First Sunday of Advent - C
Jer 33:14-16, Thes 3:12-4:2, Lk 21:25-36
Fr. Carl McCarthy
December 3, 2006 

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another. Thes 3:12 

            I visited the first grade classroom.  My assignment was to talk with them about the upcoming Season of Advent.  I began by asking if someone could tell me about Advent.  Several students quickly raised their hands and called out, “pick me; pick me!”  I called on a student, and he said, “Advent is when you got that black stuff put on your forehead in the shape of a cross.” “That’s a nice try, but that’s Lent,” I said. I then called on another student, who said, “Advent is a time when you do something nice for someone.” “That’s part of what Advent asks us to do,” I said. “Is there something else that someone would like to add?”  One hand remained in the air, so I called on a quiet little girl, who said, “Advent is when we try to love more.”
            She must have been reading ahead. That is exactly what St. Paul prays that the Thessalonians will do.  Paul could not yet travel to visit the Thessalonians himself, but he had a fond place for them in his heart, so he sends them a letter.  In the letter, he prays, “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another.” To love one another, Paul says, is to strengthen your hearts and make you spotless in holiness. Paul then told them to make this prayer before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
            I hope that, even today, Paul is praying for us, and that his prayer helps us remember that we need to grow in love. It doesn’t hurt to be reminded that we need to love more. In this confusing world, we can become lost and afraid, and we can forget how to love.
            Advent reminds us that, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of our very busy days, we need to love more.
Daily we are bombarded with situations that can challenge us at the core of our being and take away our love.  I’m not just speaking of the long Christmas shopping lines, or the frantic pace we set to decorate our homes for the Christmas season, or the desperate search for the perfect outfit to wear to the office Christmas party. I’m speaking of the serious challenges that we face in our world -- the words of hate that we hear from our global enemies; the tension present among world religions; the bickering among our own politicians, whom we look towards for leadership; and the fact that our country, as well as others, remains at war in Iraq.
            Daily we may experience our own personal challenges and confusions with remembering how to love. We struggle with a horrible mistake that we made, and we search for forgiveness; we have a son or a daughter, who is strung out on drugs, and we wonder if they will ever make it to sobriety; we struggle with the pain of a family member, who took his own life in suicide; we have a grandchild, who is pregnant and will have a child outside of marriage; we are dealing with a very hurtful memory from our past, and we are looking for healing; we have son or a daughter who no longer believes in God, and, as a parents, we think, “where did we go wrong?” 
            Advent is a time for us to grow in love. It is a time for us to come to share in God’s love in a new way. Learning how to love takes a lifetime. But a lover we must be. The answer to love is found in the way that we stay alert to the needs of one another.              As we enter into Advent, hear this old story that teaches the way to increase in love. 
            There was an old monk, who had become the revered abbot of a monastery.  One day, a very young and enthusiastic monk came to question him about his life. “Father, in all these years of prayer and discipline and works of penance, have you become enlightened on how to become holy and truly love another?”
            The old abbot broke out in laughter and said, “If you have to ask, then it’s not obvious. No, I have not become all that holy. And I don’t know how to truly love another.  It’s hard enough just to survive day-to-day with some sort of gracefulness. And to learn how to love as well is asking a lot.”
            But the young monk was serious, so he pressed him on the question: “Then why do you stay? Why do you continue to be a monk? Have you learned nothing in all these years of being a monk?” 
            The old monk eyed him seriously and said, “Well, yes; I have learned one thing about God. Stay awake! You never know when God will come and visit you.  Stay awake! You never know when your plans, so carefully laid out and detailed, will be derailed -- when your patterns and routines will be interrupted. Stay awake!  God loves to surprise you, catch you off guard, and throw you off balance, coming and insisting that he be allowed at the center of you life – there, you will learn how to be holy and how to love. So, stay awake!”