received anything very helpful. It could just be true, but who could it be?! Gradually attitudes to each other changed – just in case this one or that one was the Messiah in disguise! This led to changes in the way they lived and prayed and soon others were attracted by their way of living and came to pray with them and some came to join them. Almost imperceptibly they’d found and shared a new way of living.
In responding to the Advent messages and all the preparations for celebrating Christmas (and the ancient ‘rites’ of the midwinter solstice too!) the parish community lives its response to the message that the Messiah is among us. In simple, unpretentious ways God’s presence will be witnessed again in this season.
Attracting people who wish to know more about being a Catholic Christian happens unseen, unknown to us. It is different for everyone but in our stepping back to appreciate this time of celebrating Incarnation we can consciously trust that it is the Spirit of God that works among us: individuals and parish.
By encouraging everyone to pray for each other, especially inquirers and candidates perhaps our community awareness of Christ being born in and among us will be heightened and grow the more.
Rejoice All Who Are Chosen
This 3rd Sunday of Advent, Gaudete/Rejoice Sunday, we light the pink candle to deliberately mark the advent and approaching celebration of the Incarnation. For some this might symbolise how quickly the time is passing while counting the many tasks on the list which are to be done before Christmas. Advent reminds us that this is a time of preparation, of considering how quickly time does pass, and the many ways we could be ready for the coming of Christ. During this season we sing in the familiar hymn 'Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel.' Shall come to you, shall come to me, shall come for all. I rejoice each time I consider that our Lord chose to 'come', to manifest his love and trust in us, to marvel at and with humanity.
This Sunday we have also celebrated the Rite of Acceptance for our catechumens and the Rite of Welcome for our candidates. The RCIA team, liturgy committee and the parish priest prepared a leaflet based on the combined rite (found in the American publication of the Rite) #507-528. The prayers speak of joy and rejoicing, of preparation and the time spent in coming to know Christ more fully. They speak of how God has 'sought and summoned' them in many ways and acknowledges how in response the catechumens and candidates are seeking to know more about and are turning toward God. The assembly were asked if they were ready to help the catechumens and candidates 'follow Christ' and we answered 'We are.' Now that is really something worth adding to the task list.
Like the pink candle of Advent, this liturgy marks a stage in time within the journey that both catechumens and candidates are on in the company of our communities. In the Gospel this weekend we hear of others who were 'filled with expectation and were questioning in their hearts and who wanted to prepare themselves for the Messiah.' Lk 3:10-18 They ask John the Baptist 'What then should they do?' John speaks to them of charity, of acting justly and with integrity and to live faithfully as they prepare for baptism. Echoed in the Rites of Acceptance and Welcome the catechumens, candidates and assembly reflected on the how we are to listen to the Word, to come to know God, to love our neighbours, to gather for prayer and to participate in the service of others.
I thought this was a very appropriate time to celebrate this combined Rite which clearly resonated the Advent message of preparation, prayer and expectation. It is a time to rejoice for all who are chosen to follow Christ. 'Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel.'
WHAT TIME IS IT FOR YOU?
Advent is such a short season, yet its impact on the church year is phenomenal. There really is something for everyone whatever stage they are at in the RCIA process. For enquirers it might be their first experience of seeing the church in festive mode with the liturgical violet and the Advent wreath. It offers a great opportunity for those who may not yet be regularly attending mass, to explore the inside of the church and see the signs and symbols that speak of Advent. Or perhaps you have planned a celebration of the word of God [RCIA 81] for your catechumens instead of the usual RCIA session.
The second reading is particularly apt to the period of the catechumenate as Paul writes to the Philippians how confident he is
‘that the one who began a good work in you, will continue to
complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.’
That is being experienced by each one now at this very time.
The season offers a special chance for all to experience parish gatherings, whether it is Advent Stations of the Cross, special seasonal small groups, prayer groups, or the practical side of helping with the Bazaar or Fayre. This is a busy time for the SVP and church charities, and don’t forget local initiatives in the neighbourhood for helping those in need. These also offer a chance to work in co-operation with other faiths and people without belief: allow your catechumens to evangelise by their witness.
Perhaps your candidates have creative talents and will help in decorating the church or arranging the flowers. They may help in the organisation of parish social events, or those involving the elderly and the sick.
In the Gospel we are introduced to John the Baptist, who comes out of the wilderness ‘proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’. Luke records that John son of Zechariah, came at a very precise time in Caesar’s reign: fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah. For our catechumens and candidates it is this precise time that is marking out something great in their life journey: perhaps to be written or drawn in their journal.
This is a time to show how we Catholics look forward to the end of time, and prepare for the coming of Christ, turning what many see as a secular occasion of spending money for one’s immediate friends and family, into a time of celebrating with praise and gladness the joys God has given us.
Here is an idea I heard this week in our small group. Turn the chore of writing Christmas cards into an opportunity to think lovingly of each intended recipient, offering a prayer to them as you sign the card.
Be patient! Be confident!
I find it even more difficult to be patient and wait these days - really I think because of the speed of life, pressure of work, and expectations for instant response. I have an irrational fear of not being ready, or not working hard enough, or of what 'might happen'. And yet as Advent begins, I hear God speak through the First Sunday readings - 'yes, there are nations in agony, and menaces in the world, but dont you be 'coarsened' by the cares of life. Instead, pray for strength, and stand with confidence. Trust in your friendship with God - Christ has already offered salvation, the battle is won, and the life God wants you to live you are living!' That is the Truth, and we are invited to enter, patiently, more deeply into this liberating, life-giving truth. There are tensions in the double-sided message... of 'now' and 'not yet', 'disaster' and 'deliverance', 'destruction' and 'new dawn' - and advent faith says stay awake and actively live with it - and sure enough, if we live the present moment fully, we find signs of the One we are waiting for. As Nouwen says in 'Bread for the Journey' 'waiting patiently always means paying attention to what is happening right before our eyes and seeing there the first rays of God's glorious coming.'
And I see it on the faces of those being 'Welcomed' or 'Accepted' into the Order of Catechumens - they are such witnesses to patient waiting for me! One Enquirer has been coming to Mass with her little nephew for 6 years (since his mother died - she made a promise!). She is actively taking that first step now, and says it feels so exciting, and so natural. Her enthusiasm is catching - the whole parish seem to be full of advent expectation, really loving this 'new' catechumen who brings new life & hope to us - God is bringing order and beauty amidst the chaos, beginnings and endings, death and birth, dark and light, despair and hopem so in a nutshell, love one another and trust God.
I hope Advent starts well for you - enjoy Thom Shuman's poem:
Every evening it's the same: put the key in the deadbolt, turn and lock; check the windows; put out the cat; leave a light on...
all those routines to feel safe and fall asleep in peace.door open ajar
But some night, in the midst of my security, you will tiptoe into my house,
rearranging the furniture, cracking the combination of my heart, and ransacking all my fears.
Then, softly whistling 'Come Thou Long- Expected Jesus' you will slip out, leaving the door standing wide open
that I might follow you into the kingdom.
Come Lord Jesus! Amen!