First Sunday of Advent

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 48: 10-21 The Daily Manual Labor 

Mass: Jer 33:14-16; Resp Ps 25; 1 Th 3:12-4:2; Lk 21:25-28, 34-36

Good and upright is the Lord.

HEART OF JESUS, KING AND CENTER OF ALL HEARTS,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Happy New Liturgical Year 2022 and the beginning of the Season of Advent. A word that comes to mind this morning when we enter this "period of devout and expectant delight", is the Swati word "bobalized." I do not recall the correct spelling, it is a word that I learned some 23 years ago when I was serving our country as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of South Africa. Bobalized means hungover. Yes, hungover in the customary sense, when it is used in relationship to overindulgence in drink. However, bobalized is more expansive. One can be bobalized from overindulgence in drink, food, exercise, extreme high or lows, work, trying "to keep up with the Joneses", travel, or what many of these things result in, namely, stress. 

It occurs to me that this season is anything about being bobalized. The season of Advent, as the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year teach us, "is a time of preparation for the Solemnities of Christmas, in which the First Coming of the Son of God to humanity is remembered, and likewise a time when, by remembrance of this, minds and hearts are led to look forward to Christ's Second Coming at the end of time" (39). Therefore, we want to, as Saint Paul tells us in our second reading at Mass, strengthen our hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Th 3:13). Jesus, in the Gospel, tells us to stand erect and raise our heads because our redemption is at hand (Lk 21:28). Our Lord warns us: Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you be surprise like a trap (Lk 21:34-35). 

We can use this season, then, as a time to cleanse ourselves of things that make us drowsy. Let us not be about overindulgence. We want to be alert and ready, free from what burdens us, or from what we burden ourselves with. Saint Benedict tells us that our way of acting should be different from the world's way (RB 4:20). He tells the Abbot not to show too great concern for the fleeting and temporal things of this world (RB 2:33). It is difficult, we have the daily struggles of life, pressure at work and home, temptations, illness, death, making ends meet. There are some things though, that we can choose to free ourselves from. What is it that weighs down your heart or mind? Jesus loves you. He will help you. Ask Him. O God, come to my assistance, make haste to help me. 

United in faith and prayer, we pray for ourselves and for one another, that we be free from what makes us bobalized and drowsy. We keep watch over our ways, then, and heed Jesus' words: Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man (Lk 21:36). We want to be clear in our mind and heart to remember the birth of Jesus, and look forward to His Second Coming. 

MARY, WHO AWAITED THE LORD WITH A VIGILANT HEART,

SAINT JOSEPH, CHASTE GUARDIAN OF THE VIRGIN,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Our Advent wreath, Week One

© Gertrude Feick 2021