Father Kerry Prendiville
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
First Sunday of Advent, December 1, 2024

Today’s Gospel talks about a future drastic event and yet as we enter into Advent we’re always thinking of Christmas as a time of great joy. I think the answer to that problem is that the church always kind of begins with the end in sight. It begins with this admonition of Jesus, “Beware your hearts should not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness, and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.”

Rather he has said earlier in the text, “When that day comes, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.” And so, Advent is the time of remembering the end and the way we started that journey in Christ.

There’s a historical Advent we celebrate — his humble coming to Bethlehem as a baby. There’s the hidden Advent we’re celebrating today — Jesus in every Catholic Mass in his body and in his blood. And the glorious Advent we also celebrate in this time — his second coming when he will be revealed all in all.

Let’s prepare ourselves for that hidden Advent of Jesus the Mass. The glorious Advent when Christ comes again, is the time of remembering his second coming. But we run the risk of not being attentive to that event if we aren’t being fully present now and becoming fully present to God in the gift of worship. The beginning of this Advent season reminds us that we need to see Jesus in the midst of the Church with those around us, those in our families, all the people we’re praying for, the people who need us the most. Do we see Christ in them? When we see them, we can pray with and for them. We can bring them in mind and heart to the center of the Church’s worship, the Liturgy, this Mass. We can include them in the pilgrimage that tells us they are a part of our life here. In this pilgrimage food will be given for our strength. Food will be given for our journey. We’ll always have the ability in Christ to stand erect, to face any problem, to look towards it with faces full of courage and joy. We’ll remember that especially in this Advent season.

I saw recently a beautiful painting by Andrea Mantegna, an Italian artist of the 15th century, called “The Adoration of the Shepherds.” In “The Adoration of the Shepherds,” Mary has her child before her. She’s seated under a fruit tree. Being under a fruit tree she is this image of a new Eve. So just as we lost our original innocence in the Garden of Eden under a fruit tree, so Mary the new Eve, introduces us to the new way of being, the new way, to Christ the child.

And in that scene, Joseph is also there robed in a beautiful, gold garment and while he’s asleep, as the shepherds come to worship, to see the newborn child, he reminds us in those garments that he is the son of David. He’s of David’s line, and from him the Good Shepherd, Christ the King, will be born.

When the shepherds come, they see the Christ child sort of up and above them in the stable almost like an altar of grace. And they come tattered and worn and beaten down in old shepherd’s clothes and behold the miracle. Their attentiveness, their ability to see in the midst of the destruction or the tiredness or the poverty around them, is our inspiration to look at the baby and to see in him the Christ who has come. God, Emmanuel is with us.

As we enter into the sacred season, I encourage you brothers and sisters, do whatever is necessary for you to begin again, in hope and enjoy, to await the coming of the savior. I encourage you, especially families and groups of friends, to go with one another to your parish penance service or your parish Mercy Night and encounter Jesus in the Sacrament of  Reconciliation. With that you’ll be freed of burdens and given new strength and new wisdom to follow and to see that Christ at his coming. To stand erect, free from sin and from the burden of regret. To face him when he comes in glory.