Christ, the Guest of our Hearts

St. Joseph Church (Cottleville)
First Sunday of Advent
November 30, 2008 - 8:45 & 10:30 a.m.

Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7
Ps 80
1 Cor 1:3-9
Mk 13:33-37

I can remember as a child how excited my siblings and I would get when Advent came. It meant that Christmas was just around the corner. Of course, we loved Christmas most of all because it meant presents left for us under the Christmas tree and a long break from school, but there were other things that were wonderful about Christmas. One of my favorite parts was that it meant that Grandma would be coming to our house on Christmas Eve to go with us to Mass and then have pizza for dinner. It was always special when Grandma came over because she would usually bring a treat for us. It was also exciting because we lived in south city and Grandma was coming all the way from “the County!”

But there was one thing I dreaded about Grandma coming over. It meant that for a number of days before Christmas my mother would be nagging me over and over to clean my room, and we’d each have assigned chores for cleaning other parts of the house. I could never understand why the house had to be clean for her. She had raised three children herself, so surely a messy house would have been no surprise. But my mother insisted that when we have guests our home should be clean and presentable.

I tell this story this morning, at the beginning of Advent, because this season which we begin today is a time of preparation for a guest who is coming. Of course the guest we are expecting at the end of these four weeks is none other than the Son of God Himself. The word Advent means “arrival” or “coming.” And His coming is twofold. At Christmas we will recall how He first came among us in a very humble, hidden way, as a tiny, poor infant lying in a manger. The readings today remind us of His second coming, His return at the end of time, when He will come not in a hidden way but in glory to bring the Kingdom of God to perfection.

I think about what it would have been like for my family if we knew Grandma was coming but we didn’t know what day she would arrive. I’m sure my mother would tell us that we had to keep our rooms clean every day, so that our home was ready when Grandma finally arrived. It’s the same way with our souls. Jesus Christ wants to be the guest of our souls when He comes, and so we must prepare our souls for His coming. We must make ourselves ready to welcome Him. We don’t know when He will come again, but we do know that He will come. And we know that already He comes to dwell in our hearts as a foretaste in Holy Communion.

Jesus Christ is a very special kind of guest, because He doesn’t expect us to make ourselves ready by ourselves. He wants to come in and clean out our hearts for us. He wants to be the one to ready our souls for His coming. It would be as if Grandma had come over the day before Christmas Eve to help us clean the house so it was ready when she came the next day. Christ does this cleaning above all in the Sacrament of Penance.

This Wednesday evening in Church this sacrament will be offered for anyone who would like to receive it. What a wonderful way to prepare ourselves for the celebration of Christmas, to come to Christ even now and humbly ask Him to forgive us our sins. I’m sure He would be especially pleased if people came to the sacrament who had been away from it for a long time, even for many years. If you have been away from the sacrament for some time, it may seem like a frightening prospect, but all you need do is simply tell the priest it has been awhile and that you might need some help knowing what to say and when to say it. I’m sure he’d be happy to assist you. How wonderful it would be if the lines at the confessionals of our church this Wednesday and on these four Saturdays of Advent were so long that our priests would have to schedule more times for confession for all those seeking to receive God’s mercy.

Sometimes, when the Church exhorts us to go to confession, she can seem like a nagging mother. Sometimes people wonder why the Church insists that we confess our sins to a priest rather than going directly to God Himself. She does so for two reasons. First, we believe that this is the only ordinary way for serious sins to be forgiven. We believe that Christ entrusted the forgiveness of sins to priests when He breathed the Holy Spirit upon His apostles and told them, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven.” When a man is ordained a priest, He receives the power to act in the person of Christ. So, when we go to confession, we are really going directly to Christ, who is present in the priest. It is Christ who hears our confession and Christ who absolves us from our sins. This is why the priest is bound by the seal of confession never to repeat what he hears there, because it is not he who has heard it but Christ.

The second reason the Church calls us to confess our sins to a priest in this sacrament is because, as a good mother, she knows that as human beings we need to receive God’s grace in a tangible way. We need to hear the words of forgiveness spoken directly to us, to hear them with our own bodily ears. We need the certainty that comes from personal, individual attention. Pope John Paul II expressed this beautifully when he wrote:

“Although human beings live through a network of relationships and communities, the uniqueness of each person can never be lost in a shapeless mass. This explains the deep echo in our souls when we hear ourselves called by name. When we realize that we are known and accepted as we are, with our most individual traits, we feel truly alive. . . .

“Here the Good Shepherd, through the presence and voice of the priest, approaches each man and woman, entering into a personal dialogue which involves listening, counsel, comfort, and forgiveness. The love of God is such that it can focus upon each individual without overlooking the rest. All who receive sacramental absolution ought to be able to feel the warmth of this personal attention” (2002 Holy Thursday Letter, 9).

May this Advent be a time of true preparation for us. Amidst the hustle and bustle of shopping and preparing our homes for the celebration of Christmas, may we not forget to prepare our hearts as well. May we not forget to give our Lord a gift as well – a gift that cannot be bought at Walmart or Lowe’s or the jeweler – the gift of a pure heart, open to Him, ready to receive Him. If we give Him that gift, we can be sure that He will give us in return the greatest gift possible, the gift of Himself, dwelling forever in our hearts, and the gift of eternal life on the day of His Advent when we meet Him coming in glory. On that day, He will welcome us as His guest in the banquet of His kingdom for all eternity.