Jim Reposkey on Awaiting Christ

Yesterday Sunday November 30 marked the first Sunday of Advent celebrated in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto. In the homily of the Mass at St. Alphonsus Church, Fr. James Reposkey, C.PP.S., one of the most prolific homilists in Canada, reflected on the Biblical readings. Here I paraphrase him on a few points as I understood them. Referring to the first reading from Isaiah 63, 64 "Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?  Return for the sake of your servants" (Is. 63: 16B-17) Fr. Jim spoke passionately about our need for God in time of desolation when everything seems to have been desecrated. In his fear for the People of God eight centuries before Christ, Isaiah cried out to God asking the Lord to deliver Israel from the hands of tyrants who had taken them captives. Are not we captives today to the materialist world? Is not the Church under attack today? But as St. Paul declares to the Corinthians "I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way,
with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 1) we too must thank God for the grace and gifts he bestowed on us in Christ. God knows the hearts that prayed, and the hands that worked for his glory. He knows the services given in the day care, school, parish, catechists and the new council of the Knights of Columbus to those in need of help both spiritual and material. And yet, Christ alerts us “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” (Mk 13: 33-37). In Advent we are called to watch and watch. He was already born 2000 years ago -He will not be reborn. Yet, we need to be reborn and renewed in Christ. For this, he sent his Holy Spirit and left us himself in his body and blood,which we partake of  in the Eucharistic thanksgiving. The body of Christ is holy. Please go to confession to receive it in grace. In all Churches of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, there will be on December 10 a full day for confession in the sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation all morning, afternoon and evening. May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all.