The word Advent means coming or approach or arrival. I think if I ask you the simple question "What’s coming?" Most people would say Christmas, but really, that’s not what Advent is intended to do. It’s not a preparation for the coming of Christmas exclusively, it a preparation for the coming of Christ again at the second coming. So Advent is a four-week season of a penitential nature, a time of penance and fasting and alms giving and prayer to prepare for Jesus’ coming and the judgment. Either the world will end before you and I die or I when I die and when you die the judgment will occur. I think that’s probably considered the most likely course of action. And so in the first two weeks of Advent you hear the readings talking, they don’t sound Christmassy, they talk about the judgment. I love that first reading from Isaiah, it’s very Jewish. We’re no good, look we’ve made a mess of this place, so sorry, but look, you made us, eh. Beautiful. It’s their technique. If you read the Jewish scripture, the Hebrew scriptures, they kind of schmooze God, and he loves it you know, he’s Jewish too. Why not?

The third week of Advent the focus is a little bit off of the final coming and the judgment, and it’s on the kingdom that exists among us, and that’s a very joyful thing, and so the color for that third week is rose. You see the rose colored vestments. By the way, rose, not pink. I ain’t wearing no pink vestments, okay. It’s rose. And then finally, the fourth week of Advent focuses on the incarnation. We’ll hear the story in the Gospel of the annunciation. So Advent is really a time to prepare us for the final judgment. You know the Gospel is really all about that. If you read the Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) of course the word Gospel means "life of Christ" the story of his life. If you read it, it’s really a constant warning to get ready because the judgment is coming. Once in a while someone will tell me I speak and I talk about sin too much. That’s because Jesus spoke about sin. The Gospel speaks about sin and judgment and accountability and that’s why we need to consider those things to prepare for the judgment that awaits all of us.

So Advent’s about a goal, ultimately, the ultimate goal in life, to get to heaven. Goals are important. A lot of times I ask high school kids, "What are you going to do next year?" And most of course are going to college, but it’s not necessary to go to college for God to love you. Some of read an editorial in yesterdays paper about the young man who became a marine, in the Journal on the Op. Ed page, and it was a story about he lived in a wealthy community where most kids went to college and he said, "I’m going to become a Marine". And his father had a major conversion about it. People said things like "Oh, I’m so sorry, he’s such a good student", as if being a Marine was some kind of disgrace. In any case, what are you going to do in high school, what are you going to do in college? Even after graduate school. There’s goals, you have to have goals. And even when a person begins a career, you’re probably thinking about your next step in your career, the next goal. And then finally, when your hair turns gray and your kids are grown, you think about retirement. And then hopefully, eventually, you’ll think about the judgment, and we’ll think about the judgment through all these phases of life. Some people never think about the judgment. I was in Scottsdale, AZ several years ago during spring training, Scottsdale’s the home of the San Francisco Giants, it was about an hour before the game and I was eating a hot dog and reading the program when these two couples came over and they said, "Can we use this bench", and I said, "Of course." And I continued to eat my hot dog and read the program, but I was really listening to their conversations. And here’s what I learned a lot about them in about a half hour. They were two couples who were friends. They were all retired, and spent their lives traveling in their RV’s. They went place to place to place to place to place. And I was thinking this is just the denial of death’s journey. As long as we have gas and food in the RV, we ain’t gonna die. And that’s what they did, and I said, "Oh my, how sad is this". And you could tell they were kind of grouchy and they were getting sick of each other anyway, but the kids who had been home now for 4 days, they can’t wait for them to go back, you know. As one of them said, "We need to see the Grand Canyon again, I’d love to see it before I …", and he changed the subject. Before I Die. I felt like saying, "If you just do the right thing now, you’ll get a better view of it when you die". It’s denial of reality of life and death. A couple weeks ago a woman called me from my former parish, a woman named Judy, I have no idea who she was. And she said, "Father, this is Judy, remember me?" "Judy, Judy, Judy, Judy, How, Judy!" I have no idea. She said, "I need you to call my father, William. You remember my father, he was at Joey’s First Holy Communion." "Oh." Anyways, dad, William, is 81 years of age and he’s dying, and he will not get a priest. She says, "Call my father". He’s in a hospital; I think in Michigan, so I called him and after a bunch of small talk, I said, "What are you doing in the hospital?" He said, "Well, I got congestive heart failure and the doctor told me I’m gonna die. And I don’t understand it, because I ate right and exercised. " Now that’s an American thought—If you eat right and exercise, you’ll never die. He actually thought that. So I said, "William, you’re 81. You’re worn out. It’s time to go. You’re getting close. Get a priest. " His wife is on the phone call says, "What will a priest do?" I said, "Well, a priest will hear your confession, lay hands on you, do the sacrament." He says, "Okay Father, I guess I’m a goner and I’ll get the priest." But he’s a typical American with this thought I’m not going to die, but you are going to die, and so am I, but you know something, that’s good news. If there was a pill we could take tomorrow to live to be 500, we’d all celebrate tomorrow, and the next day we’d wake up with a hangover and say, "Oh, no, not another 400 and some years of this." I asked some people, I asked Tony Porto, Deacon Tony Porto, he’s 85, and boy doesn’t he look great. Exercises right, eats well. I asked Tony, "Would you like to be 30 years younger Tony." I asked him this yesterday. He says." No." I said would you like one more year, would you like to be a year younger?" He says, "No. I don’t want to go back one second. I’m happy where I am." And Mary was in there too, our secretary, but she gets mad at me if I talk about her, so don’t mention I mentioned her name. Mary says, "I don’t want o go back either". That’s Christian faith—they both want to go forward, because they know they're going to see Jesus Christ, they’re going to see him face to face. And so Advent helps us to prepare to do that.

You know it isn't to only the 81-year-olds. I’ve never realized, but since I’ve been a priest, I’ve done so many funerals for children, and young people, I had a 17-year-old boy who was murdered, shot. Another a 19-year-old boy spoke to the wrong girl at a party and was murdered. A 12-year-old boy I knew so well, his name was Brian, and he died of leukemia. I knew a young mother of three children on her way to work with the three kids in the SUV. She went to grab a bottle, dropped the bottle, and the vehicle flipped and she died. The kids, thank God, were OK. So we don’t know, and the logical person, the person with any brains at all says, well, I ‘d better be ready. I’d better be prepared because I don’t know when that day will come. The scriptures warn us and warn us and warn us of that.

So what do you have to do to get ready? You’ve got to read the manual. This is the Bible. The Catholic rules and instructions. So go home and take your bible and in a Catholic home the first thing you do when you pick up a Bible, (blows dust off the cover). Blow the dust off of it you know. In my first parish in Rio Rancho, there was a couple who came to mass every Sunday and they sat in the front, and she had a big Bible. And after about three months she says, "You know I’m not Catholic." I said, "I know that. " She said, "Well, how did you know that?" I said, "Because you always have a Bible." This is the instruction manual. Read it, especially the Gospels. And then do what Jesus did. Jesus had a limited time on earth to accomplish what he needed to do and we have a limited time as well. So do at what Jesus did. Jesus had a strong spiritual life, he prayed every day. I don’t know how people can survive without praying. I mean, are we that busy. Pray every day, in the morning, and at night, Jesus shared his goals with others too. Tell everyone you know, you work with, your friends, your family, that you love Jesus Christ and that you want to get to heaven. Share your goals; it’s especially true when college kids go to college. Tell everyone you’re a Christian. That’ll help you with the boys and girls, I hope. Share your goals. It makes it easier to accomplish them. You know I had tried to quit smoking for many years. I quit about 25 years ago and I couldn’t quit, I was so addicted to tobacco but I figured out how I quit. I told everyone on January 1^st I was quitting. I told everyone, especially people I didn’t like. And then I had to quit, because my pride was greater than my addiction. So share your goals, let people know who you are and who Christ is to you. And Jesus spent time with his friends. If he needed friends, close intimate friends, so do we. And that’s especially true for young people. So choose your friends well. Sir Walter Raleigh said," Choose your friends well for you will become like them." Think about that. You become what your friends. When you choose them you will become like them. And our goals are more easily achieved when we are with people who love us and who share our goals with us. And Jesus was an evangelist and as Christians, we need to be, this is not a private revelation if you think about it. It is to be shared. You know, if I had a cure for cancer and I went up to the hospital and I didn’t share, what a fool I’d be. Well, we know the secret to eternal life. How selfish are we when we don’t share that knowledge with others. And lastly, Jesus was more influenced by God, than by the opinions of others. So how you doing? Like the Budweiser commercial. Now’s a good time to ask that question. Are you ready for the judgment? If you died tonight? Imagine if we knew we all were going to die 168 hours from now. Next Saturday night, we’re all dying. We’d be very good this week. It could happen. Advent says, "Wake up. Pay attention to what clearly really matter, eternity and where we’re gonna spend it." Mother Theresa said this: "Each one has a mission to fulfill, a mission of love. At the hour of death when we come face to face with God, we are going to be judged on love, not how much we have done, but how much love we have put into the doing."