True Security – Homily for the 1st Sunday of Advent – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; December 1, 2024

“Out of an abundance of caution…” – How many times have we heard that expression used? Out of an abundance of caution we are frequently warned of possible dangers and advised or commanded to take preventative actions. Out of an abundance of caution new automobiles will warn of possible icy roads the moment the outdoor temperature drops to 37°. We are warned of so many dangers, none of which bear upon our eternal salvation, few of which will materialize, but so many are the warnings that a person could easily be paralyzed with fear – indeed some people live in such paralysis. Then there are wars and rumors of war; diseases and rumors of disease; climate change and rumors of climate change. (cf. Mt 24:6) It is easy to see how whole nations can be in dismay and people could nearly die of fright in expectation of what is coming in the world.

Note the contrast today between dying of fright and Jesus’ exhortation: stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is near at hand.

All the abundance of caution, all the dismay, all the dying of fright is driven by concern over our bodily life in this passing world. We should rather be looking for the coming of Jesus because, as St. Paul tells us, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col 3:3-4)

Jesus said, Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Mt 10:28) In other words, do not worry about the death of the body, but take heed for how you will stand before the judgment seat of God.

St. Paul writes, We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So … we make it our aim to please God. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body. (2 Cor 5:8,9-10)

There are then those who live in fear of losing what they have in this world, which indeed they must lose when they die, and those who live in confidence and hope of eternal life, longing to be with the Lord.

Yet, confidence and hope in the Lord is threatened by the temptations of drunkenness and carousing and the anxieties of daily life. Or, for those who really do believe and try to live their faith, the first danger is from the anxieties of daily life; these often unavoidable concerns, like the thorns in the parable of the sower, easily turn the mind’s attention away from God (cf. Mt 13:22); then there arises forgetfulness of God; then preoccupation with these daily anxieties; then, having forgotten God, the poor soul seeks a sort of escape in some sort of pleasure or entertainment. Maybe it is not drunkenness and carousing, maybe it is only a matter of watching a football game, or spending hours and hours watching football games, or playing video games.

Rather, we must be vigilant at all times and pray. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus said the same, Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. (cf. Mt 26:41)

It is not just a matter of avoiding temptation, because to avoid temptation requires that we conduct ourselves to please God. That means that we must love one another and live blamelessly before God. The greater love, love of God, must rule the lesser loves. Nor must we be content with the thought that we are doing so, we must do so even more. It is said that in the spiritual life the one who does not advance, goes backwards.

With these basics in mind let us consider the consoling prophecy from Isaiah.

God has fulfilled the promise he made to the house of Israel and Judah; the promise was fulfilled when Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem; the promise was fulfilled when he was nailed to the Cross, died, buried, and rose again from the dead; the promise is fulfilled now that he is seated at the right hand of the Father; the promise will be fulfilled when he returns in glory.

Jesus Christ, descended from David, is the just shoot, who did what was just and right in the land. He did what was just and right because on entering the world he said in the presence of the Father, I have come to do thy will, O God. (He 10:7; Ps 40[39]:8) So also, as an adult he was able to say, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. (Jn 4:34) This he did by giving his life on the Cross, offering himself without blemish to God to purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (He 9:14) So by his obedient will we have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (He 10:10) Jesus did what was just and right in the land and has made those who believe in him to be just in the presence of God through the gift of sanctifying grace, received in baptism. God is just and justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Rm 3:26) This justice from God makes us capable of doing what is pleasing in the sight of God, as his beloved children, capable of doing what is just and right in the land.

That means fulfilling his commandment to love another and growing in mutual love. This is not some vague feeling. St. Paul is very concrete: Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which is the bond of perfection. (Col 3:12-14)

The very simple manner how we live with each other on a day-to-day basis, especially within the family, with those who are closest to us, with those among whom we live and work, is actually important in God’s sight. Yet, we fail to do it because instead we let ourselves be ruled by our egoism and our sensitivity, because instead we seek to please ourselves and have our own way.

That is why we must first die to ourselves so as to live to God and receive from the Sacred Heart of Jesus the gift of the Holy Spirit, who fashions our hearts like his. That is why St. Paul before writing about compassion and kindness, writes: put to death what is earthly in you, fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry … put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with its practices and have put on the new man, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (Col 3:5,8-10) Putting off the old man and putting on the new man is the way of peace, the path to true consolation in the Holy Spirit.

In those days Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem shall dwell secure. Judah means the people of God that is truly faithful and Jerusalem the city, or the soul, in whom God, the Holy Trinity, dwells, the soul in a state of grace. In this life, so long as we live in the grace of God we dwell secure, regardless of what happens in the world; in the next world, that security will become absolute, unshakable, and eternal.

The Blessed Virgin, Immaculate from her conception, always at enmity with the demonic serpent (cf. Gen 3:15), untouched by evil, dwelt secure in this life, even as she stood by the Cross of her Son; she now reigns securely with him in heaven.

Consider the words of the Psalm:

God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with tumult. (Ps 46[45]:1-3)

There is the meaning of security in this life, security in God, our refuge and our strength; yet it is also the security of God dwelling in us. The Psalm continues:

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High – that river is the river of the Holy Spirit, the river of the life of grace – God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. (Ps 46[45]:4-5) This is the reality of the life of grace, most fully realized in the Blessed Virgin Mary, full of grace, whom we ask continually to pray for us, now and at the hour of our death, that we too might always live secure in the life of grace.

The Psalm concludes: Be still, and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth. (Ps 46[45]:10) We reach this stillness in God’s presence through striving to live always in the presence of God, at peace with him, blameless in his sight. Then in truth the Lord will be our justice. Then in truth we will be able to sing with the Psalmist: The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. (PS 46[45]:11)