HOMILY ADVENT WEEK 01 04 – Yr I

Building Our Lives on Rock

((Is 26:1-6; Ps 118; Mt 7:24-27)

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At the Western Wall in Jerusalem, our guide pointed out that the massive stones we saw were really just a retaining wall to support the platform on which the temple was built. What a solid foundation!

Today, in the gospel, Jesus advises his disciples to do the same – to be like those who build their houses on rock. How do we do that? May I suggest we build our lives on Jesus as our rock through humble faith and obedient love.

On an earlier sojourn in the Holy Land with the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, we were privileged to walk through the tunnels revealing the massive lower rocks that are still part of that retaining rock now supporting the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. We were amazed not only at the size of those stones, but also the precise measurements and placement as the foundation. Once again, the lesson was impressed on us – we need to give even greater attention to the faith foundation of our lives in Christ – what will really ground us in him so we can withstand the often harsh vicissitudes of life.

Isaiah, in the first reading, speaks of two key building blocks for a life grounded in Jesus – faith and humility. We are to “trust in the Lord forever,” to put our complete faith and trust in Jesus. Faith is a dynamic process. Our belief in Jesus must grow and become faith in him as Son of God. That faith must also grow and become trust in his power to work in our lives.

Isaiah also reminds us our God works in humble hearts and “brings low the lofty city.” God can’t work in proud self-sufficient hearts. God’s grace, as St. Paul was told, works best in our weakness. Our humility can be to admit our need for that power of God working in our lives.

Jesus as the Messiah came with a two-fold mission, to redeem and to save, to forgive and to heal. We have to be humble, face and admit the truth of our sin and wrong-doing, and come to him for the forgiveness he so freely offers us. But that is not all – we must go deeper, face and admit our sinfulness, that which makes us sin, our painful emotions and defects of character, and become willing to let go of them, to surrender them to his healing touch, and allow him to fill us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Belief must become faith, which in turn becomes trust, and finally ends in surrender.

Then Jesus delivers the second part of the message of these readings – loving obedience, which flows out of humble faith. We are to do God’s will, not our own, or as some of the saints put it, to rest our will in God’s will.

The late psychiatrist Gerald May wrote a book entitled Will and Gracein which he distinguishes between being willful and willing. To be willful is to be stubborn, pushy, insist on doing things our way, going on our own, refusing help, and then we wonder why our life gets complicated. For some, the saying “It’s my way or the highway” applies. The Returning To Spirit process teaches the latest addiction in our society is “Being Right.” He thinks, “I’m right and she’s wrong” and she thinks, “I’m right and he’s wrong.” What drops out? The relationship. What is more important – being right, or the relationship?

I lost out on fifteen years of a quality relationship with my father because I was convinced he had raised us the wrong way as a workaholic and I stubbornly tried to convince him of that reality and change him for fifteen years. Did it work? Of course not – I just lost fifteen precious years because of my willfulness, insisting on my own will. Amazing how long it took me to learn this gospel message. I am so grateful I did – two years before he died when like the prodigal son, I came to my senses, apologized, we were reconciled and had two good years together before he died.

The 12 Step program offers some wisdom here. Step Three asks us to make a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God as we understand God. To let go of our stubborn self-will and to try to line up our will with God’s will is certainly an act of humble faith.

Step 11 of the same program encourages us to improve our conscious contact with God through prayer and meditation, seeking only the knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry it out. Another beautiful step that is right on the money.

Certainly, a large part of God’s will for us, as taught to us by Jesus, is to keep God’s commandments to love God back, to love others as we love ourselves, to love one another as Jesus has loved us, and perhaps most challenging of all, to love our enemies by forgiving them from the heart.

Someone who certainly lived this message of humble faith and loving obedience is St. Nicholas, whom we honor today. Little is known about the early life of Nicholas. In the early 4^thcentury he was made bishop of Myra in Lycia (now Turkey). Famous for his charity, he became the focus of popular cults and devotions in the early Middle Ages. He was so popular that he was chosen joint patron of Russian with Saint Andrew; he is also a patron of sailors and children. In many parts of the world, he still plays a role as Santa clause.

The Eucharist is in itself an act of humble faith as simple gifts of bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ. It also mandates us, strengthened and renewed, to go out to our homes and community, with Good News – the Lord is risen and among us, relying on us to build up his reign right here and now as Church, as his Body, his people.