A Homily for the First Sunday of Advent

+ In the face of the terrible cosmic realities described in the Holy Gospel of this Mass (and indeed of that of last Sunday) we are instructed by Our Lord with words that resound throughout the season of Advent: “Levate capita vestra: quoniam appropinquat redemptio vestra.” (Lift up your heads, for your redemption is at hand.) We are not instructed to cower in fear, to hide, or to take flight, but to stand erect with our heads uplifted, confident in the coming of Our Redeemer and of the final and cosmic victory over sin, death and evil that He shall bring.

We are instructed to sing and pray the words of this morning’s Introit with that confidence that arises from the supernatural gifts of faith and hope given to us at our baptism: “Ad te levávi ánimam meam : Deus meus, in te confído, non erubéscam : neque irrídeant me inimíci mei : étenim univérsi, qui te exspéctant, non confundéntur.” (To thee, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in thee I trust, let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Yea, let none that wait for thee be put to shame.)
 
This beautiful and joyful season of Advent is filled with that confidence—a confidence that should pervade and purify every detail of our lives. For we, whose heads are often cast down, who often dare not look up because of the guilt of our sins, we, who feel the weight of oppression or even of persecution because of our perseverance in the faith, we whom the world may regard as quaint at best and extreme at worst, we who suffer all kinds of evil, we can, we should and we must lift up our heads for our Redeemer is at hand!
 
These are ‘nice’ and consoling words, just as Advent and Christmas are a very ‘nice’ time of year. But a mere sentiment is not sufficient: it will fade or will be submerged in the activism that engulfs so many. No; the hope brought by the approach of our Redeemer must become a reality—which grounds how I live today, tomorrow and for as many days and years I am given to live on this earth.

If I am oppressed by the guilt of my sins, my Redeemer waits for me in the Sacrament of Confession looking only for my humility and repentance in order to shower me with His healing grace. If the burdens of Christian witness in the world weigh heavily on me in my family, my place of work or elsewhere, my Redeemer wishes to strengthen and fortify me through the Sacraments of Confirmation and the Blessed Eucharist. If I am burdened by the cross of illness or old age my Redeemer comes to comfort me in the sacraments of Confession, Holy Communion and Extreme Unction with the knowledge that He has already carried my burdens Himself. If my religious, ordained or married vocation is ‘tired’ or somehow damaged, my Redeemer asks me to allow Him once again to become its centre so that the graces of the sacraments we have celebrated or of the vows we have pronounced may once again flow freely from His side.
 
Even if we live in a society that is increasingly secular and godless and ever more inimical to even the basic right to life of its weakest and most vulnerable persons—and I speak in the light of recent moves here in France and in the USA to enshrine the so-called “right” to kill the unborn child at will in civil constitutions—our Redeemer comes. Indeed, he comes to call us to clear and decisive action, to call us to witness to and to build anew a “culture of life” where the where the devastating cancer of the “culture of death” is promoted in the name of a purported liberty. (cf. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae).
 
It is time to act. The political momentum of the promotion or imposition of the culture of death may be difficult to reverse, but on a practical level we can do much. It is now widely forgotten that in 1997 the Scottish Cardinal Thomas Winning invited any woman, regardless of her faith, who believed that she had no other choice than to abort her unborn child, to come to the Catholic Church for help during her pregnancy and beyond. This launched a major practical initiative which continues to this day. But it is an initiative we urgently need to make our own, to renew, to expand and to promote.
 
At present our little monastery has very few material resources that can be of practical help—we are not a great Archdiocese—but in so far as possible they are at the service of saving the life of any unborn child if an expectant mother asks us for help. However, we have spiritual resources aplenty, and a small voice. Both shall be employed to build up a culture of life, most particularly this Advent. We ask, and shall fast and pray, that those with both responsibility and resources in the Church, particularly our bishops, imitate the courage and practical faith of Cardinal Winning, who is directly responsible for saving many, many lives by having opened both his mouth and his cheque book to build up the culture of life.

For those babies saved—many now young adults—their Redeemer came through the determined practical courage of Cardinal Winning. Many, many more such infants, threatened by a death that is regarded as a mere disposal of ‘an inconvenience’, await their Redeemer today. We must each do what we can so that they shall live to know Him.
 
In the face of the terrible realities that we face, personally and in our world, we are instructed by Our Lord: “Levate capita vestra: quoniam appropinquat redemptio vestra.” Advent is the time lift up our heads: we must lift them up so as to welcome our Redeemer into our own hearts and souls that he may purify and heal and strengthen us. And thus strengthened, we must do everything we can to clear a path so that His Saving Word may be heard above the cacophony of evil and death that abounds.

As we partake anew of His life-giving sacrifice in this Holy Mass, let us beg the grace necessary so to do, for our Redeemer came that all might have life, and have it to the full (cf. Jn 10:10). +