I’m a sentimental guy. I hold on to “the old” with a merciless death grip that can sometimes be a barrier to growth but, if I’m careful, can keep me rooted and grounded. It gives me direction, and gives my direction more pronounced definition. I like shooting film photography because I prefer the look, and I also prefer the discipline in framing and shooting that a finite roll of film necessitates. It’s more work (developing the film, scanning negatives, etc.) but I get a lot out of the work. I prefer CDs to digital downloads because I think an ocean of choices minimizes my appreciation for the limited physical selection on my shelf. You get the point.
So for about a year I was driving about an hour to attend mass at the parish where I grew up. I had been away for too long, and I wanted to reconnect to the roots of my faith at the parish that made me the man I am today. It was an inconvenient trip, but it was worth the trouble.
The pastor and his associate were Indian priests from the Carmelite order there. They were good guys. A little hard to understand their accent at times, but no biggie. They celebrated the liturgy well, and their good natures really came through in their homilies. But sometimes too much of a good thing is not a good thing.
I always thought the homilies were really “pretty”. They were positive, they were plain spoken and they were connectable. But I consistently found them to be shallow, always saying just a little too little given the subject of the homily.
“The important thing is Love!” — Okay, father, but you have to tell the people what that means. Their understanding of Love is very secular.
“We always have to try to be good Catholics” — Got it! But you have to explain what it means to be a good Catholic.
During the first mass of Advent this limitation really annoyed me. After hearing about end-times and final judgement in the mass readings during the week and culminating in that mass, the pastor decided to talk about how Advent is about “Letting the light of Jesus into our hearts”
Huh? What the hell are you talking about, father? That’s not what we’ve been hearing in the readings! Aren’t we supposed to be letting the light of Christ into our hearts year-round? Why is Advent so different?
I get it. The world was dark before Christ, and then the light of Jesus entered into it on Christmas Day. Okay, I get that component, but that most certainly is not the focus of Advent. We know that, because the readings tell us something very different. I continue to point to this example when I voice my frustrations with preaching and some public rhetoric from the Church. We can’t hit people over the head with the Truth, but we also can’t shy away from it. We sometimes neglect to tell the whole truth just out of oversight but sometimes it happens out of ear. I’m pretty sure it was a pattern of oversight by these otherwise good priests.
Did you know: My brand is ‘The Catholic Adventurer’ but the podcast is “The Catholic Experience”
Advent is the season when we remember that Christ came to us, and recall that he will come again. And we should use this season to spark a new fire in our bellies for following him and living the Gospel, because the Lord will come like a thief in the night. It’s not a dark or dismal message, it’s a positive one…if it’s seen (and talked about) the right way. That’s what I tried to pull off in this video of my Advent message. I hope you get something out of it.
I’m working hard, brothers and sisters, and I hope you decide to receive some of this hard work that I’m putting out there in the form of podcasts and videos and writing. You can find my work at my Link Tree, which has connections to my podcast carriers, latest episodes and latest videos, but also please subscribe to Notes From the Field, my weekly newsletter. Use the form below to sign up. Don’t be a stranger, I’m trying really hard to build an audience.
Have a great Advent season, my friends. God bless and keep you all.
