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Throughout the Advent season, our Old Testament readings at Mass focus on the prophet Isaiah, and with good reason. Much of Isaiah’s prophecy foretells the coming of the Messiah, Our Lord Jesus Christ, so we look at what Isaiah said about Our Lord as we prepare for His coming. Likewise, we also focus on John the Baptist and his proclamation of the immediate coming of the Messiah to the people of Israel.

It might be easy to read these texts as historical preludes to the story of Christmas. Just as a novel may have a prelude chapter to set the scene for the story, we can easy look at the prophesy of Isaiah and the proclamation of John the Baptist as setting the scene for Our Lord’s birth. That is true if we look at the story of Christmas as just that: an interesting, feel-good story with no effect on our lives today.

As Christians, however, we don’t believe that the Scriptures are a history book or a historical novel. Instead, we know they are living words with a message that is as needed today as it was 2000 years ago when John the Baptist first spoke them. We hear this message spoken concisely by John the Baptist in the Gospel today: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Problem is, we don’t want to hear about repentance. There’s a popular view of repentance that is negative, with God seen as a stern judge who writes down every little thing we do wrong, and is ready to condemn us if we don’t repent. When we do repent of our sins, we receive harsh punishments enacted by God as a consequence of our sins, and terrible, difficult penances issued by priests within the Sacrament of Confession.

Of course, none of this is true. OK, maybe the last part about the priests giving difficult penances might be true, but the rest is not true. Repentance is not merely God deigning to forgive us of our sins, but a reconciliation with God. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it many times in the future: sin is our turning away from God, choosing our own right and wrong over what He has revealed as right or wrong, and is not God turning away from us. God truly is our Heavenly Father, and like many earthly Fathers, He wants to flood us with the best of gifts. When we repent from our sins, we become open to receiving His graces of healing and peace in our lives. Sin restricts us from His graces, but repentance opens us up to them.

To be clear, this repentance is not a one-time deal. Each of us, every single one of us, commit sins every day that we need to repent from. Also, we can’t just think, “I repent from my sins” and then go on with nothing changed in our lives. As John the Baptist told the Pharisees and Sadducees, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.” True repentance, which must include reception of the Sacrament of Confession, will lead to changes in our lives. They might be small, barely noticeable to all but those closest to you, but those changes still occur.

This true repentance should not be seen as something painful, although some measure of pain may come when we have to confront our pride. We should approach repentance as something joyful, something we desire above all things on Earth, because it truly is a joyful preparation in our lives for the coming of Our Lord and for our joining with Him. As St. Paul puts it, we should “think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We should seek union with Christ so that we may one day join Him and our brothers and sisters in the glories of Heaven.

John the Baptist tells us that those who repent and whose lives show the fruit of that repentance will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Isaiah promises us that in this Kingdom, “There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain […] for His dwelling shall be glorious.” This message of John the Baptist and the prophet Isaiah truly should be a message of joy and hope in our lives. If we are willing to let go of our pride and repent of our sins, we too will look forward with joy to the return of Our Lord.

It never fails. Whenever freedom of speech is brought up in a blog post about some position contrary to the Catholic Faith, someone writes a response to the extent of, “Error has no rights whatsoever, be it in the spoken word, written statement or otherwise.” Their point, as near as I can tell, is that we should not have the wide-ranging freedom of speech we enjoy here in the United States, but should only be free to express that which is compatible with the Truth revealed by Christ.

As Christians, we must always speak and act according to the Truth. Because we follow Christ, we do not have the freedom to behave contrary to his will, and fall into sin when we do. If we are serious about our belief in Christ, we must use our free will to do what we ought, as Pope John Paul II put so eloquently.

On a civil level, there is a problem. We need to be very careful when desiring the abolition of government protected free speech. We do not live in a country governed by Catholic values. Some would argue the United States is barely holding on to any Christian virtue at all. It is not Christian Truth that governs this nation’s practices, but rather post-modern philosophies that reject the Christian Faith.

If government protected free speech were withdrawn, it would not be error that would be repressed, but the Truth of Christ. The revealed Truth of Christ would be seen, as it already is in some places, to be “hate speech” and would be repressed severely. The same freedom of speech which allows error to be expressed also allows us to proclaim the Truth of Christ. Of course, that’s the problem, isn’t it? Those who would remove freedom of speech from error require that same freedom of speech to call for its abolition.

There is a solution to the problem, but it’s far more difficult then merely calling for repression of error. Instead of removing the freedom of speech from those who disagree with the Truth revealed by Christ, we should use the same freedom of speech to spread the Gospel. One of the Spiritual Works of Mercy is to instruct the ignorant. We can fight error with Truth, not merely seek to repress it. Truth will overcome error, but we need to courageous in proclaiming that Truth.

OK, there’s a story behind this bumper sticker. Last night, as I was watching Fr. Corapi on EWTN, he used the phrase “our favorite sins”. This is a phrase I use frequently, and didn’t realize that I must have picked it up from someone else. In fact, I came to realize that I’m very unoriginal in my thinking, which is a good thing for a Catholic priest.

My role in salvation is not to come up with my own original ideas, but to present to those I serve the Truth revealed by Christ 2000 years ago. Since the Church has the fullness of Truth revealed by Christ, anything I come up with that goes beyond that truth is my own invention and will go contrary to that Truth. Holding something which is contrary to the truth of Christ is heresy, and obstinately holding a heretical thought makes one a heretic.

Now, I am going to make this clear: this bumper sticker is presented tongue in cheek. It’s purposely overblown. No offense is intended. If you do find yourself being offended by it, perhaps you need to reevaluate something you hold contrary to the teachings of the Church. Anyways, here it is: Only Heretics have Original Thoughts bumper sticker.

As I mentioned in the announcements and bulletin last week, our vigil this evening is in response to a request by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, to begin our Advent season by praying for all nascent human life. Now, nascent is not a word that we commonly use, so a better word might be “developing”. This vigil tonight is one of prayer for all unborn humans throughout the world.

Of course, it’s appropriate that we would start the Advent season with a pro-life vigil for the unborn. Before Our Lord’s birth over 2000 years ago, He grew and developed in Mary’s womb just as did each of us at the beginning of our lives. An ad campaign currently running in Great Britain shows an ultrasound image of a child with a halo over its head, with text that reads “He’s on His way: Christmas starts with Christ”.

As we begin this Advent season preparing for the celebration of Christ’s birth at Christmas, it’s important that we remember those children who are awaiting their own births. We also remember and pray for those children who are at risk of being aborted before they ever have the opportunity to celebrate their own births. Similarly, we include in our prayers those embryos that are killed in the name of advancing science through embryonic stem cell research, and remember embryos created for the purpose of In-Vitro Fertilization and later destroyed without being implanted.

All these, from the smallest embryo in the laboratory to the newly-born infant, are just as human and have just as much right to life as we do. Genetically, they are unique individuals and deserve our protection. In the eyes of God, they are made in His image and likeness, and have every right to receive the salvation promised by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sadly, we live in a world where the unborn is at risk. In much of the world, abortion is legal through all nine months of development. In some countries, abortion is used for the purposes of sex selection, where one sex is more desirable than others, or to eliminate those seen as flawed due to a physical or mental defect. Laboratories throughout the world dispose of “fertilized eggs”, meaning embryonic human life, when no longer needed for embryonic stem cell research or In-Vitro Fertilization. Human life is seen as disposable, and the unborn, developing form of human life is the most vulnerable to being disposed when inconvenient.

In response to the dangers to unborn human life, we gather in union with our Holy Father and Catholics throughout the world to pray and stand in solidarity with the unborn, developing humans throughout the world. We pray this evening that human life be defended and protected from the first moment of conception to the last breath of our natural lifespans.

To begin this season of Advent, I’d like to ask all of you a couple questions to think about between now and Christmas. First question: if we knew when Jesus would return, how would you act and what would you do as that day drew closer? We know that Jesus’ return leads to the judgment of how faithful we were in following Him, so would you take the steps necessary to be on His good side, like receiving the Sacraments and praying? Hopefully, we all would, but perhaps not all would make the effort.

Second question: since all of us will likely live out our whole lives before Jesus comes again, how would you behave if you knew the day and time of your death? Would you spend those last moments preparing for eternal life? Again, I think most people would, but not all.

We have entered into the season of Advent, a time which is commonly thought of as a period of preparation for the celebration of Our Lord’s birth on Christmas. Most of us use this season to decorate our houses, buy gifts, and make travel plans, but that’s not the only purpose of the Advent season. We also celebrate Advent every year as a time of preparation for Our Lord’s return at the end of the world. This season is a reminder for us, as Jesus Himself says in the Gospel today, to “stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” (Mt 24:42)

I asked the two questions at the beginning because those are the questions we should be asking ourselves throughout the Advent season. We need to seriously contemplate whether our lives, as we live them now, are in accord with Our Lord’s commands for His disciples. If they’re not, this is as good a time as any to wake up our faith. As St. Paul puts it, “it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” (Rom 13:11) Remember, it is the hour now, not tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year.

Advent truly is a time for us to wake up, spiritually. It’s easy to allow our spiritual life to fall asleep by just doing the bare minimums. You could go to Mass every week, receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation once a year, and have a spiritual life that has gone to sleep from boredom and lack of use. Just as lack of physical or mental exertion can lead to physical boredom and drowsiness, a lack of spiritual exertion can lead to a drowsy spiritual life.

So, how do we wake up our spiritual lives? By exercising them! As the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah put it, “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may instruct us in His ways, and we may walk in His paths.” (Is 2:3) We wake up our spiritual lives by actively engaging them, resolving to grow and stretch our faith.

Just as we make New Year’s resolutions, we can make New Liturgical Year’s resolutions. A great way to wake up a spiritual life is to find and practice one of the many private devotions available, such as the Rosary, the different litanies of prayer, or Divine Mercy Chaplet. If a whole Rosary seems a bit daunting, even just praying an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be several times a day can do wonders. We can resolve to learn more about our faith, seeking out books and materials, like the Lighthouse Catholic CDs, to raise us from the basic education many of us have in what it means to follow Christ. Of course, being attentive at Mass – participating fully through responses and listening attentively to prayers, readings, and homily – is the best way to an energized spiritual life.

Our challenge for Advent is best summarized by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans: “Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. […] Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” (Rom 13:12, 14) We need to throw off those practices in our lives which put our spiritual lives to sleep, and prepare for Our Lord’s return by putting on those practices which can wake them up. So, the challenge for us this Advent season is simple: Wake up!

The Holy Father has asked Catholics throughout the world to join him in a vigil for all nascent human life. This vigil is an opportunity to pray for the unborn on this First Sunday of Advent, and I would encourage all Catholics to attend vigils in your area if they’re available. If not, the USCCB has guides available to download and use. For home use, the Simplified Option 1 contains Evening Prayer and Benediction as part of the vigil, and could be used with the exclusion of the Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. This is the option I’ll be using as part of our vigil tonight at 6:30 PM, following the anticipatory Mass.

A blessed Thanksgiving Day to all of you! May this be a day of gratitude for the gifts given us by our God who created and loves each and every one of us, especially gratitude for the gift of life and the salvation won by Christ!