Thursday of the First Week of Advent

Is 26: 1-6; Mt 7: 21, 24-27

Dc. Larry Brockman

The other day, my wife and I began watching a movie.  It was supposed to be a light romantic comedy about a biracial couple.  The girl brought the boyfriend home to meet her family.  The Father was immediately upset over the racial difference.  He looks for anything he can find to validate his prejudice and finds it easily, as this young man is no athlete.  So, he taunts the young man about not being a “real man”.  The young man lies to the father and claims he is into NASCAR to get him off his back.  In the next scene, the girlfriend chastises him for lying as she unpacks a teddy in her bedroom- the room they are assigned to stay in for the night.  So, in the first 5 minutes of the film, we have prejudice, taunting, lying, and living together outside of marriage all imbedded into the story line. 

We just turned the TV off in disgust.  We were simply surfing the free preview of premium movie channels.  This choice looked to us to be the best of the 10 or so channels.  The other films that were playing were movies about drug dealers and murderers, or were horror movies.  This, however, is what our society has to offer on a daily basis on the premium movie channels.  And yet, much of our society lives their lives glued to this type of media on a daily basis, !00 or so mindless channels of secular values that capture more and more of our time.  This is the sand that Jesus warns us not to build our lives on.   

Now Isaiah tells us this morning to: “Trust in the Lord forever for the Lord is an eternal Rock”.  An eternal rock!  That sounds like the foundation that Jesus recommends in the Gospel.  The Lord as the foundation for what we do in our lives rather than the shifting morals and values of secular society as reflected in the media that is front and center in our lives today.   

But just how do we do that?  How do we build our lives around the Lord as our foundation?  How do we avoid our foundations being clogged with the sands of the time.   

The first thing that comes to mind is Isaiah’s advice to keep the faith.  Our faith is important because it says that we really do believe- believe that there is a higher purpose to life than what this world has to offer.  And that God shared his Son with us to earn us a place in his heavenly Kingdom if- if we do his will.  That is what Jesus was talking about in the Gospel- doing the will of the Father.   

Second, we can’t have the Lord as our foundation if we do not know him.  It’s pretty hard to follow the will of someone you do not know.  Knowing the Lord means prayer and some reflection.  And Advent is the perfect time of year for all of us to reflect and get to know the Lord better.  I know it’s tough, because there is so much going on.  But it’s a necessary step that we all need to take to know the Lord.  Maybe we could all turn the TV off- and specifically, those movies that are an affront to our Christian Values, and instead, spend the time getting to know the Lord.  I recommend the perpetual adoration chapel.  Make it your “Advent Resolution” to spend an hour a week between now and Christmas getting to know the Lord.   

The Lord is coming- that’s what Advent is all about.  These readings today are about his second coming at the end of our lives.  Will he find you doing his will?  Or will you be glued to your I-phone, I-pad, TV or X-box absorbed in the culture of the day.  The choice is yours- Sand or Rock.