Gospel For Today: 1st Sunday of Advent

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT (B)

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Today we begin a new season in the liturgical year, a season of anticipation, a season of waiting.  The word advent means "coming;" we await He who is to come, Jesus Christ.  We wait in two senses.  We join in the long waiting that the world had to endure before Christ's Incarnation in Bethlehem two thousand years ago; and by so doing we remind ourselves that we still wait for that glorious coming of our Savior at the end of all days.  

"When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for His second coming" (CCC 524).  Listen to these words: ancient expectancy, long preparation, ardent desire.  This is what Advent is meant to renew in us.  It is fitting that as we begin a new liturgical year, the first psalm the Church prays in Morning Prayer in the Divine Office for today is Psalm 63.  "O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting.  My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water."

It can be difficult to keep Advent in college.  The semester is almost over.  You return from Thanksgiving break to busily finish up final projects and papers.  Exam week is right around the corner.  And then it is home again to celebrate the joy of Christmas with family.  Before you leave campus there will be Christmas parties and wishes of "Merry Christmas," because the next time we see each other it will be the middle of January.  What place is there for Advent in campus life?  Yet I know college students know all about longing for something more, desiring a better future, a hope of peace and security, and having to wait for it all.  You know all about anticipation.  

The people of Israel had to wait nearly 700 years from the time Isaiah wrote his prophecy until they saw it fulfilled in Christ.  Isaiah speaks on behalf "of those who wait for Him."  He pleads that God might "rend the heavens and come down," but remembers to pray also that God "might meet us doing right."  Isaiah knew how fickle and unfaithful the people of Israel could be while they waited for the Lord.  Even at the Lord's coming, most of the chosen people completely missed it, so caught up were they in their own ways.

I'm sure you have seen the bumper sticker: "JESUS IS COMING: quick, everyone look busy."  It is humorous, but it makes an important point.  Just as the people of Isaiah's time did not know when their Lord was coming, so we today have no idea when the second coming of Christ will be.  Christ Himself tells us in today's gospel reading (Mk 13:33-37), "Be watchful!  Be alert!  You do not know when the time will come... May He not come suddenly and find you sleeping."  

Like the people of ancient Israel, and indeed the whole ancient world (for God "awakens in the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of this coming" (CCC 522)), we today still wait for the advent of our Lord.  But there is a vital difference.  The ancient world waited for One they knew not, while we await for the return of One whom we know.  

Isiah's prophecy has been fulfilled.  Two thousand years ago at the Annunciation, as Mary rendered her fiat ("Let it be done unto me according to Your word" (Lk 1:38)), God rent the heavens and came down.  From that moment, everything changed.  From that moment, we have lived in a different world.  God existed for the people of the ancient world as behind a veil.  Now the veil has been torn in two.  So while we await that unknown day of Christ's second coming, we do not wait alone.  We do not wait without help or hope.

Isaiah prayed that God might find His people faithful upon His coming.  We hope for the same thing, but that hope is based in a firm trust in Christ.  Christ has given us all we need to make us ready to meet Him in glory.  St. Paul, in today's second reading (1 Cor 1:3-9) gives thanks "for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in Him you were enriched in every way... so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of Lord Jesus Christ.  He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."  

We have the opportunity and great blessing today through the Church to build a relationship with God that is much more intimate and powerful than anything the ancient prophets could have imagined, so that even in our waiting we can get a foretaste of heaven.  Do not squander that opportunity.  Keeping close to God now will ensure that we remain close to Him on that blessed day when we will behold Him face to face.  Until that day, let us be filled with a spirit of longing and desire for Him, and also a spirit of hope that He will find us faithful.

"Be watchful!  Be alert!  You do not know when the time will come... May He not come suddenly and find you sleeping.  What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'" (Mk 13:33, 37).

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Gospel For Today - 4th Sunday of Advent

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT (A)

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"Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God?  Therefore the Lord Himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel."

The above quote from Isaiah is taken from today's first reading.  During today's celebration of the fourth and final Sunday in Advent we look forward with greater anticipation than ever for the coming of Emmanuel - God with us.  This exchange described in Isaiah 7:10-14 is interesting.  God wants to give His people a sign of the coming savior - a virgin conceiving and giving birth to a son - but Ahaz and Isaiah seem almost afraid to ask.  God tells Ahaz to ask for a sign from the Lord, but Ahaz responds, "I will not ask!  I will not tempt the Lord!"  And Isaiah speaks of people wearying God - it is easy to imagine the Israelites perpetually pestering the Almighty with cries of "show us a sign, show us a sign!"  

One is brought to mind of Jesus' words to Satan when He was being tempted in the desert.  Satan was pestering Christ by saying things such as "If you are really the Son of God, turn this stone into bread," and "If you are really the Son of God, leap off this cliff and your angels will save you."  Jesus responded by reminding the devil, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God."

When we ask for signs from God, we are usually more like Satan than we are like Ahaz or Isaiah.  We ask for signs not from faith, but from doubt.  God, if you are really there, please show me a sign.  Or we ask for signs as a means of shirking our own responsibilities.  God, if you want me to change majors, give me a sign.  God, if you want me to quit my job, just show me a sign.

Often we may ask for a sign from God when we are facing a major decision, especially one that involves a greater purpose in our life, and our relationship with Him.  God, if you want me to be a priest, show me a sign.  God, if you desire me to enter consecrated life, show me a sign.  God, if you want me to marry, just send me a sign.  Praying, talking to God, listening to His word, and trying to discern His will in your life is certainly a good thing to do, especially as we discern major life decisions such as these.  But we should not expect a burning bush, or a new star to appear in the sky.  If this is the sort of sign we expect, then we expect too much.  We weary our God.

God will send us the signs that we need.  Even though Ahaz did not want to tempt the Lord by asking Him for a sign, God nevertheless revealed that He would come among us through a virgin birth.  Likewise, He sent a sign to Joseph.  He sent an angel to him in a dream (the word angel means "messenger"), telling him, "Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.  For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.  She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

But Joseph never asked for a sign.  Certainly, he was faced with a difficult decision.  And certainly he relied on prayer to help him decide what to do.  Our gospel reading today (Mt 1:18-24) describes Joseph as "a righteous man."   And this is the key.  Joseph was not fretting over what was the right thing for him to do.  Rather he was more concerned simply with doing the right thing.  

He had taken Mary to be his wife.  The Gospels are shy on the details, but according to certain extra-biblical sources, such as the Protoevangelium of James (c.150 AD), Mary was a young woman who had been consecrated to God and sworn to a life of celibacy, much like our modern nuns.   Joseph was an older man, a widower with grown children, who took Mary into his home as her guardian.  The practice in those days was for consecrated virgins to marry men - usually older men who already had a family - as a means to provide them with safety and security.  It was understood to be a non-sexual marriage, and indeed one of the responsibilities of the husband was to guard his bride's chastity.

According to the Protoevangelium Joseph had left home to attend to his buildings and when he returned after a long while, he found Mary six months pregnant (and quite visibly so!)   It reads, "And she was in her sixth month; and, behold, Joseph came back from his building, and, entering into his house, he discovered that she was big with child.  And he smote his face, and threw himself on the ground upon the sackcloth, and wept bitterly, saying: With what face shall I look upon the Lord my God?  And what prayer shall I make about this maiden?  Because I received her a virgin out of the temple of the Lord, and I have not watched over her!"

Thus the difficult decision that Joseph is faced with in today's gospel.  He decides to divorce her quietly, so as not to expose her to shame.  He wants to do the right thing in this difficult situation, so as not to bring Mary shame, nor bring disrespect to God or His temple. He doesn't ask God for a sign.  He simply tries to conduct his life in a way pleasing to God.  

In this case God gives Joseph a sign to direct him - an angel telling him not to be afraid to take Mary into his home.  God becoming incarnate in this world and being born among us is rather a big deal, and Joseph is just the sort of man God desires to raise His Son - a righteous man who strives to live a life of holiness and integrity. Rather than "wearying God" or "testing God" by demanding signs of Him for every decision in our lives, we should strive to be like Joseph.  We should seek to live lives of holiness and draw ever closer to God.  Rather than be filled with anxiety over whether you should become a priest, or a sister or brother, or whether you should work for this company, or marry this person, or enter this major, etc., we should focus on being holy people.  The rest will come.  Strive to be the holiest version of yourself that you can be, and it will be revealed in time whether that means taking holy orders, entering a religious community, marrying, and so forth.  Just know that the sign you receive from God is not likely to be an angel appearing in a dream - the birth of God-with-us is rather a special occasion!  More likely it will be an inner sign such as profound joy and the peace of Christ in your heart.

Finally, let us heed the words of the angel to Joseph and not be afraid to take Mary and her child into our homes as we prepare for Christmas, and the rest of the year, as well.  I love the thought of Mary being visibly pregnant with Jesus.  Are you visibly pregnant with Jesus?  Not in the literal sense, of course, but can others readily see the presence of Christ in your heart?  Pregnant women are often said to have a "glow."  Can you imagine the glow you would have if people readily saw the presence of Jesus within you?  Make this your prayer today as we anticipate the celebration of our Savior's birth.  God is with us.  Accept Him into your life, and don't hesitate to let it show.

EXTRA:

If you are interested in learning more about the extra-biblical Protoevangelium of James, which gives more back-story to the lives of Mary and Joseph and has contributed much to our Sacred Tradition, the whole text is available free online.  Just click the below link:

http://newadvent.org/fathers/0847.htm

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Gospel For Today - 3rd Sunday of Advent

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT (A) - GAUDETE SUNDAY

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Today, the third Sunday in Advent, is traditionally called Gaudete Sunday ("Gaudete" is the Latin word meaning "rejoice"). The name comes from the Entrance antiphon for today's Mass.  Gaudéte in Dómino semper: íterum díco, gaudéte. Dóminus enim prope est.  "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.  Indeed, the Lord is near."  Because of the joyful character of today's Mass in the midst of this penitential season, the liturgical color is lightened from violet to rose.

So today, when homilists across the globe will be preaching about joy, I thought I'd take a somewhat different tack and talk about evil.  Yes, yes, I know.  Halloween is over, and with it scary movie season.  It's nearly Christmas; we are supposed to be talking about hope and joy, happiness and good cheer.  No one wants to hear about evil.  'Tis the season, after all!  

But in case you haven't noticed, there's a lot wrong with the world.  And no, I'm not just talking about the harm we cause one another (though there is certainly plenty of that to go around).  I'm talking about the bad things that happen to people who really don't deserve it.  People get sick.  People become disabled, or are born that way.  Some lack the ability to walk, or the ability to see, or the ability to hear, through no fault of their own.  People have their homes destroyed in natural disasters.  People lose loved ones to all manner of unavoidable tragedy.  And people often feel these losses most acutely during the holiday season.

These things are evil.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm certainly not saying that people who suffer from maladies, or who are born with disabilities, are evil; nor am I saying they suffer because of some evil they have done.  What I am saying is that the existence of these maladies is itself an evil.  It's what the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls a physical evil (310).  

Unlike a moral evil, no one is culpable for physical evils in this world.  They are part of the reality we experience after the Fall; part of this creation God has made which itself is journeying toward perfection.  Inasmuch as creation is not perfect yet, that is a physical evil.  We may not be used to thinking of natural occurrences as "evil" because we typically reserve that word to something that involves a moral judgment.  But we do recognize the existence of physical evil in our everyday speech.  When someone is blind we say it is because there is "something wrong" with his eyes.  When someone cannot hear there is "something wrong" with her ears.  We recognize that something is not as it should be.  Evil is, after all, simply the absence of a good that should be there.

"But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it?  ...with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely created a world 'in a state of journeying' toward its ultimate perfection.  In God's plan this process of becoming involves... the existence of the more perfect alongside the existence of the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature.  With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached perfection" (CCC 310).

Creation is journeying toward perfection.  This means it is not there yet, and so suffering still exists.  But the prophet Isaiah gives us a foreshadowing today of what to expect in the perfect world to come.  "Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not!  Here is your God, He comes with vindication; with divine recompense He comes to save you.  Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing" (Is 35:1-6a).  In the new creation we find healing, not sickness; we find wholeness, not brokenness; we find sight, not blindness; no one will be dumb or mute, we will all sing in the choir of saints and angels.  

John the Baptist knew that these were signs of the Kingdom of God.  This is why, in today's gospel (Mt 11:2-11), when he asks if Jesus is the one who is to come, Jesus replies by citing the healing miracles He has performed.  "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers and cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them."  Jesus healed these people not only because He loved them individually (which of course He did); He was signalling a universal healing.  Christ's ministry was not just to a few wounded and broken people in Palestine; it is a universal ministry for all places and all times.  His ministry is nothing less than to bring creation to perfection.  This is the good news.  We, too, can be citizens of God's Kingdom, this perfect creation with no ills or calamities, no famine, no war, no poverty or homelessness.  Think about all the sources of suffering in your life or in the lives of loved ones.  No cancer.  No heart disease.  No diabetes.  No fire or flood.  No frightened hearts.

John the Baptist is the one sent to prepare the way before Christ.  And what is that way?  What must we do to become citizens of this new perfect creation?  John tells us to do one thing, over and over again.  "Repent!"  This is where that other kind of evil comes into the story, the evil we are all too familiar with - moral evil.  

"Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love.  They can therefore go astray.  Indeed, they have sinned.  Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world" (CCC 311).

Just as physical evil is the absence of a good that ought to exist (an eye that cannot see, legs that cannot stand, a tongue without a voice, etc), so is moral evil the absence of a good.  Only with moral evil, that absence is caused by our own choosing.  And for those evils we commit, we are culpable.  We are accountable when there is hatred instead of love; when there is greed instead of charity; when there is anger in place of forgiveness.  When we commit moral evil, when we sin, we make ourselves less than we were created to be.  We wound ourselves.  We cannot take those wounds with us into paradise, where there is no brokenness.  

Jesus healed the physical evils of the lame and the blind.  So, too, He stands ready to heal the more harmful moral evils of our own sins.  But just as moral evil is caused by our own choice, the healing must begin with our own choice. We need to choose to turn away from our sins.  This is what it means to repent.  We need to leave those evils behind us and ask humbly for His forgiveness.  If we empty our heart of sin, Christ will fill it with joy.  To quote our first pope, "There is cause for rejoicing here" (1 Pt 1:6).  To quote our current pope, "The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus.  Those who accept His offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness.  With Christ joy is constantly born anew" (Evangelii Gaudium 1).

Prepare your heart to welcome Jesus this Advent.  Prepare yourself to be a citizen of that perfect world to come.  Then you can sing with the saints, Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.  Indeed, the Lord is near!  Gaudete!

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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Gospel For Today: 1st Sunday of Advent

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT (A)

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Today we begin a new year in the Church.  Today we reset the clock and go back to the liturgical beginning.  Having just celebrated the great Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe, recognizing His crowning glory and eternal reign over all, we begin the cycle anew today by celebrating His birth as a small, humble baby in a manger in Bethlehem....   

...oh, wait.  Nevermind.  That's Christmas, and Christmas is another month way.  Although you'd never know that from the secular displays in the world around us.  People have been gearing up for the "Christmas season" since the day after Halloween (I saw my first outdoor Christmas light display on November 6 this year).  But if you take your cues instead from a liturgical calendar, you will find that the Christmas season begins on Dec. 25 and runs until the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord on Jan. 12.  Our liturgical New Year does not start with a babe in a manger.  We have to wait a while for that.  And that's just what our year starts with -- waiting.

During the month of November, as I enter into the annual "it's not Christmas yet!" season, I'm always afraid of coming across as a Grinch or a Scrooge.  The reality is that I absolutely adore Christmas, and it is precisely because I treasure the holiday so much that I want to wait to celebrate it at its proper time.  There is an order to things.  Before Easter we must have Good Friday.  Before a wedding there must be an engagement.  And before Christmas we have Advent.  The word "advent" means "coming."  Our Savior is coming.  We await His arrival.  

Good things come to those who wait.  The quick thrill of instant gratification is rarely all it's touted to be.  But we forget this simple truth.  We live in a world that wants it now.  When I buy something online, I'm told if I just pay a little extra shipping I can have it by tomorrow.  When I shop for groceries the aisles are full of instant everything; instant grits, instant oatmeal, instant pudding.  We ship fruits and vegetables in from tropical climates so we don't have to wait for them to be in season.  I'm in the midst of this culture of instant gratification myself.  My favorite feature of my Netflix account is the "Watch it Now" streaming video.  I'll take my Internet high speed, thank you.  And even though I know cooking my oatmeal on the stove the old fashioned way tastes a thousand times better than the instant stuff, I also know it takes twenty minutes longer to make.  So most mornings my microwave does my cooking for me.  And I'm still waiting for someone to invent a Star-Trek style transporter device so I can get to where I want to go without that annoying travel time.

I need reminding - we all need reminding - that some things are worth waiting for.  A meal prepared the proper way, with time and care, really does taste a thousand times better.  We should all enjoy that from time to time.  A college degree that takes you four years and lots of hard work to earn is worth more because it took time to achieve.  Waiting for marriage before giving yourself fully to your beloved is perhaps the most perfect example of something worth waiting for.  If something is good and worthy of love, then it is worth experiencing in its proper time, in its proper place.  It is worth not spoiling.  

When we wait for a good thing, we always find our capacity to appreciate it enhanced by our waiting.  Our society today hates to wait for anything.  And so I am grateful to the Church for giving us this season of waiting and preparation.  In the midst of all the holiday business and stress that we have created for ourselves, the Church whispers to us, "Slow down.  Wait.  He'll be here soon.  And it will be magnificent."

Today we are reminded that we still await our Lord.  He came in the flesh over 2000 years ago in the Incarnation.  And we wait for the proper time in the liturgical year to celebrate that coming.  But from the beginning of the Church, we have also been waiting for our Lord's second coming at the end of time.  And from the beginning, we have awaited that glorious coming with a sense of immanence.  Because part of waiting also means being ready for what is awaited.

St. Paul tells us today, "You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.  For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand." 

And so we wait.  We wait joyfully for the great celebration of Christ's Nativity that is but a few weeks away.  But we also wait for the glorious coming of our savior, the timing of which is unknown to all.  We wait.  And we prepare.

The semester at WCU is almost over.  You'll be doing a lot of preparing in the coming days; preparing for exams, preparing to return home, preparing to celebrate the holidays.  In the midst of all your end-of-semester preparations, do not neglect the most important preparation of all.  Have you prepared yourself for the advent of Jesus in your heart?  As I have said before, we do not know whether the Second Coming of Christ in all His glory as Judge will happen today or a billion years from now.  But that hardly matters because one day - relatively soon, in the grand scheme of things - you will meet your personal end and come before Jesus as merciful and just judge.  We should recognize that our judgment can happen at any time and make ourselves ready for that moment.  And then we wait.

St. Paul tells us that the time for foolishness and "works of darkness" are over.  "The night is advances, the day is at hand," he says.  "Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and list, not in rivalry and jealousy."  Enough of that nonsense.  We are better than that.  We are Christians.  We have an eternal hope.

Likewise Jesus implores us in today's gospel, "Stay awake!  For you do not know on which day your Lord will come...  So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

This we know with certainty - He is coming.  For us to be prepared, we must first let His advent reign always in our hearts.  Advent reminds us that He is worth waiting for.

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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From WCU: Gospel for Today

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT (C)

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Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.  Indeed, the Lord is near.

Today is the third Sunday of Advent, traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday.  Gaudete is Latin for "rejoice," and the name comes from the opening word of the Entrance Antiphon of today's Mass.  Gaudete in Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete.  Dominus enim prope est.  Which means, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.  Indeed, the Lord is near."

This joyful theme is repeated in today's readings.  In the first reading from Zephaniah (Zep 3:14-18a) we are told, "Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!  Sing joyfully, O Israel! ... The Lord, your God, is in your midst."

In our responsorial psalm today we acclaim, "Cry out with joy and gladness, for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel."

In our second reading (Phil 4:4-7), St. Paul says, "Rejoice in the Lord always.  I shall say it again: rejoice! ...  The Lord is near."

Today is a festive day indeed.  In the penitential season of Advent, a season of preparation, we pause and express our great joy and excitement for we know that the one we are preparing for is just around the corner.  His arrival is imminent.   In today's world, it is as if a family member you have not seen in a very long time sends you a text message saying, "the plane just landed, I'll be home soon."  His arrival is closer to being a reality.  It changes from something you simply long and hope for, to something you can actually see on the horizon.  Excitement and anxiety builds.  Last minute preparations are made.

What last minute preparations do we need to make for Christ's arrival?  That is the question put to John the Baptist in today's gospel (Lk 3:10-18).  His answer seems simple. If you have two cloaks, share with the person who has none.  To the tax collectors, he tells them to stop taking more from the people than the law asks for.  To soldiers, stop extorting people.  In other words, behave yourself.  These are lessons parents teach their children: share, be fair, play nice.  

The heart of John's message is this: be generous; be selfless; think of others before yourself.  Be satisfied with what you have.  

We prepare for Christ's coming by "being on our best behavior" because, as John describes it, Jesus is coming to clean house.  "His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

One may find it a bit unusual to read about burning in unquenchable fire on a Sunday that is supposed to be about rejoicing.  How is eternal punishment joyful?

We rejoice because we can avoid that fate.  This is John's message.  Repent, ask for forgiveness, and change your selfish ways.  Begin living for others, and you may save your own life.  For those suffering from oppression, hardship, and injustice, the coming Reign of Christ is indeed a cause for rejoicing, for all will be set right.  The wicked shall be punished, while the lowly and righteous shall be exalted.  

For those whose hearts are turned to God, today is a day for rejoicing.  St. Paul's tells us to have no anxiety at all.  In everything, give thanks to God.  "Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

John the Baptist tells the soldiers to be happy with their wages. St. Paul tells us to be thankful in all things.  Can we make those sentiments a reality in our lives?  As children, we look forward to Christmas often with more anticipation about the new toys we expect to get, than excitement over the birth of Christ.  Suddenly the games and gadgets we already have look tired and old.  They fail to satisfy us; we long for the new toys that Santa will bring.  Even as adults we are groomed by society to feel a certain amount of dissatisfaction this time of year.  As the year draws to a close we are expected to make "New Year's Resolutions" and think about how we can make things better for ourselves.  I want to get a raise next year.  I want to loose weight.  I want to make better grades.  

Improving ourselves is a noble goal, of course.  But the biggest improvement we can make is to be thankful for what we have now.  Do we recognize the gifts God has already given us in our lives?  Are we satisfied with them?  If we are, then, like St. Paul, we need feel no anxiety.  We know we are being cared for.  We know we are beloved of God.

So today, be joyful.  Be calm.  Be thankful.  And stand ready to accept the gift of God's peace that He longs to give you.  The Lord is near.  Gaudete!

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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From WCU: Gospel For Today

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT (C)

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And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value, so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ...  Phil 1:9-10

What do you want for Christmas?  That's what everyone asks this time of year, as we prepare for our holiday gift giving.  But among all of our holiday preparations, are we preparing ourselves to receive the only gift that matters?

In today's Gospel reading we encounter the figure of John the Baptist, whose role as the last great prophet was to prepare the people of Israel to receive Christ.  "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.  Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low.  The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God" (Lk3:5-6).

Christ did not come to straighten out the hair pin curves on 107 between Cullowhee and Cashiers.  When John the Baptist is talking about making winding roads straight and filling in the valleys, he is talking about the roads and valleys of the human soul.  Are we prepared to receive Christ?  John may have been speaking to first century Jews at the time, but the message is still pertinent to us today.  Are we ready to receive Him?

I don't think the answer to that question can be a simple yes or no.  Preparing the way of the Lord in our hearts is not a one-time event, some activity we can do and then have it over with.  If we are not prepared, we need to get prepared.  And if we feel we are prepared for Him, we still need to continue working on it, making sure we stay that way.  It is an ongoing process.

I really like St. Paul's prayer in the second reading today, from his letter to the Philippians.  His prayer is that they may be prepared for "the day of Christ," which is to say His Second Coming.  He wants them to be pure and blameless when they meet Christ.  And the path he maps out for them is to increase in love, which will lead to more knowledge and better perception.  This love, knowledge, and perception will then allow them to "discern what is of value."

Discernment is a crucial aspect of our lives as Christians that often gets neglected.  Do we actively try to discern what is of value in our daily lives?  We participate in, and are influenced by so much each day.  Just think about what you see on Facebook, Youtube, on Pinterest, your email, your favorite blogs, television, what you hear on the radio, from your friends, your family, your professors, magazines, billboards, newspapers, movies, the list goes on and on.  Even beyond the media and the people in our lives, the general culture influences us.  From campus to the coffee shop, to the mall and museums, everything around us potentially molds and shapes our perceptions and thoughts.  

In the midst of all of this, we Christians have a great measure -- and that is Christ himself.  We have our very Maker, God Incarnate, Emmanuel (God is with us), the one who proclaimed boldly not the have the truth but to BE the Truth.  He is the way, the truth and the life.  He says, "Be not afraid," and also, "Come, follow me."  In Christ, and through His Church, we have a yard stick against which to measure every aspect of our lives.  If we increase in love of Him, as St. Paul prays, our eyes will be open so that we may "discern what is of value" amid everything we see and hear.

This does not, as some might fear, mean rejecting everything in the world.  It does mean, as Paul puts it in another letter, that we should "test everything; retain what is good" (1 Thes 5:21).  Everything can and should be tested against the mind of God, expressed in Christ, through His Church.  If it measures up, we should keep it.  If it fails to pass the test, it should be rejected as false and unworthy.  

This is true for small and large things. Every year around this season I hear some grumbling about "pagan" holiday traditions; things such as Christmas trees, wreathes, kissing under the mistletoe and yule logs are said to be of non-Christian pagan origins and therefore should not be endorsed.  Even the date of Dec. 25 is criticized as being the date of the pagan Roman festival to the God Saturn, celebrating the "Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun."  I say, so what?  We do not know the precise day of the year on which Jesus was born.  It is still an important enough occasion that we wish to celebrate it.  If people were used to celebrating the birthday of the Unconquerable Sun on Dec. 25, let's test that and retain what is good.  We retain the festival, the celebration, the joyful spirit; we reject the false Sun god and instead embrace the true Unconquerable Son, the Rising Star, Jesus Christ.  

The instruction to test everything and discern what is of value is even more important in our personal lives.  In choosing what it is we allow into our homes and into our minds, are we being discerning?  Are we testing everything against Christ and his love?  In choosing what we watch, what we read, the music we listen to; even the food we eat; even the friends we associate with; are we testing these things against what we know to be true in Christ? 

Only be doing so, by making Christ our rule and measure, can we begin to prepare the way for Him in our hearts, making straight the winding paths of our soul, and filling in the valleys.  The truly mystical thing about it all is that we need Christ in order to do this.  In order to prepare ourselves to receive Him worthily, we need to let Him into our hearts right now, as we are.  Christ is the end of the journey, but He is also the beginning.  He is the Alpha and the Omega.  He is the source and the summit.  He is the true Christmas gift.

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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From Davidson: CCM bulletin week of December 3

However quietly we speak, God is so near that he will hear us;

we need no wings to go in search of God, but have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon God present within us.

~St. Teresa of Avila

FAQ… What is Advent?

This whole time of year suffocates in the commercialism surrounding Christmas, and in the Spirit of Shopping we’ve collapsed the holidays so that the Christmas season effectively begins the day after Thanksgiving. So it’s not surprising that Advent has lost something of its mystery and meaning.

“Advent” means ‘to come’ or’ to arrive’; it’s a time of patient, persistent, hopeful, expectant waiting. So what are we waiting for? Well, like so much in Christianity, we’re waiting for several things at the same time. While we wait for Christmas, when we celebrate Jesus’ birth (in the past), we also prepare to receive him into our hearts and our lives (in the present), and we wait for his second coming at the end of time (in the future).

But we’re waiting…which is to say, Christmas doesn’t come till December 24/25, whatever else your radio station may be telling you. That’s why we don’t (or shouldn’t) sing Christmas carols during Advent; we sing Advent hymns and songs instead. Doesn’t matter how much you love them, like the presents under the tree, we save the Christmas carols for the Christmas season.

The Christmas season goes from Christmas Eve until the Sunday after Epiphany (when we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord), in January. That’s the 12 days of Christmas we’re always singing about (Christmas till Epiphany).  And speaking of trees, many Christians don’t even put up their Christmas trees till Christmas Eve—very liturgically proper!

Advent has penitential overtones. It’s a time of preparation, of purification, of making ourselves ready to welcome Christ into the world and into our hearts. The liturgical color is violet, often a bluer purple to distinguish it from Lent, whose penitential tone has a different focus than Advent’s. The third Sunday is called “Gaudete Sunday.” Gaudete means “rejoice”: in the 2^nd reading, from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he says “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Often a pink candle will be used in the Advent wreath for that week, and sometimes the priest will wear rose-colored vestments.

Many families and churches observe the devotion of the Advent Wreath. Although some think that it had its origins in pre-Christian Germany, it was adopted by Christians in Germany during the Middle Ages (and so it is apparently common among Lutherans as well as Catholics). The wreath has all sorts of meaning attached to it. For example, its roundness signifies the eternity and oneness of God and the immortality of the soul; the evergreens symbolize life everlasting; and the candles, of course, represent each of the four weeks of Advent.

FAQ…What are Lessons and Carols?

SSunday’s service will really be Lessons and Carols, not Vespers. Vespers refers to the Church’s evening liturgy of the hours and has a different format.

LLessons and Carols is a service that alternates scripture readings (“lessons”) with choir pieces (“carols”) and congregation hymns. It is typically a Christmas service, although Advent services are not uncommon, and I’ve been to a Lent variation. It’s rather like the Easter Vigil service, if you’ve ever attended that, where scripture readings alternate with psalms.

·      

Christmas Lessons and Carols originated in England, and were first used on Christmas Eve in 1880, by an Anglican priest in Cornwall (supposedly to try to keep the men out of the pubs!).  They were resurrected after the First World War at King’s College in Cambridge, to try to offer more imaginative worship. The service has been done there annually ever since, and has become quite famous. It is broadcast live on TV in England, and is usually broadcast by public radio stations in the United States.

There are nine lessons, or readings, tracing salvation history from Genesis through the birth of Jesus, and culminating with the Prologue of the Gospel of John (“In the beginning was the Word…”). The readings are done by members of the local community (not just by clergy or church-related people).

The carols may vary, but often include older folk carols that are no longer well known outside of the choral community (like “Lo A Rose E’er Blooming”). The hymns that the congregation sings are the well-known carols, like “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.”

If you ever have a chance to attend a Lessons and Carols service here at Davidson or wherever life takes you, I recommend it. It’s a beautiful way to observe Christmas.

___________________________

Karen Soos
Associate Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister
Davidson College
Campus Box 7196
Davidson NC 28035
704. 894. 2423

From WCU: Gospel For Today

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT (C)

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"Don't do drugs."  Everyone is told this message many times over growing up, from teachers, counselors, police officers and parents.  Let's imagine one students goes to a college with very low tolerance for drug use, where very few students abuse drugs, and it's not really part of the culture; so this student successful avoids drugs throughout their college years.  Another student attends a university known as a party school, where a large part of the student body abuses drugs on a regular basis as part of campus social life; this student also avoid using drugs, though they have to constantly and consistently resist temptation and say no to their peers.  

Both students have done good.  But which would you describe as more heroic?  Obviously the second student, who had to pluck up the courage to say no.  The first student is in a situation where it is easier to live a virtuous life.  This is the type of situation we would want to create for ourselves.  But the difficult situation faced by the second student is also an opportunity to increase in virtue.  That student is surrounded by sin and so must exercise greater discipline to remain pure.  Thus an occasion of difficulty and duress can be looked upon as an opportunity to exercise heroic virtue and thus draw closer to Gd.

In today's Gospel reading, Christ leaves his followers with a warning.  The situation sounds dire indeed...  "nations will be in dismay... people will die of fright."  Christ encourages them to "be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent..."  He is speaking of the situation on earth before his Second Coming.  But he could be speaking to any of us, any generation (for indeed, no one knows when the Lord may return).  Each generation has faced trials and tribulations, some more dire than others.  

But the Lord says, "when you see these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand."  Remaining pure and holy through times of trial is a great occasion to draw closer to God.  It is through difficulty that we are redeemed.  How can we do this?

We must first learn to rely on the Lord.  One of the reasons Jesus says it is so difficult for a rich man to enter heaven is because people who have easy lives are not used to relying on others and asking for help.  And that is precisely what we need to do to invite God into our lives -- rely on him and ask for his gracious help.  Difficult times can teach us this lesson.

When we ask the Lord to strengthen us in difficult times, how does he respond?  Not by making us cold and hard hearted, to protect us from being hurt.  No, he does the opposite.  He increases our capacity for love.  In his first letter to the Thessalonians (today's second reading) St. Paul prays, "May the Lord make you increase and about in love for one another and for all... so as to strengthen your hearts..."  Love makes us vulnerable, it is true, but it is the only path to true strength.  A Christian overcomes trials and difficulties by love.

What does love gain us?  In addition to strengthening our hearts, St. Paul says it will make us "blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones."  In short, love gains us God; which is to say, it gains us everything.  

Advent is a season of expectation.  The name Advent means "coming."  We look forward to Christmas when we celebrate the first coming of our Lord at his birth over 2000 years ago.  That first coming is an historical fact.  So too will be his Second Coming.  Our entire lives should be a season of advent as we wait in joyful and loving expectation for that day.  There will be difficult times between that day and now.  Jesus assures us of this.  It will be hard.  But if we stay close to God, if we live our lives full of love and humility, joy and courage, we will remain close to him and by our heroic witness do glory to his holy name on that day.  Come, Lord Jesus!

--

WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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From WCU: Weekly Update from CCM

Dear Students,

I trust you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I hope each of you had an opportunity to relax and spend time with family and friends during the break.  It's time for that final push through to the end of the semester!  

A TIME FOR EVERY SEASON

Contrary to what some might lead you to believe, it is not Christmas yet.  It's not even Advent (that won't start until this Sunday).  But look around you and you'll probably find that "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."  Every year, as Halloween approaches, you can count on retail stores putting away their pumpkins and getting out the Christmas wreathes, red bows, and artificial trees.  People complain that "it's not even Thanksgiving yet!" but the retailers at least have an excuse.  They are trying to sell products.  If people want to have holiday decorations for their home, the stores have to have them available well before the holiday.  And for many in today's society, Christmas begins the day after Thanksgiving, or before!

I saw my first Christmas tree glimmering in a neighbor's window ten days before Thanksgiving this year.  That's a new record for me.  Many families I know put up their Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving.  The "Christmas Season" begins when they see Santa in the Macy's Parade, and ends with a grand celebration on Christmas Day.  But they have it wrong.  The Christmas season does not end on Dec. 25th -- that's when it begins.  We've been celebrating Christmas earlier and earlier in recent years.  Many people I know in their 60s and 70s have fond memories of setting up the Christmas tree with their families on Christmas Eve, before heading out to Midnight Mass.  One friend told me that he didn't even see a Christmas tree in his house until he come downstairs on Christmas morning to find his living room magically transformed into a holiday wonderland!  (Mom and Dad must have been busy that night).

Of course holiday traditions change over time, and my family does not wait until Christmas Eve to put up our tree.  I'm no Scrooge!  But we certainly don't celebrate Thanksgiving as if it were "Christmas Part I."  There is a whole liturgical season between now and Christmas called Advent, and we like to celebrate that with due reverence.  Our practice has been to decorate our home for the holidays gradually over the Advent season, with our home getting more festive as we approach the day of our Lord's birth.  We'll begin this Sunday with a simple Advent wreath, and by Dec. 25th we'll be in full Christmas mode!

However you mark the holidays in your homes, I encourage you to give each special time its due and not to rush ahead to the next celebration.  The problem with starting our Christmas too early is that we miss the grace and joy that Advent has to offer; and when Christmas finally rolls around we are tired of it.  The Church has a rich liturgical calendar full of special feasts and seasons; we should take care to live in the present, to enjoy the time that we are in and what it has to teach us.

This Sunday begins a new year in the Church.  The two grandest celebrations in the Church year are Easter and Christmas, marking the Resurrection of our Lord, and His birth in Bethlehem.   These celebrations are so important that we don't just mark them with a single day, but a whole season.  Christmas begins on Dec. 25, and lasts until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which this year will be on January 13.  (I remember one year wishing a woman "Merry Christmas" the week after New Year and she looked at me like I lost my mind!)  The Easter season runs seven full weeks through Pentecost.  Each of these festival seasons is preceded by a more somber season of penance and preparation, Advent and Lent.  The rest of the Church's year is filled with other minor and major celebrations marking events in the life of Christ, and celebrating the lives of the saints.  It is important that we give each time and season its due.

As we begin a new Church year this Sunday, I encourage you to explore the spirit and traditions of Advent.  Mark this special time in its own way.  Keep the Christmas spirit as a spirit of anticipation, like you are looking forward to the arrival of a very special guest.  Advent is indeed a time of preparation and anticipation.  I have found in my time that the best way to guarantee a Merry Christmas is with a prayerful Advent.

God bless all of you!

Matt

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WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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From WCU: Gospel For Today

THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (B)

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I'm sure you've seen the cartoons of the old man walking through the city streets holding a sign saying, "The End is Near!"  No one takes him seriously.  But that's what Jesus tells us in today's Gospel reading.  He speaks of the "days [of] tribulation" and the sun being darkened, the stars falling from the sky, and the Son of Man coming in the clouds to gather up the elect from the ends of the earth.  The End Times.

It sounds like a Hal Lindsay book (or a Kirk Cameron movie), doesn't it?  Our Evangelical and Fundamentalist brothers and sisters tend to be a bit more concerned with the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ than Catholics typically are.  But each year at this time, as we approach the end of the liturgical year, our readings start to focus more on the end of all things.  

We are preparing the Advent, which will start in two weeks, after the final great celebration of Ordinary Time, next Sunday's feast of Christ the King.  The word advent comes to us from the Latin for "coming," and it refers not only to Christ's first coming as a newborn baby at Christmas, but also to his second coming in glory at the end of time.  Like the first Christians who believed Christ would return during their lifetimes, we continue to look forward to the second coming of Christ to this day.

We live in an area surrounded by Protestant Christians, many of whom have rather different understandings about the end of time than the Catholic Church has traditionally held.  Many of you have no doubt heard of "the Rapture," an event in which all the faithful Christians will supposedly be taken up into the sky to meet with Christ, after which they will be removed from the earth while the period of tribulation takes place -- a horrible time of trials and testing, giving sinners one last opportunity to repent before the end of time.  

We hear about this from many of our Protestant friends, but we don't hear about it at all from our Catholic pastors.  Why is that?  Well, there is a good reason.  It's not what the Church believes about the Second Coming.  Truth be told, it's not what most Protestants believe, either.  The idea of a pre-tribulation rapture was unheard of in Christianity until the 1800s, when it was formulated by a man named John Nelson Darby, an early leader of the Fundamentalist movement.  

Darby is the father of what is known as Dispensational theology.  Darby's theology was picked up by a man named Scofield who published Darby's view in his Scofield Reference Bible, which was sold widely across America and England.  And so Darby's view of the Rapture became more widely held, especially among Fundamentalist and Evangelical Protestants; it has even found its way into more mainstream Protestant circles.  But it is utterly foreign to Catholicism.

If you'd like to read a bit more on different Christian's views on the Rapture and the End Times, and what the Catholic Church teaches about them, I refer you to this brief article by Catholic Answers.

http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-rapture

So what do Catholics believe about the end of the world?  Most importantly, we believe that it will happen.  Not just an end to our little planet Earth, but an end of all things, of all time.  We live in a finite universe.  All of creation had a beginning, and it will have an end.  Our story will come to a close.

We do believe that Christ will come again, as we pray each time we recite the Nicene or Apostle's Creed.  We believe that the Second Coming will occur at the end of time (not at the beginning of some thousand-year earthly reign of peace here on earth).  And we believe in the general resurrection -- that is, at the end of time all the dead will be raised from the earth.  The righteous will be gathered together with Christ, while the unrighteous... not so much.  

As the first reading today from Daniel attests, "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace."

And most importantly, we don't pretend to know precisely when this will take place. We don't comb through books like Daniel and Revelation, looking for some secret code or formula that will tell us the precise day and hour of the Second Coming.  If you see or hear of anyone doing this, don't give him the time of day.  For Christ himself has said, "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mk 13:32).

But that day is coming.  Of that we can be sure.  And whether the end of time will be tomorrow or billions of years from now, we each will face our own "end time" in our lives comparatively soon.  Any of us could die this hour, or eighty years from now.  But we will die, and we will face our own judgment, in anticipation of the final judgment to come.  

Are you prepared for that this day?  This is the message for us as the Church year draws to a close, as we think of the end of all times, and look forward to the advent, to the coming of our Lord in glory.  May we be among those standing ready to welcome Him in joy and in love.

 

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WCU Catholic Campus Ministry

Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister

www.WCUCatholic.org

  

(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

Join our FACEBOOK Group!