Homily, November 30, 2025

November 30, 2025

482

From The Pastor

It impresses me that Advent is often presented and received as a gentle season of attentive, if not sentimental, preparation for Christmas. Advent does not seem to carry the weight and impact of the hard punching weeks of Lent in preparation for the Passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus. I am not sure this is the right tone for Advent. We can all recall when Advent was a kind of mini-Lent that had a penitential tone of readiness and preparation.

Consider more closely the reality of what we are asked to prepare ourselves for. In truth, the season could not be more radical. After generations of ardent longing through many forms of suffering, oppression, human infidelity and idolatry, God breaks into the world through the womb of the Virgin Mary to bring forth the Incarnate Son. There is nothing more radical that has ever happened or will ever happen in the created world.

Advent is time centered. So radical is the coming of God into our world that it gains its own title: ‘In the fulness of time,’ God in Christ, born of the Virgin, given the name “Jesus” is, in himself the fulness of time. All time, before and after the inbreaking of God in our world, is now measured through the person of Jesus as the Christ and Redeemer.

Advent is celebrated by the Universal Church as the corporate Body of Christ. By necessity, the feast demands the attention and commitment of each of us personally. Yes, God came to all of us and to the fullness of creation, but we cannot think that widely. To do so makes the reality too abstract. We must make the reality of ‘God with us’ immediate and in the context of our lives, both in the rhythms of our personal life situation as well as in the situation of the Church and world that surrounds us.

Advent is a liminal time. It is a time that leaves us in the in-between what was, against what is coming. This is a holy, yet unsettled place to find ourselves. Change is naturally upsetting to human beings, especially unexpected change leading to an unknown future. This is where we find ourselves in the restructuring of the Archdiocese. As a matter of course, I will do the best I can to keep you informed as the process moves along. I can tell you there will not be week-to-week updates. The overall process is formatted in three phases with intentional work accomplished in each phase. In time, after the first of the year I think, there will be a series of listening sessions when parishioners will have the opportunity to voice their concerns and advocate for their parish. These listening sessions will be in the second phase of the process. The third phase will be in the Spring of 2026 with further discernment and final plan proposals. The process is scheduled for completion and implementation by July 1^st of 2027. When I know more specific details, I am committed to keeping you informed.

I am pleased and grateful to the eight people in our parish who have generously agreed to be key parish leaders (KPL) in this process. Their time commitment will include training to be listeners and table facilitators as we move through this process. I will introduce them at Mass and will have their names in the bulletin. They know what I know, which at this point is not much. They will do the best they can to answer your questions and relay information. Please be kind, patient, and courteous to these generous parishioners.

Most importantly, please use the season of Advent to secure yourself in the faith we so dearly profess. Please consider these reflection questions to center yourself in Christ in a way that will lead you to a deeper awareness of His presence in you.

Advent means ‘coming’ or ‘an anticipated coming.’ What is pregnant or coming to birth in you as a person of faith through the rhythms of your life? What are you longing for, most deeply desiring that you know is in you, but you do not know how it will come forth? Our ancestors, both near and far, felt this way. They longed for something (a Messiah/Savior), but they did not know how, who, or when. That is the nature and the birthing of the Advent season. God is doing something in you. What could it be? God is doing something in the Church and in the world. What will it be and what role, position, or place will God ask you to play? Consider Mary at the time of the Annunciation. She knew very little, except the mystery that stirred in her heart which she allowed to change and transform her life into becoming the Mother of our Savior.

Times change and we must change with them. Change is mostly unwanted, and not easy, but essential to the rhythms of God’s plan for our salvation into the light of heavenly glory. Buckle up, it is a brave and radical season, and you are an important part of it.

Father John Esper

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