St. Joseph of the Lakes

It has been a very pleasant first month in my new residence. I have pretty much moved in though I have not hung any pictures or unpacked the boxes that were packed away a year ago. I am still waiting for a built in bookshelf and some window treatments and once that is complete I will schedule the promised open house. I am thinking it will be after the Christmas holidays. There is enough other “stuff” going on until then.

We enter the Church’s new year on this first Sunday of Advent. We begin with our “beginnings” as we anticipate his coming again, when time as we know it will end and we move into the timelessness that is God’s. Jesus tells us in the Gospel that the Son of Man will come in all of his glory and when that happens he reminds us to “stand erect and raise your heads for your redemption is near at hand”. 

I think we sometimes forget that everything changed with the birth of Jesus Christ. God’s complete love for humanity was revealed in the incarnation and because of that we have nothing to fear. This is what we are working toward as we prepare for our celebration of Christmas. Advent is not a penitential season like Lent where we become reflective of our brokenness and our need for God’s grace. Instead it is a season to prepare for the great day when we will never be separated from God again. To do this we reflect both on the things that brought about his first revelation even as we anticipate the final embrace of all of us with God.