A lady was walking down the street in a populous city and she noticed two boys warming their feet over a steam vent coming from the sewers. She took the boys and bought them socks and shoes. One of the little boys said to her, “Are you God’s wife?” and she replied, “No, one of His daughters.” The little boy said, “I knew you were related somehow.”
Today is the Second Sunday in Advent. How are we doing with our Advent plans? In Advent we prepare for Jesus to work more freely in our lives, to do great acts through us. It would be a tragedy for us to pass this season and not make Christ more present in our lives. In the Gospel and the First Reading we hear, “Make His way straight, lower the hills, fill in the valleys.” These are great and glorious words of an optimistic person, a person in love. I remember in the old movie It’s a Wonderful Life where the main actor asks his beloved, “Do you want the moon? I will lasso it and bring it down to you.” Obviously, he could not do this but he felt the possibility of love. It is time to feel the possibility of love in our own lives once again. It is important that we go back and rediscover a simpler time when love was powerful and transformative. It inspired us to make sacrifices and to be the best we could be. In Advent we have a time to renew love. When we first loved God we weren’t scared to make a sacrifice. I remember when I first started following God. I had promised to do an hour of prayer each day and sometimes we would arrive at our next destination at one in the morning. Nevertheless, I would stay up to finish my hour because I believed that God was good and I don’t recall ever being ripped off by God. Yet as time goes on, I see that I often put sleep as more important than God thinking that I would be ripped off if I don’t sleep.
Remember when you were in love and sacrifice was easy? You could be exhausted from work but you would still stay up to talk because love was more powerful than sleep. Now I certainly agree that being in love and love are different things. But we need to return to love and sacrifice to live this Advent and prepare for the King of Kings.
When we choose acts of love we bring our Lord into the world. Love is to desire the good of the other so to make acts of love we would think of that. The more acts of love, the more Christ’s presence is felt in the world.
There were some soldiers during a war who came to a church that had been struck by a bomb. As they were religious men, they cleaned up and fixed the church the best they could. They came across a statue of Jesus with its hands broken off. They were not sure how to fix it when one soldier had an idea. He put a sign next to the statue that read, “I have no hands but yours.”
Last year when the youth group was going around town doing works of mercy, we were asked by a fellow which church we were from. We said St Ann’s and he said to us, “I have never heard of them doing something like this before.”
In our Advent we are here to prepare the way of the Lord and we do that not by going out into the street and shouting Repent! Stop sinning. Our Lord will be here any day so get your life together. Though it is true, we ourselves need to repent, turn around, turn away from sin. We principally do this by being the senses of the Lord, by being his hands, by having his eyes, by having his mouth, by having his ear and his nose. But, ultimately, by having his heart that is once again renewed in love, especially in this Advent Season.
So, what are the mountains in your life? The things that seem insurmountable, the things that have made you lose your hope. Take them God. Make it your Advent to bring them daily to God. What is the valley of your depression? Take it daily to God, every time you think of it. What are the complications that have made your life crooked? Daily take that to God. Start loving daily. Doing act of love, trust more, pray to love more. God is inviting us to be radical this Advent in getting ready. Don’t count cost, be free to love, be free for this great King to come.