A  BABY  CHANGES  EVERYTHING

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this First Sunday in Advent [C] is, “A Baby Changes Everything.”

I don’t know about you, but these Advent readings - as well as the end of the Church year readings - don’t grab me.

They talk about the sun, the moon and the stars gliding and sliding and colliding in the skies. They talk about traps and tribulations on the earth and the oceans roaring - pounding our shores - and SURES.

Yes - we have earthquakes - like last week’s big one in Alaska - and we have forest fires and hurricanes - and lots of other natural and unnatural disasters. With 24/7/365 news coverage - unless we turn the TV off - or limit it - expect more.

These readings feel like loud video games - or advertisements for war movies. They want me to change the channel - or move to a quieter room - for place and space and peace.

So that’s how the Mass readings for the end of the church year  and then Advent begins every year.

And then every Advent ends with the Baby.

A baby changes everything…

I prefer Christmas at the end of Advent - with the arrival of the Baby - and silent night - and sleigh bells ringing on soft silent snow - and then the end of the Christmas rush.

ADVENT

Advent begins this Sunday. The 4 candles on the Advent wreath tell us it’s 4 weeks. The Church pushes some extra stuff for the Advent Season. However Christmas shows up early with Christmas parties and gift getting - and shopping - shopping - takes over around Thanksgiving - with Black Friday and Cyber Monday - and gotta get those Christmas cards out - because there are always those people who send out cards around December 1^st. I never did finish my Christmas Cards for last Christmas and the one before that and the one before that.

We’ll wear purple in Advent and provide confessions and we’ll hear O Come, O Come Emmanuel for the Sundays of December.

THE BABY

Don’t forget the baby.

Christianity isn’t stupid.  God is not stupid. God comes as a baby.

That’s the message.

The baby comes as a small and crawling and crying presence.

And a baby changes everything.

When it comes to life - you gotta take baby steps first.

ERICKSON’S 6^TH   AND 7^TH STEPS

Everyone who has taken a little psych in college knows Erik Erikson’s 6^th and 7^th steps and stages of life.

6^th Step: Intimacy vs Isolation - meeting and falling in love - getting out of self and into another.

7^th Step: Generativity vs. Stagnation.  We better have our babies - we better work together for others.

Then the 8^th and long - hopefully - last stage of life - when  we figure life out - our life out - our purpose in life.

My thought has been that God does not have specific, specific plans for us and for our life - other than to keep the Great Commandment - to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves - in our setting, in our circumstances, with our gifts and with our dreams.

For the sake of transparency, not everyone thinks my way - who does think  the same as the person next to them?

And yes hopefully we all pray, “Thy will be done” - which is God’s call that love one another as Christ has loved us.

MARRIAGES AND BAPTISMS

I do a lot of marriages and baptisms - and funerals as well.

And like at Christmas I know a lot of folks are not here much of the year.

And I think the numbers are going down - so I hope people at weddings, baptisms and funerals - are thinking about church and God and purpose in life.

When with couples preparing for Marriage I often hear them say they want religion for their kids.

I just listen knowing we learn from life the most.

People often go to church because of their parents and then say they will be going to church because of their kids.

At baptisms I love to read the gospel of Jesus about “Let the kids come to me and don’t stop them - because they know about the kingdom of God.”

I like to say, “Kids are the best teachers.”

I like to say, “A baby changes everything.”

Life stinks if we don’t change - so too diapers and pampers.

I have learned that the 2 biggest changers in life  - is another - moving in with another and then getting married and then having a baby.

A baby changes everything.

And couples knows this.

In marriage one has to think of another.

With a baby, two have to thank of another.

Babies change us.

Couples at first call each other, “Babe” or sing, “Baby, Baby.”

Kids teach us to see.

To see so much.

Kids want.

Love, affection, food, and to get us to see - they keep pointing. They keep looking. They keep seeing.

They make us laugh. They make us cry when they get sick.

They make us sacrifice - put down the paper - or the clicker - and give them attention - much more than a dog or a cat.

I remember dropping into a priest friend of mine  nieces house on the way home  for Christmas. We were just in time to see kids opening Christmas gifts. Not having kids of my own, it brought back memories of opening Christmas gifts - underwear and socks  - mostly.

Well, Joe's  grandnephews  - 3 boys - would be opening up great big waterguns, suppersoakers, and loud moving yellow construction trucks, and they would be celebrating - till have surveyed their Christmas take they saw their brother - get something they wanted - and there would be a whining and fighting on Christmas morning.

Violence and selfishness is in the Christmas story - the baby had to be born in a barn - and the Innocents were slaughtered…..

A baby changes everything.

That’s the Christmas story for starters.

WELCOMING

Hopefully we all get the Christmas Message - the Life Message - that the little kid points out what we’re not seeing.

The little kid - the baby - welcomes all - wants all - like take our glasses off our face - when we’re holding them.

The little kid wants to open doors, cabinets, drawers, boxes, everything.

I want it all - the little baby crawls towards life - others.

CONCLUSION

Advent, Christmas, Christianity, at this time - of small steps - is telling us life is a lot more than this.

It stars like a little bud, a little shoot as Jeremiah tells us in today’s first reading.

It starts like a push as Paul tells us in today’s second reading - a push towards Christ.

It’s  life as today’s gospel tells us: don’t get trapped by anxieties - especially the big noisy things - hear - see - the Little Baby.

Christ will change us.