Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C                                                           December 22, 2024

Dec 21, 2024 | Article/Homilies

The winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The day is a sleep, but it will awake. Being asleep is not the same as being dead. Dead is a permanent reality. Asleep we are to return from.

Journey with Mary to meet Elizabeth, the graces that are in wait that are dormant. To be awaken. The true you is dormant, it is asleep.

An Avenue has opened to all: all can know salvation by knowing forgiveness. Its not about knowing hard concept, its about knowing forgiveness of sins. As a bishop once said: “We have a shortage of sinners”. Guilt is a mark of true human freedom.

Confession is a gift that awakens the conscience, it allows us to see God. The priest in confession is your trusted companion. He is willing to die for this reality. He is your trusted companion and God’s. He helps that you are moving away. Free counceling.

Confession is part of a larger taptistry of conversion. Normally when confession is a struggle there are other parts of our walk with God that are not in place.

Sin is not about a black mark, its about a broken relationship, a distancing, a deterioration of a personal bond with God. That has to be repaired by our walking. Repenting is not about regretting but about being put back on path.  We can’t receive communion because that is the reality: in sin we are not in communion. Come run as Mary did. There was a reconciliation that took place between them in that the presence of God and the broken humanity were united and it brought joy. Confession is a joyful experience.

We construct a world with no God and thus no sin. We also then loss our true freedom and mystery of who we are. We are more superficial than ever, set on a path of self absorption and gratification, Mary is a model. We don’t see the omnipresent battle of good and evil.

We are joined with God when we declare our sins. We are to become experts in the beautiful art of beginning again. Let us find the real potential of who we are. Quote by St. Augustine: When we repent we are already working with God. God indicts our sins, when we do, we are joined with God. Man and sinner are two related by not the same terms: man is what we are by God’s work; sinner is what we are by our work. Let us allow God to do his work in us. Mary is considered the mother, but she is also the daughter of the world. She is born a new in grace away from the old world of sin and self reliance. Let us awaken with Mary, as we are given only a few days left before Christmas and the awakening of the light, let us join with