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Was Macbeth correct when he said, “life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”, or does life have a point, an end, a purpose, a goal---in short, meaning? Is there a point in relation to which the discrete and disparate events of life might find shape and sense, contour and coherence? Is there a focus, a center around which our experiences might be ordered so as to offer a thread, a connection of dots, a narrative, a tale signifying not only something, but something wonderful?
We proclaim today that life does have a meaning because life itself is not a sufficient context for life. Life itself is set within something prior to and larger than itself. Life has a context, a source of meaning. Christ is the context for it is in Him that “we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). For more on this see this week’s Related Reflection “What Fits Into What?” at the Pastor’s Corner on our Parish Website.
The word Advent means “Coming”, and the coming of Christ has three senses: 1) His first coming in Bethlehem; 2) his final coming toward which today’s liturgy directs us; and 3) what St. Bernard called His “middle” coming meaning when Christ comes into our consciousness and calls us to life of continuing conversion. When we take the next step into a deeper relationship with the Truth about life, self, other, and God we are being formed by and in Christ
A synonym for ongoing conversion is Penance, and so we begin the new Year of Grace with a penitential season. This Advent 104 of our children will meet the Lord in the Sacrament of Penance for the first time, and during Advent Fr. Heim and I will be available more frequently each week for Confessions. I ask you to help your priests help you by not waiting until the last minute to come to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but rather to make use of the entire penitential season of Advent for pre-Christmas Confessions. The schedule for Confessions as well as materials to help adults examine their conscience and consciousness are available in Chapel, in Church, and on our Parish Website.
All money contributed through our Parish Poor Boxes this Advent and Christmas seasons will be sent to the Good Samaritan Shelter here in our own town. FYI we raised $926 for Baby’s Breath through our Poor Boxes during September and October.
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