euphemos

Jesus is coming soon.

When I was a child and a young man, I heard this over and over. From the early 80’s, when I first began to pay attention, I heard various pseudo-scholars prophesy and attempt to explain how Jesus would be here by 1992, or 2000, but certainly not later than 2003, and then everything would change, because Jesus would be king of the world.

As a child and a young man, unconsciously overwhelmed by the burden of growing up and of the tribulation to come, and with a young man’s tendency towards laziness, these apocalyptic prophecies had an unintended consequence.

I wasn’t like the Romans Paul addresses, drunk and licentious, but I was like those Jesus describes in the Gospel readings for this first Sunday of Advent. I was eating and drinking and going to school and to work, just getting through life while I waited for his return. I was pretty sure that since I wasn’t like those people in Romans, he would have mercy upon me, and I’d probably be ok when he finally showed up, so I didn’t take my spiritual life all that seriously, either.

Somehow, I decided that since Jesus is coming soon, I didn’t need to plan for my future, or set and work towards goals. Jesus is coming soon, although we don’t know when, so what’s the point of working towards anything, since soon none of it will matter anyway?

But it does matter, and we are called not to wait passively, but to actively watch and prepare to greet him. Advent is pointless, if we don’t use it to prepare for Christ’s coming, and Christmas is worthless (or at least worth less) if we don’t use it to welcome the Christ.

Isaiah tells us (Isaiah 2) that the Lord will judge and impose terms on the nations, but it is still up to the people to beat their own swords into those plowshares, to put plow to earth, then plant, tend, and harvest.

The psalmist points out that the pilgrim must go up to the city God established, and upon arriving, give thanks and pray for the peace and good of the city. (Psalm 122)

Paul told the Romans (Romans 13) to wake up, and not just set aside the excesses of sin, but throw off darkness and take up light. He calls us to actively participate in being transformed to be like Christ.

Jesus himself told us (Matthew 24:37-44) to stay awake and alert, and prepare for his return. He tells us that to be saved, we do not need to meet any special conditions, or to be in a special position in life: we simply have to be faithful to the Lord in the middle of ordinary everyday affairs. It is in the context of these ordinary affairs of life — business, farmwork, housework, school, play, worship, etc. – that God calls us, and that we respond. This life is where our eternal happiness or eternal punishment is decided. (Navarre commentary Matthew 24:40)

Children obey your parents, so that if Jesus comes back while you’re a child, he can catch you doing something good.

Young people, neglect neither your earthly life, nor your spiritual life, so that you are prepared for his coming any time, whether it is today, for us all, or for you alone, at the end of a long life.

My friends, hold me and one another accountable to being faithful to the Lord in our everyday lives, and for helping our children and grandchildren learn to do the same.

Elders, thank you for your witness, and for showing us how to fall and get up again. Please continue to teach us how to give thanks, and please pray for our eternal peace and for our earthly good.

We don’t know when the Lord will return in glory, or come at our own death to escort us to our eternal destination, but we do know that we are called to wait actively, preparing to greet him joyfully when he comes.

If you accept, as I do, that the Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated to virginal service in the temple, then it puts a new light on the Presentation of our Lord at the Temple celebrated in the Joyful mysteries of the Rosary.

Assuming that her consecrated service was unique, it would have been notable to those like Simeon and Anna who spent a lot of time at the temple. Assuming that her consecrated was not unique, there would have been not only those two blessed souls aware of her situation, but also an assortment of others likewise consecrated to service.

Joseph resolved to divorce Mary quietly when he found out she was pregnant, and it was only by the direct intervention of an angel of the Lord that he was relieved of his fear. Without the benefit of that intervention, I can only imagine her reception upon return to the temple.

Unless the people of that time were far less cynical, and far more charitable than the people of our time, it seems likely the story could have been expected to go something like this:

Psst… see that woman with the child? Yeah, she used to be a consecrated virgin. Guess that didn’t work out so much, huh? (wink, wink, nudge nudge) Can you believe she has the nerve to show her face in the temple? It’s going to cost a lot more than a couple of birds for her purification! Do you think we ought to chase those sinners out of here with a scourge? I’ve got one here that I use to keep the sheep in line.

What incredible courage and humility Mary demonstrated by coming to the temple in obedience to the law.

And what a blessing Simeon and Anna’s warm reception must have been! Joseph and Mary, in their humility, were obedient to the word of God. God, in his goodness, amazed Joseph and Mary with consolations from the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that just like our heavenly Father?

One of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary meditates upon the finding of Jesus in the temple.

Luke 2:41-52
Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.

Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.

When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them.

He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced [in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

For a long time, I didn’t even question why this would be a joyful mystery. I mean it’s joyful because you found your son, and it is a mystery because it’s something his mother kept in her heart and pondered, so what’s there to question?

Then, one day, as I hauled my stinking carcass down the road on a hot Texas jog, it occurred to me that perhaps I should wonder why it is a joyful mystery. I’ve left a child at a restaurant, and it isn’t exactly joyful. Embarrassing and terrifying, yes, but not especially joyful. Even the finding is not overwhelmingly characterized as joyful, since it is typically tempered by some degree of blame assignment (as it was in the temple). Of course any parent would be overjoyed that the child they lost is found, but the whole experience doesn’t exactly fall in the “joyful” category.

In meditating upon these with the Blessed Mother, and considering them in my heart as she did in hers, it suddenly became clear:

The finding in the temple is joyful because Jesus is explicitly accepting his divine sonship; he is affirming, through his words and actions, the testimony that Mary and Joseph shared with him about his birth and nature. The child that Mary and Joseph presented in the temple has returned there of his own volition. What greater joy can any parents experience than for as child to claim as their own the spiritual gifts they’ve presented from the treasury of their hearts?