His Excellency,
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Diocese of Belleville
Third Sunday of Advent
December 15, 2024, 9:00 AM Mass
St. Luke Parish, Belleville
This homily was delivered by the Bishop prior to delivering an address on eschatology to members of the university community.
The Presidential Election and the Christian Life
(This is the text as originally written. During the actual delivery, some passages were omitted and other comments were added spontaneously. Nota bene: This text has not been thoroughly proofread. Therefore, there may be errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
John the Baptist would probably not be much fun at your Christmas dinner or your New Year’s Eve party. Paul of Tarsus would probably be even worse. Yet, here both of them are, stopping us in our tracks on this Third Sunday of Advent. Each of them is concerned about the main thing. They want to remind us of the main thing. The main thing is to know the main thing and to keep the main thing the main thing. This morning, they are asking us: Do we know what the main thing is? Both John the Baptist and Paul of Tarsus know that Advent is much more difficult than Lent. During Lent, some Christians seem willing to go with Jesus of Nazareth into the desert to spend time in prayer and fasting, acknowledging sorrow for their sins, seeking God’s forgiveness and meditating on the life-giving, sin shattering mystery of the death and Resurrection of Jesus, and our own hope of sharing in the eternal life promised by Christ to those who love Him and imitate His unconditional love for all people everywhere. This surely pleases John and Paul because it gets us closer to the main thing.
Advent is a lot harder. We all know Advent is supposed to be all about: “O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. O come, O come Emanuel. O come, O King of nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind. Bid all our sad divisions cease and be yourself our King of Peace.”
But the winter solstice and Santa Claus have distracted many of us from the main thing of Advent.
The winter solstice occurs when either of Earth’s poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. It is the reversal of the sun’s apparent ebbing in the sky; daytime stops becoming shorter and begins to lengthen again. In antiquity, the winter solstice was seen as the death and rebirth of the sun god. Many exciting wintertime festivals were celebrated during the winter solstice. In ancient Rome, long before the birth of Christ, the winter solstice fell on December 25th, the same day as the Roman festival of the rebirth of the sun, Sol Invictus. Emperor Constantine established
Christianity within the Roman Empire with the Edict of Milan in 313 AD. The Church in Rome, which has no idea of the date on which Jesus was born, began celebrating Christmas on December 25th, the date of the winter solstice, in 336. Thus, Christianity unwittingly incorporated many pagan traditions associated with the winter solstice into Christmas celebrations, including the use of evergreens and the tradition of lighting a Yule log.
201 years ago, on December 23, 1823, an Episcopal Priest, Clement Clark Moore, published the poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” popularly miscalled, “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” allegedly written for his grandchildren. The popular drawings associated with this poem are largely responsible for most of America’s conceptions of Santa Claus (completely obscuring the Catholic Saint, Nicholas) from the mid-19th century to today. The poem had a massive impact on the history of Christmas shopping and gift-giving, now commercialized into the most successful money-making season of buying and selling of the year, with endless television ads about how many “shopping days” remain not until the Christmas Holy Days, NO, “until the Holiday Season.” Saint John the Baptist and Saint Paul of Tarsus would not understand any of this. Nor would they easily understand how the winter solstice and the Santa Claus tale had been able to completely distract Americans, including many Catholics, from the main thing: the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God in the womb of a virgin betrothed to Joseph, by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
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Now, John the Baptist, naked except for a piece of camel hair, comes straight out of the desert, where he lived on locust and wild honey, charging into the mall where you are doing last-minute Christmas shopping, shouting: “I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight His path. You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” John’s booming voice immediately gets your attention.
Some shoppers ask him, “What should we do?” He tells them, “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” Wealthy merchants ask him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He tells them, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.” Others in the mall ask John, “And what is it that we should do?” He says, “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.” Many of the shoppers were startled. They asked each other who this strange man could be. Is he telling us that we need to change completely our ideas about Christmas?
John then says, “One mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the straps of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Then a teenaged girl says, “Could this man be a prophet reminding us of the main thing: the greatest Christmas present of all is the present of the Presence of Christ reborn each year in the cold stable of our hearts?”
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Just then, the security guards grab the disheveled man and take him away. The store manager announces on the public address system, “Attention shoppers! We are sorry for this incident. A homeless man wandered into the store somehow, shouting nonsense and talking about ‘a Lamb of God.’ Pay no attention to him! Forget about everything he said! He has been removed from the store. Please go on with your holiday shopping. It’s business as usual! For your trouble, we are offering a leg of lamb at half price.”
No sooner than you get home and put your leg of lamb in the refrigerator, the doorbell rings. FedEx has an urgent letter for you, marked “personal and confidential,” from someone named Paul on death row in a prison in Rome. You say, “We don’t know any Paul in prison in Rome.” But he knows you, and he informs you that he is about to be beheaded for writing and preaching about the main thing. He originally sent the letter to the Christians living in Phillipi. But he wants you to have a copy before he dies. He wants to make sure you know about the main thing.
Paul begins by urging you to “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Paul writes under a death sentence. Yet, since he is imprisoned because of his constant preaching about Jesus Christ, he can say he rejoices always, and he wants you to do the same thing on this Gaudete Sunday. He knows well that you may not feel like rejoicing ALWAYS. He knows the things you are worrying about: our war-torn world, our divided country, our family difficulties, our gravely ill family members, our personal health concerns, our financial difficulties, our marriage problems, and so much more. Still, he writes, “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” But how can we have no anxiety? For Paul, the answer is the main thing. “The Lord is near!” His radical confidence in the nearness of Christ gives him peace at the center in the middle of turmoil, even in the face of imminent death.
Paul ends by urging you to read his letter to all of your family during your Christmas dinner. You think this is simply not possible; the dinner is pandemonium, everyone is laughing and talking and enjoying a delicious meal. Paul says, “Read my letter! If you do, and if they listen, then ‘the peace of God’ that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
John the Baptist and Paul of Tarsus are speaking to our hearts this Advent morning. Do not forget the main thing. The main thing is to know the main thing and to keep the main thing the main thing. Your Christmas cards with a lovely family photo is not the main thing! Your annual single-spaced Christmas letter, which most people will not read, is not the main thing! The things you have bought to put under your tree for you and your family are not the main thing! The delicious meal that you are planning for Christmas day is not the main thing! The main thing is the awesome mystery of “infinity dwindled into infancy” in the wonder of the Incarnation.
This is the main thing: “The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. And she conceived by the Holy Spirit. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us!”
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us!
Praised be Jesus Christ. Both now and forever. Amen!