Friday, December 11, 2009

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C – 2009

thermometer I wrote this homily with 102 temperature so if it doesn’t make sense be merciful.

Today if I could crawl into your little heads,
I think I would find thoughts like;

I can’t wait until these exams are finished.

I can’t wait until I have nothing due.

I can’t wait until I can sleep as long as I want and then roll over and sleep some more.

I can’t wait for my mother’s cooking.

I can’t wait t see my friends.

I can’t wait to be with my family.

I can’t wait to be in my own room.

I can’t wait to be home.

Today is the third Sunday of Advent.
Today we lit the pink candle.

It is usually called Gaudete Sunday, or the Sunday of Joy

Try preaching about joy to a church filled with students facing a week of final exams.

I would rather call today “I can’t wait Sunday”
Or “expectation Sunday.”

In the Gospel we heard that upon listening to John the Baptist everyone was filled with expectation.

They couldn’t wait for the Messiah and neither can we
They couldn’t wait for freedom and neither can we
They longed for the joy which we would enjoy with his coming and so do we.

You see when we have faith, when we choose to believe,
it is impossible to live our lives without expectation
and it is impossible to live our lives without joy.

If there is no joy in our lives
if there is no expectation we have to ask ourselves what have I forgotten?

Where has my hope gone?
Or maybe, where has my faith gone ?

When you have faith,
real faith,
life giving faith,
it is impossible not to be filled with hope.
The two go hand in hand.

When you have faith…
It is impossible not to think or dream about the next beautiful possibility that God who loves us will send our way.

Now your exams are the most important thing on your mind. Maybe some of you have papers to write…

Next you will be worried about comps and if you graduate.

Next you will be worried about who your spouse will be,
some of you are already worried about that.

Next you will be worried about where you will work and if you boss likes you.

Next you will be worried about your kids and how many friends they have.

Next you will be worried about your job and who is getting ahead of you.

Next you will be worried about what college your kid can get into and how you will pay for it.

As the aches and pains of life creep up on you,
you will worry about your health and the health of those you love.

Someday you will be worried about your 401 K

I would venture to say that very few of you here even know what a 401k is.
Trust me, Someday you will worry about it.

Life will always be filled with worries..

And sometimes there will be challenge after challenge after challenge,

but “I can’t wait Sunday” reminds us to be filled with expectation and hope

To be honest
I can’t wait till all of you go home, especially the kid you gave me the flu.

And I know
that I won’t be able to wait until all of you come back.

Get your work done.
And don’t complain that you have too much to do,

You’ve had the whole semester and
you had lots of fun so suck it up.

No matter where you are in life
Be filled with hope
Be filled with expectation and
Be filled with joy

That was the message of The prophet Zepheniah in the first reading

That was the message of Gospel.

And that is the message of “I can’t wait Sunday.”

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