RBWords

     We live with many calendars.  We live with the Gregorian calendar (the one we hang on the wall),  the fiscal calendar, and the academic calendar.  We also live with the human calendar, which, unlike the other three, has only "the average life-span" to tell us when we can get rid of all calendars!   There is also God's calendar, or at least the calendar we assign to God since we are creatures of time who orient ourselves according to gravity and time. Last but not least, we live with the liturgical calendar.  Jesus was born on a given day in a given year, even if we had to decide which day.  December 25 was picked for various historical reasons, and this date, along with Easter Sunday (first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring), determines our worship and preaching for a year.  That year begins with the First Sunday of Advent.  The color of vestments changes and the lectionary moves from Cycle C for Sundays and Year II for daily scriptures to Cycle A and Year I!    Happy New Year!

     The beginning of the liturgical year includes the monumental task of focusing on preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ in the midst of a consumer-oriented society which screams, "Buy, buy, buy!" at us every day in a more intensive way than the rest of the "year."  It is hard to keep the majestic vision of Isaiah in today's first scripture in front of us.  It is hard to follow St. Paul's challenge to "make no provision for the desires of the flesh" when mountains of Christmas gifts and baking beckon to us.  It is hard to embrace the larger vision of Jesus' second coming in today's gospel, when his first coming is so large and so definite on our calendar!  But our faith challenges us to rise above our culture.  The Advent wreath, the Jesse Tree, the hymns (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel over and over again) and the nativity scene are part of our efforts, but the heart and mind must live outside the liturgical observances.  The "reason for the season" embraces the whole year and our whole lives and all the calendars we live by.  Perhaps our "New Year's Resolution" for the new liturgical year could be to make that one calendar the one we truly live by!  AMEN