New Year's Eve for the Church

Homily for Saturday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time

The song “We Need a Little Christmas” has been featured by many different social media sites recently. Even one of our own Sisters used the lyrics of the song in a recent Facebook post about Christmas decorations and the rush to feel the good vibes of this joyous Season of the Year. I would agree that we all do “need a little Christmas” in the face of the pandemic.

If you think about it a little, every church year we jump from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve in two days! Tomorrow finds us beginning the Season of Advent, the beginning of our church year. The Gospel has a very expectant tone about it today as it advises us not to give in to drowsiness. While the Gospel blames the drowsiness on drunkenness and carousing, I doubt that would be the case here at the Woods. If we have become drowsy, it might be a sign that we are giving in to the temptation to hibernate until the pandemic is a thing of the past.

St. Luke counsels us not to become complacent. Rather he speaks to us of being vigilant. It is difficult to always have one’s guard up, to always be aware of that which is coming our way.

As we come to the end of another liturgical year and prepare to begin all over again, this is the perfect time to ask ourselves where we hope to be at the end of the coming year. Do we see ourselves making any improvements? Do we need to make some changes? Are we ready for the coming of the Lord? These are hard questions to face if we are drowsy. So let St. Luke’s words ring true today: “Be vigilant,” or as we heard earlier in the week, “Stand erect. Hold up your head.” God is prepared to give us what we need to draw closer if we open our hearts to the Advent graces that are waiting for us.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator