My First Official Homily: Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year C) December 22, 2024

I am happy to provide my first official homily. I have had many of what I call “preaching situations” in the past in which I preached or encorporated preaching aspects in different contexts such as Assumption novena sermons (2022 and 2023), reflections for groups, or even teaching. But if it was connected in some way to the liturgy, I needed special permission from my bishop (such as with the Assumption sermons that preceded Eucharistic adoration). Now, as a deacon I have the faculty to regularly preach in and outside the liturgy. Here’s is my first homily that I preached the day after my ordination, the Fourth Sunday of Advent. I preached this for the three Sunday Masses at my assignment parish. I hope to have some recorded some day to provide for you.

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The following transcript of the homily is in the original formatting that was used for the sake of live delivery with all cues, emphasis, and notes included.

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire but a body you prepare for me. Then I said, ‘[B]ehold, I come to do your will, O God.” Word from the second reading of the Letter to the Hebrews.

In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Advent is a time for sacrifice and offering at least in two major ways that everybody recognizes:
– the sacrificing of time and presence, and
– the offering up of the wallet.

During Advent we sacrifice our time and presence to be at various Christmas parties and get-togethers with both the people we love

 . . . and the people we commend God to love on our behalf (right?)

And we offer up our wallets to obtain Christmas gifts for family and close friends, and then on Christmas day we offer these gifts to them in hopes that they will accept them.

But imagine if our hearts were not truly in the time we sacrificed to be with others or in the gifts we bought for them.

What difference would that make?

To be “there” but not really “with” the people we are around.
To spend our money but not truly give with the heart.

In these examples we use our bodies to merely externally perform the proper (and even expected) actions without the meaning they are supposed to have behind them.

To switch it around, what if we knew or found out that the other person doing these things for us did not really have their heart invested in them?

What would we make of it?

Either way, the sacrificing of time and presence for gatherings along with the offering up of various wallets and purses for gifts are some of the “rituals” of this time of year.

They are so important that even non-religious folks observe them religiously.

People will spend up to the last minute to make sure time is “sacrificed” for this or that event and money is “offered” up for presents under the tree.

But don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with parties and gifts in and of themselves; that’s not the point.

It’s deeper than that.

And, trust me, I am right there with you at the “altar” sacrificing and offering time and treasure.

Because Advent is a time of sacrifice and offering,

– and our hearts have to be in it, whether we are talking about people,

or whether we are talking about God.

But speaking of sacrifices and offerings and altars and Advent,
– what about this Sacrifice and this Offering and this Altar and this Advent?

I am talking about what is before us and what is taking place in our midst.

Because it is the one Sacrifice of Christ that is made present on the altar before us that sets the pattern for every sacrifice a Christian makes.

It is the eternal and complete Offering of Christ’s whole self at Calvary, which we partake of in the Eucharist, that sets the tone for every offering a Christian brings.

And it is the hidden love of God for the world made visible by the external act of the Cross that serves as the direction and purpose of the Incarnation that we wait for in Advent.

Jesus put His all into doing what the Father asked of Him

– that is –  taking on flesh to sacrifice Himself as the true and everlasting Offering for sin acceptable to God once and for all.

But this was not the case for God’s people Israel, as our second reading testifies to.

They did not give their all to be faithful to what the Lord asked for in the beginning when they were brought out of Egypt
– and, I have to tell you, it was something deeper than sacrificing and making sin offerings out of animals at first.
Yes, God did command them to make these offerings, but it was later after they failed to maintain the initial covenant that was largely limited to adhering to the 10 Commandments given to Moses on Mt. Sinai.

God desired above all faithfulness in a covenant relationship with the people Israel that He had personally chosen out of all peoples in the world.

God desired that they give Him their hearts before they gave Him their animals.

Thus, from the beginning, “sacrifice and offering you did not desire.”

But the almost immediate failure with the initial covenant on Mt. Sinai (courtesy of the golden calf incident),

Was followed by Israel’s repeated infidelity to God over the centuries in the old law due to repeated idolatry and at times deceptive offerings of improper creatures

– they did not give God their all.

Israel, as a people, was not able to give over to God their whole collective heart, their whole will, their whole self along with their external actions even as they possessed His revelation.

Not to mention, the old law, AS A FORESHADOWING OF THE NEW LAW TO COME, could only do so much, and made Israel’s deficiencies plain to see.

Thus, all their sacrifices and offerings failed to eternally please God and bring lasting atonement for all sin, and the rest of humanity could do no better.

However, we who have in Christ more than what the old law could ever provide,

We who have everything the Old Testament is pointing to,

Can still fall into the same pitfall as those who awaited patiently for what we now have so abundantly.

And what is this pitfall?  

We can attend – but not be there.

We can give – but not mean it.

We can practice – but fail to preach.

We can preach  – but fail to practice.

And we can profess faith in God’s house – but not truly live it out.

We can sit, stand, and kneel – but our hearts remain still.

We can sing “O Come, Lord ” – but never really answer the door.

And in the Eucharist WE – CAN – RECEIVE – GOD!

– but, well, – I’ll let that one sit with you.

In other words, like the Israelites, we can fulfill outward obligations and come to the Sacrifice but not really have our hearts in what we do or what we give to God in our covenant relationship with Him.

It’s like if we knew someone offered their presence at our Christmas party but never really wanted to be there, or gave us a gift but never really meant it – it can’t truly please us.

Likewise, if we just go through the motions being neither hot nor cold, then our external observances without offering our whole selves along with them will fail to please God.

But as limited and fallen creatures, we cannot give what God truly deserves – everything without fail,

– That is – without His help we can’t.

And so the Good News found in the second reading is this – Christ gave the Father the acceptable sacrifice once and for all through offering His whole self.

– His whole self to take on flesh.

– His whole self to be conceived.

– His whole self to be born.

– His whole self from the crib to the Cross.

– His whole self from the womb to the tomb.

For the Son says to the Father, “A body you prepared for me. Behold, I come to do your will.”

And it is “by this will that we hav=e been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” so that Christ may give us the power to make our external observances acceptable to God through the offering of our whole selves in Him,

– from Advent to Lent

– from Christmastime to Eastertide

– from this week to Holy Week

– And every Ordinary Time in between.

Because, though we come to the end of this season, Advent is just the beginning.

And it is in Advent that we begin  – to learn again – what it means to offer to God everything,

Because we await the coming of the God who was born to give everything,

– for everybody

– with His whole body

– and His whole Heart.

– So we can start,

To GIVE like He LIVED.

To LIVE like His GIVES.

 And with Him in our lives proclaim to the Father,

“IN – THIS – BODY you prepared for me, behold,

I come to do your will, O God!”

In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Given at St. Edward Catholic Church in Nashville, TN.