Weekly Sunday Homilies
Fr. Joseph's Homily for the First Sunday of Advent (Year C)
Five Keys for Spiritual Growth this Advent
- Repentance and faith – A prayer of surrender, asking for forgiveness and giving one's life to Jesus.
- Forgiveness – Actively forgiving others who have wronged you by name, with the help of Jesus.
- Renunciation – Actively rejecting and turning away from lies, deception, sins, and evil influences.
- Authority – Recognizing and using the authority Christ has giving you to command spirits to leave.
- The Father's blessing – Receiving and embracing one's identity as a beloved child of God and receiving His love and blessings.
I will break these five down in light of our second reading and the call of Saint Paul—and, really, all of Scripture—to make way a path for the Lord.
You know the time;
it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.
For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed;
the night is advanced, the day is at hand.
Waking up . . . if you wake up when you want to you are ready, when we wake up later or too early, we have to adapt. But better to wake up early than late–first year here–daylight savings time. Had I not woken up early it would have been all the worse. Advent is our season from waking up from our old habits that still remain even after believing in Christ. When I believe in Jesus actively and respond to him working in my life he starts to show me parts of my life where I need repentance. And so too for us all!
Acts of Contrition, the Our Father, and Confession are our helpers!
Let us then throw off the works of darkness
Here we are called to forgive. Unforgiveness kills! We are called to be brought to new life by killing the twisted habit of unforgiveness. Can't forgive an ongoing sin, but you can forgive past instances of that sin by the same person. Leave that kind of judgement to God, and forgive!
and put on the armor of light;
We are called to not just receive forgiveness and forgive others but also to actively turn away from sins and lies and deceptions of the Devil – Satan is the Father of lies – Garden of Eden (Pride? Yes) But also Deception! When we renounce those lies and trust in the Lord we begin to . . .
conduct ourselves properly as in the day,
not in orgies or another translation uses revelries/wild parties and drunkenness,
not in promiscuity and lust,
not in rivalry and jealousy.
We may not be committing wild sins with others, but what of when we are alone? What of when we are with out families? Do we have familial sins of rivalry or jealousy or overeating or drunkenness? Of harshness or cruelty? Or backbiting or mean words?
Jesus calls us to put away these things. Literally to cast them off! And guess what, Jesus gives us authority to do these things.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
Authority.
Our Lord gives us the authority, by our Baptisms, to stand against sin by the power of His grace and work within us. This transformation is one that we but need ask for, to declare in courage and in hope and to ask the Lord by the authority we have been given to cast out by His name sin and lies that assault us!
The next step in that is -
and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.
Do not put things back for a rainy day. Don’t pro-noe (pronoeó προνοέω), or plan out how to put back things for yourself, relying first on yourself. This is a recipe for commiting sins, by saving some means by which you can commit sin, cut it out and throw it out like when you clean your home and bring things to the thrift store.
This prepares us during Advent to receive the Lord’s blessing this Christmas. The difficulty of receiving but how important it is!!
We are called to receive from the Lord daily! Weekly! And on Christmas, so let us take us these keys this Advent!