Practice, Practice, Practice

Every good student, every good athlete, every good actor prepares diligently for their upcoming test, game or performance.  Even the highly gifted prepare well in order to polish up their skills.  Every single one of us does the best we can in order to excel in the thing we love.

Granted not all of us loved school, or sports, or even acting, I simply mention these as examples.  No matter what it is that we love we are usually extremely dedicated to it in order to become the best at it.  This doesn’t mean we don’t have our lazy moments, all of us need a “timeout” every so often, but nevertheless we usually plug away hard at what we love.

There are many important things that we hold dear in life, our family, our friends, charitable causes, hobbies, political interests, sports, leisure, etc.  We work so hard at these to achieve perfection.

A young couple will do so much to prepare for a perfect wedding day, parents will do everything they can to see that their children are well educated and brought up right, people will work through and through for that perfect dream house, the perfect vacation, and again the athlete trains day and night to become the best, as well as the actor, and the student.  Basically we give it our all.

It is this time of the Church year that she reminds us to prepare well, not just for a game, a test, or a production, but to prepare well for Christ Himself.

Think of how crazy we go preparing the house when visitors are coming for dinner.  The floors are swept, the windows dusted and cleaned, the best foods prepared, and our best selves are presented, and rightly so, but imagine now that Jesus was coming for dinner?  Think of how much more we would clean the house, serve our best food, wear our best clothes, and absolutely present our best selves.

We usually don’t think this way because Jesus doesn’t literally call or ring the door bell, but He truly does come to us.  And how would we prepare both our houses and ourselves if Jesus was literally coming to dinner?  Would we prepare more so than we do for a game, a show, a test, or if friends were coming for dinner?  All of us would say “yes.” 

Today is the 1^st Sunday of Advent, it is a season in the Church which is used for preparing ourselves for the literal and figurative coming of Christ – we remember when he was born literally in Bethlehem, but we also prepare a place in our hearts for him to be born on the 25^th of December.  So, the Lord has knocked on our door, he is asking to be let in, are our homes swept clean, are we wearing our finest clothes, have we prepared the best food, and have we been diligent in our Christian lives?  This is the time to do so if we have been a little negligent.

Often times people will ask, “how do I remain a good Christian, how do I prepare myself for the Lord?”  The student, the athlete, the actor all know what they must do, be it a method of study, rehearsing lines, or practice drills, the Christian also must follow some formula or method.

The fathers of the Church had a three pronged approach to the penitential season; they often spoke about prayer, fasting and alms-giving.

As Christians we need to pray and our prayer can take many forms, there is meditative prayer, which can be a meditation on a Scripture verse or an entire chapter, one can meditate on some aspect of the faith, on God, it can be many different things.  There is also petitionary prayer, making our requests to God.  There are also set prayers, e.g. Our Father, Hail Mary, the rosary, etc.  St. Paul challenges us to pray always.  He did not mean “to say Our Fathers” all day long that would be impossible, rather we should have a disposition towards prayer all the time, thinking of the Lord and feeling His presence, to say little locutions (e.g. Jesus I love You) throughout the day, etc.

Believe it or not the season of Advent is a season of penitence.  We should be offering spiritual sacrifices to the Lord.  We usually do not associate Advent with Lent, but it is the same type of season we are preparing ourselves for the Lord, in one case preparing for the Triduum, in this case for the birth of the Lord.  What kind of spiritual sacrifices can we make?  There are all kinds; they range from giving things up to taking up new things.  For instance if I love sweets, I would try to give them up.  If I talk too much, to quiet myself and listen or if I lack a virtue such as patience to take up the challenge of being more patient.

Alms-giving, this takes away sin as Scripture often reminds us.  Not simply giving from my abundance but to give from my first fruits – from my very means, hard to do indeed.  It is not just about giving money, but time as well.  There are so many good folks who need help, be those who come to soup kitchens, shelters, people still suffering from the effects of Hurricane Sandy, and the Church itself, meaning your local parish.

Jesus calls us to take seriously His breaking into the world, because it was not simply a onetime event, Jesus continues to break into our hearts all the time looking for a home and place to rest.  Have I prepared that place for Him deep within me?  If God is the most important thing in my life then I will make the most time for Him, more so than the dedicated athlete, actor and student.  They get ready for shows, tests, and games.  My friends we are getting ready for the birth of Christ, Our Lord and God!