Presider: Fr. Matthew Widder Parish: Holy Name of Jesus & St. Clement Choir: Holy Apostles www.MySundayMass.org TEXT FROM THE GOSPEL AND HOMILY The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you O Lord. Jesus said to his disciples: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the seas and its waves. People will die of fright and anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you may have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder if anyone was perhaps a bit perplexed by the readings that we hear on the first Sunday of Advent because in our minds we think we are getting ready for Christmas. We feel like we should be hearing about the Nativity, of John the Baptist, perhaps the Annunciation, perhaps the visitation and yet the Gospel that we hear from is the Gospel of Luke, puts us at the end times, puts us at the end of the world when Jesus Christ is coming again. It reminds us the two points of Advent: that Jesus was born but also that reality of Christ’s second coming, perhaps the moment we die, one way or another we will stand before Jesus as the gospel concludes. Perhaps maybe some of you have ever read a book or watched the movie when instead of the movie starting at the beginning of the story, the movie starts at the end of the story then happens to work backwards. I was thinking of a movie that popped into my mind was a movie called Forest Gump took place when I was younger and Forest Gump starts with Forest sitting on a park bench. He sits on a park bench, he is waiting for the bus and what happens is different people stand and pull up a spot for the bus and pull up a spot next to him as he is waiting for his bus. And as he is waiting for his bus he really tells his whole story. He tells the good, the bad and the ugly. So he starts out when he was an awkward child and he had braces on his leg and he was socially awkward and he met his friend Jenny and then he went into the military and got shot in an awkward spot and then he went out and got a purple heart and he did all these great things but he shared the good, the bad and the ugly at times. He held nothing back. And in some sense these readings remind us and they start us at the end of our spiritual journey and reality that at one point or another we are going to stand face to face with Jesus and we are going to tell our story before Jesus; the good, the bad, the ugly. in his merciful eyes Jesus in this Mass is encouraging us to look at our lives, to look and stand before Jesus as we meditate and say, “Lord what's my story, what are the things that I bring before your love and mercy and what are the resolutions that perhaps I need to make at this time to prepare myself to stand before you?” We give thanks and praise for this great blessing of Advent, the season that calls us to look into our hearts to prepare for our encounter with Jesus Christ.

• published: 28 Nov 2015
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