__ Click Here for Audio of Homily, Sunday Dec. 5 ___
Homily – Dec. 5, 2021 / Advent 2 (C)
● Baruch 5:1-9 ● Psalm 126 ● ● Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11 ● + Luke 3:1-6 ●
[__00-a_] I am procrastinating right now. Procrastinating. Procrastination can be a struggle. The original dictionary definition is procrastinate means to put off until tomorrow.
Here
is a really bad joke about procrastination and an arithmetic or math problem.
What do you say, to an arithmetic or math problem that you're having trouble
with and that you are procrastinating from? “calc you later”, calculator like
catch you later.
We often
associate procrastination with the solving of a problem, or the completion of a
task or a calculation we cannot make right now.
In
my own experience of procrastination or putting things off, I will say that it
is often something I do not because I am indifferent to the result, or that I
don't care about the results.
It
is because I am obsessed with the result. And I don't even want to get started
on something because I am unsure of how it's going to turn out.
So
perfection can sometimes fuel procrastination. That's me.
I wish
to touch on this because urgency
is so important in the message of John the Baptist. This urgency in terms of
what J.T.B. is --- PRAYING
about, what is he SAYING ..and
where he is STAYING.
So praying saying and staying first praying.
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[__01_] [1st.
PRAYING / meditation] John the Baptist is at prayer in the
desert.
John
the Baptist is at prayer. How does prayer fit into your daily life or my daily
life, not just right now it's Saturday 530 mass or tomorrow, Sunday. But Monday
through Friday,
You
might say to me, hey Padre, I don't have time to pray. I'm too busy. I might
say the same thing. I'm tempted to say that. But I'm suggesting that prayer is
not the cause of procrastination. Prayer can be the cure for procrastination.
When something is difficult, we are called to pray about it.
We
pray in the 25th Psalm, “make me know your paths.”
1 practical
suggestion that was given to me was this. If you're praying about something, or
perhaps about someone who is difficult, write that person's name down on a
piece of paper, put it in your wallet and carry it around with you. That way,
every time you take out your wallet, or your money or credit card or your ID,
you're going to be reminded of that prayer. You're not going to forget about
it. So we are called to pray about the things that are difficult. And prayer
can help us to set our priorities and to overcome that tendency to
procrastinate or put things off. So prayer is not a cause of procrastination,
prayer or praying can be a cure for procrastination. What is John the bit so
that's the praying part.
[__02_] [2nd.
SAYING / proclamation]
John the Baptist is saying something in the desert.
Now
there's the saying part, John the Baptist is saying he is speaking he is
proclaiming in the desert, from John the Baptist as a proclaimer. He's loud.
And in next Sunday's gospel, we read about John the Baptist having many
followers,
Many
people go out to see him. He is viral, we might say. What about saying
something in your life or saying or announcing a decision or making a decision?
Sometimes,
we would rather do something about it than say something about it. I think we
maybe do you have that inclination that you'd rather do something about it than
say something about it.
So
for example, if something is wrong, you might say, Well, I'm just going to
correct the situation.
I'm
not going to say anything about it. I'm just going to do something about it.
And then that's good. But sometimes we are called to say something about to
communicate things.
So
for example, if you are caring for somebody who's elderly, somebody who's sick,
maybe it's your parents, maybe it's another person in your life, sometimes we
are called to say something to others to keep them in the loop of what we are
thinking about.
Proclamation
can be important. We are called also to proclaim, to witness to our faith, what
can we say?
Simple
things we can say we can tell people that we're going to church, we can tell people
that we're going to church on Christmas, even people who may not join us for
Christmas, we can make sure that we explicitly tell them, when we're coming to
church, what mass we're coming to, or why we like to go to that mass.
These
are little evangelical statements we can make to proclaim the gospel to others
who may not come to church.
And
we could even let them know that we're praying for them. Even if they don't
join us, we could say, Hey, I'm praying for you when I go to church.
And
all of this saying or proclaiming also goes much better when we are praying when we are reflecting, we
were called to pray, for example, Lord opened my lips, or Lord put a guard over
my mouth, so that I don't say the wrong thing. So we are calling. So John the
Baptist is reminding us of vows about praying, which includes repenting of our
sins, and also saying and proclaiming.
[__03_] [3rd.
STAYING / location ] John the Baptist is staying in the
desert. He is preparing the Way of the Lord and he is making straight his path.
And
John the Baptist is staying somewhere, he's staying in the desert. He's out in
the desert, to find a straight path to Jesus Christ.
Now,
we may not have to go out into the desert to discover Jesus Christ. But we are
called to recognize that sometimes we do need to separate ourselves from our
regular ways in order to find the straight path, to prepare the way of the Lord
to find the most direct route.
[][][]
John was praying out there
in the desert when he grasped this sense of urgency about the Gospel and
Christ.
This does not mean that you and I have to move to the
desert or to the wilderness. But, we can recognize that we all can experience
God and hear God better sometimes during the “desert” that is a break from our
regular busyness or environment.
Is the “desert” a time/place of physical challenge or even
an illness? … of solitude.
[][][]
If
you were coming to Our Lady of Lourdes today, and you didn't know where our
Lady of Lourdes was, you would put it into your GPS and you would take the most
direct route to come here. Or if you're going somewhere after this, and you
don't know exactly where you're going, either tonight or tomorrow, you're going
to put that into your phone or into your GPS device to find the most direct
route to that location, I would do the same thing. But do I choose the straight
path in my relationships with others. Sometimes if I'm having difficulty with
somebody, maybe somebody I'm uncomfortable talking to or I'm not sure what to
say, I don't always take the straight path, I may talk to everybody else about
the problem rather than the person I'm supposed to talk to about the problem.
So Jesus is encouraging us to take the straight path to prepare the way of the
Lord. It is true that God can draw straight with our crooked lines. However,
taking the straight path is also important. And we do this because we are seeking
a perfection not a perfection so that we can have a good appearance, not a
perfectionist so that we can make more money, but a perfection so that we can
live in harmony with God and in love of God and love of neighbor. I'd like to
just read a little prayer
He,
then, is perfect who does the work of the day perfectly, and we need not go
beyond this to seek for perfection. You need not go out of the round of the
day.
I
insist on this because I think it will simplify our views, and fix our
exertions on a definite aim.
If you
ask me what you are to do in order to be perfect, I say, first-
· give your first thoughts to God;
· make a good visit to the Blessed Sacrament;
· say the Angelus devoutly;
· eat and drink to God’s glory;
· say the Rosary well;
· be recollected; keep out bad thoughts;
· make your evening meditation well;
· examine yourself daily;
Go to bed in good time, and you are already perfect
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