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First Sunday in Advent Mt 24/37-44 |
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| Background: Advent is a time of warning, a time of preparation,
a time of urgency. It is supposed to prepare for Christmas, but the Christmas of every day
life as much if not more than the festival of December 25. While the apocalyptic rhetoric
of today's Gospel might not be the exact words of Jesus and while in any case that
rhetoric was not meant to be taken literally, the urgency of the message is surely his. We
must not slip into the routine of ordinary life and miss the opportunity of life itself.
Time and with it life slips through our fingers. Tomorrow never comes but ends up
yesterday until there are few tomorrows left in our life and all too many yesterdays. It
looked like forever and it was only a very short time, so little time. And so much waste,
so many lost opportunities. Advent is a time of recalling opportunities lost in the past
and taking steps to miss fewer opportunities in the days and weeks and years ahead, such
as these may be. |
read the padre |
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Story: Once upon a time there were two eighth grade girls, Lois and Ella Mae, who were both sensational
volley ball players. Lois was the captain of the team and the best player on the team.
Ella Mae was co-captain and the second best player on the team. They were also “best
friends” and were together all the time even when they weren’t playing
volleyball. Ella Mae didn’t mind being second best and Lois didn’t think being
best was all that big a deal. There was one difference between them, however, and I bet
you know what it is. I wouldn’t want to say that Lois was lazy exactly, but she was
just a big deficient in the work ethic area, know what I mean? Ella Mae on the other hand
was almost compulsively committed to practice. Hardest working player in the whole school,
including the boy athletes. Lois used to tell herself – and everyone else who would
listen to her – that Ella Mae had to work hard because she didn’t quite have all
the talent at a co-captain ought to have. WELL, the team one their section and their
division, and their region. They were really good, Lois was the best spiker in the city
and Ella Mae never gave up on what looked like a lost point. Finally they came to the city
championship against their traditional rivals, St. Adelbert. Ella Mae wanted to practice
every day the week before. Lois said two days was enough. After all, there was more to
being in eighth grade than volleyball. You know what happened? Sure you do. They lost to
St A by one point because they were just a little bit out of condition. Don’t cry,
Ellie, Lois said to her friend in the local ice cream store where they were eating pink
pistachio peppermint ice cream. We’ll have lots of championship games in high school.
BUT, Ella Mae sobbed, we’ll never have an eighth grade championship game again. |
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