It is Advent, the first Sunday in preparation for Christmas. We are given these Sundays of preparation to get our hearts ready for Jesus to be born. Have we made room for Him in our hearts? Could we make more room for him in our hearts? God, Jesus, comes into our lives. He chooses to be one of us, and yet this is the Season of Advent. It isn’t the time to celebrate, it is the time to prepare. It is not the time to decorate, or shop or whatever else we do at Christmas. It is time for us to have hearts ready to receive Him. We are in a period of waiting. It is the period of the already, but not yet. Yeah, we do know the rest of the story, we know that Christ Jesus is to be born on Christmas. We know that He will die for us on a cross, and that He will resurrect on the third day. We know the story. But, what if, in our lives, we act as if we are hearing the story for the first time. What if we act as if the message that the Angel Gabriel proclaimed to Mary at the Annunciation is happening. Can we think of what it would be like to be Mary? What about St. Joseph, or St. Elizabeth, or St. John the Baptist? This is the great story of salvation. And so often we are in the midst of the celebration of His birth without the preparation to get there. Imagine that Mary had 9 months to prepare for this day. Think about riding a donkey to go to Bethlehem. What if we just prayed a decade or two of the Rosary on just the first two Joyful Mysteries (The Annunciation & Visitation). This would help us to prepare. And when Christmas comes then pray the third Joyful Mystery (The Birth of Jesus). Now is this beautiful time to get ourselves ready for His birth. Now, not tomorrow, or the next day, but now. Are we going to let Him be born in our hearts? Are we going to make more room for Him in our lives? If someone looked at our lives, would it be seen that His birth means something, or is it something we give lip service to? Christmas will come with its beautiful celebrations, still will we be prepared to welcome Him when He comes?
Fr. Thomas P. Galarneault