Happy new year!

We begin the new liturgical year as we start this journey towards Christmas. It’s kind of a cool thing to be able to start a new liturgical year. I’ve got different prayer books. It's like, “All right. Yeah, here we go.” It's very exciting. And we're starting year C. There are three liturgical years: year A, year B and year C. And throughout the different liturgical years, oftentimes there'll be themes through the readings. And if you're paying attention, which I know you all do so well, the readings tend to build off each other. Last summer we went through John 6. We spent five or six weeks going over the Eucharistic discourse that the Gospel of John gives. Well, the readings in the four weeks of Advent leading up to Christmas build off of one another. It provides a great opportunity for a homily series.

Oftentimes we three priests, we come up with our homilies however we do. We're doing our personal prayer on a Saturday afternoon, if Monsignor has Mass, I'll sit in the sacristy and see if there's anything worth stealing. There's usually not. I think, “I can do that better. Thanks, Monsignor, I got this.” But for the next four weeks, we're going to be working together, trying to build on what the readings provide for each one of us. So, there will be some questions that you can think about and ponder in your free time during the week. They will be on page 8 in the bulletin.

Each week we'll be building towards Christmas. This week we start with what the Lord gives to us. More specifically, how does the Lord tell us who he is by what he gives? If we look at the first reading from the prophet, Jeremiah, "The days are coming," says the Lord, "when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah, when I will fulfill the promise." The Lord has promised something, and then he gives us something to fulfill that promise. What is that? Because it’s the beginning of the liturgical year, we really have to go back to the beginning and review everything, right?

God created Adam and Eve good, with no sin attached. They were in relationship with God. They could talk to the animals. They didn't get cold. So I guess they lived in San Diego. But then original sin came and they fell. I've been discussing religion with the sixth graders and this part of the Kerygma comes up. Every year this seems to happen around the same time. They go over in their middle school math, they start to talk about the idea of infinity versus finite numbers, like two or seven or 27 – my favorite number, Scott Rolen for the Cardinals, third baseman, right? It's a good number. But infinity. It's hard for us to even grapple with infinity. You can't add another one. It just keeps going. Right?

When Adam and Eve fell into original sin, they created an infinite chasm because God is infinite and we are finite beings. I'm right here today, November 28th. I am not yesterday. I am not tomorrow. I'm right here. I'm not in the rectory in my bed sleeping. I'm right here, preaching in front of you. But God is infinite. He is everywhere at all times. And it's not even something that our hearts, our minds can really grasp. But when Adam and Eve created this chasm, it's not something that they could heal.

No matter how many finite beings you add up, you're never going to get to infinity, no matter how many sacrifices throughout all the generations of the Old Testament, it could never fix this problem. So God began to make promises with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob, with David, with Moses. And he began to make these covenantal promises saying, “I will fix this.” That's really what we build towards in this great Advent season. God sent his only son. We begin to see a little bit about who he is in this moment.

We all have our own interactions with human beings. Like when we've wronged someone. Father Jack walks through the door and I jump out and shout, "Boo!" And he spills his Starbucks and goes, "Oh, you got me. You're such a good scarer." Right? I'm like, "ah, sorry, man, you spilled your drink. I apologize." We make up. I'm very thankful that it's not like when I grew up. My mom would make me hold hands with my little sister and say three nice things or I’d never get to let go of her hand. That wouldn't work so well with Father Jack and I, right? But we hold grudges sometimes. We don't let things go.

We have a hard time applying our relationships with one another to God. You'd think God would be mad at us. He'd be like, "Oh my gosh, one more time. But if you reject my love, I'm done." That's not how he is. God is quick to forgive. He's patient with us. He's persevering. He's always reaching out and saying, "I want to give you who I am. I want to allow my love to be in your life, to be in a relationship with you." It's something we take for granted. It's almost too easy.

Oftentimes I think we have a difficult time. We’re so far removed from when Christ came into the world, or the time that the Jews spent waiting for the Messiah. They had that constant anticipation of “one day, one day, the Messiah will come. One day, we'll be able to live back in relationship with him.” Now we are in that time through the gift of baptism. We are able to live in that relationship with Christ. We are used to life. We've settled into things. We're like, “all right, this is life. It's good. It's not great. It's good.” But there is more. There is more brothers and sisters. The Lord is saying, "I have put this whole history of salvation and redemption through all the generations so that I can have a relationship with you,” But you must be open to it.

The Lord can set up all things, make all these covenants, all these promises, but he won’t force you to receive his love. So as we begin this new liturgical year, as we begin this journey towards Christmas, brothers and sisters, I ask you to make a little new year's resolution. Pray, “Lord, I open to you working in my life on a daily basis through living out my role as your son or daughter through the gift of baptism, and the gift of receiving the sacraments.”

Am I open to all that he wants to give me? Is he calling me to go a little deeper? To realize who he is through what he gives and to understand him a little bit more? So, brothers and sisters, as we begin the season of Advent, let's ask the Lord to open our hearts so that we can receive him in a new, and deeper, and more true way.