There are so many special memories that I have from going to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. It was amazing to gather with literally millions of other young people to pray and grow in faith together. One of the coolest things was getting to get up close and personal with the Pope. I will never forget gathering on the big, wide street right beside Copacabana Beach and waiting for the Pope Mobile to come by.
It was such a wild scene. All along the route there were people bunched five or six rows deep just waiting to get a glimpse of Pope Francis as he came by. There was such an amazing sense of anticipation that just seemed to grow and grow as time went on. The buzz reach a fever pitch as we saw the white car and the little, white-clad figure inside it in the distance. The closer the Pope Mobile got, the more my heart surged. Then, as it passed right in front of us, it felt like a literal current of electricity surged through each of us. The Pope was right there! The Successor of Peter! I remember that there was a moment when Pope Francis looked right at me. It was as though time slowed down. In reality, the shared gaze probably only lasted a few seconds. But it felt like we locked eyes for minutes on end.
I will never forget the feeling of anticipation and electricity with all of those pilgrims, waiting for the Pope to pass by. There is something so beautiful about the tangible history of our Church. We have that unbroken link through people, Sacraments, and buildings stretching all the way back to the time of Jesus and the Apostles. So any time we get to really appreciate that continuity, it is a great moment. Just think about all that we take for granted right here in Coshocton! Every time you step through the doors to this Church, you become part of an unbroken chain of faith stretching back over 127 years! What a blessing and privilege it is to be part of the Catholic Church!
Advent is a time for us to renew our sense of wonder at what we get to experience as members of the Church. God forbid we develop that sense that our faith is just one of those mundane parts of our lives, something we just do out of a sense of routine. Not that routine is a bad thing, our lives are structured around so many routines: sleep and wakefulness, work and rest, family time and time with friends, time at home and time away. But let’s not forget that all of our lives are meant to be shaped by the Person we encounter this Sunday and every Sunday.
When we walk through these doors for Mass, I pray that the Holy Spirit will fill us with anticipation for the wonderful moment of encountering Jesus in the Eucharist. This encounter is meant to profoundly touch us so that throughout all of the rest of our lives, we can be attentive to the ways that the Risen Jesus continues to work.
It’s all too easy to just ignore what is happening here and to fall into that drowsiness of heart which the Lord Jesus warns us against in the Gospel: “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.” He is warning us against that spiritual deadness that comes when we surrender our hearts to things other than Jesus and his kingship. When we do this, we risk missing His daily coming to us and ultimately his coming to us at the end of time. We don’t know when the Second OCming may occur, but we know for sure that every time we gather here for worship, the Lord is coming to meet us!
So I pray that the Holy Spirit will stir our hearts to the vigilance that the Lord speaks about, that vigilance which makes us ready to recognize Jesus when he comes to us at this altar and when he comes to the altar of our hearts each and every day. If we have that vigilance, we will be ready to welcome Him and live in the power that He brings. At World Youth Day, we had that vigilance in the Crowd because we expected the Pop to imminently be in our presence.
I wonder how many of us have that same sense of vigilance as we approach our daily tasks. Do we expect that the Risen Lord will come to meet us in the grocery store, at our desk at work, in our conversations with our friends and family? The reality is that He does come into every aspect of our lives, but unfortunately we so often miss His coming because of our drowsiness of heart. We forget that our time on this earth is a battle. If we wiss the coming of the Lord, we leave ourselves open to the assault of the world, our weak flesh and the devil, which we don’t have the power to fight on our own.
This is why we take the time to celebrate the season of Advent, which we launch into this Sunday. Advent is a time to watch for Jesus’ coming in our lives, to cultivate that vigilance of heart that helps us anticipate His presence with us. The Lord calls us during this season to clear out the old leaven of sin so that the true leaven of His Spirit can renew us in that vigilance which looks for the Lord who constantly arrives at the door of our hearts to knock. Let’s take the opportunity in these coming weeks to lean into the Holy Spirit’s power. This Advent, the Spirit wants to make our hearts receptive to the joy and wonder of encountering the Risen Lord in the Eucharist on Sunday. He wants to empower us to carry that wonder and joy throughout our daily activities so that we can joyfully respond to Jesus’ grace as He joins us in every moment.
+ Father, thank you for giving us the opportunity to renew our vigilance of heart this Advent. Lord Jesus, help us by your grace to have hearts which are fully awake and watchful for you at all times. Holy Spirit, enkindle in us your fire so that others might see our joy at Jesus’ coming and be inspired to seek Him, too. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +