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| One way to ruin a house |
(First Sunday of Advent (A): This homily was given on
December 1, 2019 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond
Suriani. Read Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm
122:1-9; Romans 13: 11-14; Matthew 24:37-44.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: First Sunday of Advent 2019]
Today’s lesson is on how to ruin things.
Now that might sound like a rather negative topic for a Sunday homily, but I can assure you that at
the end of it all, the message will be a very positive one.
How to ruin things . . .
If you own a car, and want to ruin it, the good news is you
have a number of options. For example:
- You can drain the oil out of the crankcase and then
attempt to go on driving the vehicle (you probably won’t get very far);
- You can slash the tires, smash the windows and put
dirt in the gas tank (that will certainly do the trick);
- Or you can just “let things go,” so to speak. In other words, you can neglect the oil
changes, the tune-ups, and the many other items of routine maintenance
called for in the owner’s manual.
It will take a little longer, of course, to ruin your car in that
way—through neglect—but eventually it will happen.
If you own a house, and want to ruin it, you also have a
lot of options:
- You can have your teenagers play contact sports in the
living room, and allow your three-year-old to do artwork on the walls with
his finger paint;
- You can smash the furniture, rip the curtains and
break all the dishes and glasses in the kitchen;
- You can turn on the water in the upstairs bathtub and
then let it overflow—for 3 or 4 hours;
- Or, once again, you can just let things go. You can avoid painting the house, fixing
the roof, cleaning the floors and doing all the routine maintenance that’s
required to keep a home in good shape.
If you want to ruin a friendship, you can do a number of
things:
- You can call your friend and tell him off;
- You can spread false rumors about him;
- You can cause division in his family and break up his
marriage;
- Or you can simply ignore him and pretend he doesn’t
exist! Every friendship needs to be
nourished by personal contact on some level. Without that contact, a friendship can
very easily weaken and die with passage of time.
I give these examples today because on this First Sunday of
Advent the focus of our gospel reading is on the second coming of Jesus
Christ. This, as most of us know, is one
of the foundational beliefs of our faith.
As we say in the Creed every Sunday, “[We believe that Jesus, our Lord
and Savior,] will come again in glory to
judge the living and the dead.”
That same belief is expressed in the middle of the Eucharistic Prayer
when we say (or sing), "We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your
resurrection UNTIL YOU COME AGAIN.”
We believe that the physical world as we know it will
eventually come to an end. As the Letter
to the Hebrews puts it, “We do not have here a lasting city.” At some unknown time in the future, Jesus
will come again as our judge, and put a definitive end to human history.
But even if we don’t live to see that day, we will all
experience the Lord’s second coming: we’ll experience it at the moment we die! And
because that moment can literally come at any time, Jesus urges us in this
gospel to always be ready!
Here’s an interesting thought: In today’s second reading
from Romans 13 it says, “It is now the hour for you to wake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we
first believed.”
Our salvation is also nearer now—at this moment—than it was
when I began my homily! Did you realize
that? And it will be nearer at the end
of my homily than it is right now!
Every second that passes, brings each of us one second
closer to the end—to our end.
That end, of course, is also supposed to be a beginning:
the glorious beginning of a new life with Jesus Christ in his eternal
kingdom. But getting into that kingdom
is NOT automatic, as Jesus makes clear in this text! Which is precisely why I entitled this homily,
“How to ruin things”! Just as it’s
possible to ruin a car, and a house, and a friendship, so it’s also possible to ruin our eternal salvation!
And we can ruin our salvation in the very same ways that we
can ruin those other things I mentioned.
For example, I said that you can ruin a car by DOING certain things to
it: by taking out the oil, by slashing the tires, by smashing the windows,
etc. But then I said that you could also
ruin a car by simply neglecting
it: by neglecting to change the oil and perform the normal maintenance
specified in the owner’s manual.
I also said you could ruin a house or a close friendship in
either of those two ways: by actions or by neglect.
I said all those things for a reason: to make an important
parallel with our spiritual lives!
Think about it: How
does a person ruin his or her salvation?
Well the obvious answer is: by doing something really bad!
We lose salvation—we lose sanctifying grace after Baptism—by committing
a mortal sin and never repenting of it.
But that’s only half the story! We can also ruin our salvation through neglect. And I base that assertion on the words of
Jesus in this gospel. Jesus starts off
here by comparing people who are not ready for his second coming with the
people at the time of Noah who were unprepared for the Great Flood. Now I would have expected Jesus to say that
these unprepared people back in Noah’s day were lying, cheating, stealing,
killing one another and committing adultery—and this is why they weren’t ready.
But notice something: THAT’S NOT WHAT HE SAYS! Listen again to his words: “In those days
before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and
carried them all away. So will it be
also at the coming of the Son of Man.”
Now I ask you, what was so bad about eating—and drinking
(we all need water, don’t we?)? What was
so bad about marrying and giving someone away in marriage?
The answer is: Nothing! Those things were—and are—all
GOOD! That was not the problem! The problem was NEGLECT! What Jesus was saying is that these
unprepared men and women were guilty of NEGLECT! They lost their lives simply because they
were going about their daily business while at the same time neglecting to take care of their
souls!
So how do you ruin your salvation?
By committing a mortal sin, yes; but also by neglecting your spiritual life! Because when you neglect your spiritual life,
you can easily fall into mortal sin.
Think now of all the things that most people do NOT neglect
during the season of Advent:
·
They do not neglect shopping (although they might wait
until the last minute!);
·
They do not neglect cooking and baking (they’ve just got to
make those special Christmas cookies for everybody in the family!);
·
They do not neglect socializing;
·
They do not neglect decorating (even if they don’t like to
do it);
·
And they certainly don’t neglect eating—and eating—and
eating!
But a lot of people neglect their souls, don’t they? They neglect spending extra time in
prayer. When December 8 is a holy day of
obligation they neglect coming to Mass; they may even neglect attending a
Sunday Mass if they’ve got a lot of shopping or baking to do. They also neglect the extra opportunities
they have to make a good examination of conscience and go to Confession.
They make extra time for everything and for everybody
during this holy season of the year—except Jesus (who just happens to be the
reason for the season!)!
Today, as many of you know, is “New Year’s Day” in the
Church: it’s the first day of the Church’s new liturgical year. That means
it’s a good day for all of us to make a joint resolution. Let’s resolve at this Mass NOT to neglect our
spiritual lives during the next 4 weeks of Advent.
And by the grace of God may that resolution then carry over
to the other 48 weeks of the year.
