“[I]t is now the hour for us to rise
from sleep:
for now our salvation is nearer than when we [first] believed.”
Ordinary
of the Mass
Mass Text - Latin
Mass Text -
English
Blessing of the Advent Wreath
Archbishop
Humphreys' Advent 2013 Pastoral Letter
Today is the First Sunday of
Advent. The Advent season lasts for as long as four weeks, and serves to
prepare us for Christmas, much as Lent prepares us for Easter. In modern
times the fasting and abstinence have been reduced to the Ember days and to
the Vigil of Christmas, but we are urged to avoid the frivolities of life in
order spend more time in prayer, spiritual reading, and pious meditation.
Cut back on the movies and the television, and the reading of fiction. If
you can do so, your Christmas celebration ought to come on or after
Christmas, and not before it during Advent. Just be aware of these things
as you set your schedule for the next few weeks.
Today is the beginning of the
Church’s liturgical year. Most of you are probably aware that the Church
makes use of the Sunday Masses and some of the more important Feast Day
Masses to make us aware of the events in the Life of Jesus and Mary each
year. The four Sundays of Advent represent the four thousand years from the
fall of Adam and Eve until the coming of the promised Redeemer. A minor
feast known as the “Expectancy of the Blessed Virgin Mary” fits the
Annunciation into the season on December 18th. The Masses of the Christmas
Season, From December 24th through February 2nd present the events of our
Lord’s birth, circumcision, and presentation in the Temple. These overlap a
bit with the beginnings of His public life on December 13th and the Second
Sunday after Epiphany—His Baptism in the Jordan River, and His first miracle
at Cana of Galilee.
Lent and Easter re-present various
events in Our Lord’s public life, culminating with His entry into Jerusalem,
Last Supper, Crucifixion and death, and finally His Resurrection from the
dead.
Forty days later, Ascension Thursday
commemorates His Ascension into Heaven, and then the descent of the Holy
Ghost on the fiftieth day, which we call Pentecost.
The remaining Sundays after
Pentecost give us greater insight into His public life. The Sunday after
All Saints day reminds us that we are called to honor Christ as our King;
our chief legislator, ruler, and judge here on earth. Finally the
post-Pentecost season ends with Jesus’ prediction of the Last Days which we
read last Sunday, the final Sunday after Pentecost.
The question, then is raised: If
the end of the Church’s year dealt with the end-times, why then do we
hear about them again at the very beginning of the year?
The answer is that the Church is anxious to call to mind the whole purpose
for this continuous liturgical re-presentation of the life of Christ. And
the reason, of course, is that it is the way to make us realize the
seriousness of the call to believe in Jesus Christ, to keep His
Commandments, and to live in the sacramental life of grace.
Technically, we can say that the end
times are our “final cause” for being Catholics. The knowledge that the
world will end, but life will in some way go on, draws us like a magnet
through the living of the Catholic Faith.
Why are we Catholics? Why do we
attend Holy Mass? Why do we pray? Why do we perform works of mercy for
those in need? Clearly the answer is that in being familiar with the life
of Christ we learn the great importance of worshipping the One True God, and
of preparing for our own personal end in such a way that we will spend
eternity with Him.
Among the various religions,
Christianity is rather unique in that its transcendent God entered into the
history of the human beings whom He created. Not only did He send His
angels and His prophets, but He Himself visited His people in the Person of
His only begotten Son. The love of God for us is not some abstract thing.
It is so powerful that He reaches out to everyone in the
world—individually—in order that they might receive Baptism and be
incorporated in His Mystical Body on Earth.
In tracing the life of His Son, the
liturgical year sets forth His example for our imitation. If we come to
Mass each Sunday and Holy day, and seek to learn about the lives of Jesus
and Mary, we will learn all of the things necessary for us to enter eternity
when the end comes. And that end will come for each and every one of us,
whether or not the events described in the Gospel take place in our time or
thousands of years from now.
I would be remiss if I didn’t
recognize the obvious fact the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin compliments the
liturgical year. The two supply material for meditation to each other, and
the astute Catholic will attend Mass with an eye toward improving his
understanding of the fifteen mysteries, and will say his Rosary with an eye
toward a greater appreciation of the liturgical year.
So plan now to make a good Advent,
and a blessed Christmas—not just for now, but for eternity. As Saint Paul
told us this morning:
“[I]t is now the hour for us to rise
from sleep:
for now our salvation is nearer than when we [first] believed.”
