Catholic TV Mass Online December 6, 2020: Second Sunday of Advent

Presider: Fr. Matthew Widder Parish: Catholic Community of Waukesha TEXT FROM THE HOMILY Perhaps you've had the experience where you wake up in the middle of the night and as you wake up you notice that one of your arms is completely numb. It has fallen asleep and you have to lift it off of the rest of your body. Or maybe you've had the experience where you've been sitting for a long time in a meeting or at home and you had your legs crossed and you uncrossed them and all of a sudden once again you realize that your legs are numb. And how does that happen? That sense of body parts falling asleep. The nerves are compressed and the signals to the spine and brain are blocked similar to a hose of water that is stretched out and you say well why isn't the water running? You look closely and there's a kink. It looks ok but there's a little kink. The water is flowing but it can't get to where it needs to go. There's something. You gotta straighten it out, straighten it out. And we hear Isaiah say those words, to make straight the pathway Lord. To straighten out our lives. To straighten out our lives because after we fall asleep we have to straighten it out. We know that experience then, we know that experience when you lift your arm off your body or cross your legs, it kind of feels worse before it feels better doesn't it? It feels worse before it feels better because then all of a sudden there's that pins and needles feeling that fills your body and you just want to say ouch! Right? Ouch stop that! It felt better before! Even when it was completely numb. This is even worse! But we know then, we know because we've experienced, that if we just move our toes it's going to get better. But it often feels worse before it feels better then we know we're back to normal. And I think of that image when it comes to that sense of repentance. We hear it in peter. God is patient for us so that we mighty come to repentance. John the Baptist proclaims a baptism of repentance. And what is repentance is that something that was dead, something that was stuck in our life, suddenly is freed. The reality, though is repentance often hurts repentance is often painful. When there's change within our lives many times it feels worse before it feels better. When all of a sudden we're praying and we realize a sin that's been part of our life and we realize all of a sudden there's a sense of guilt and shame that can come over us and try and say, no go back. Jesus always says, go forward. My healing is on the way. And we're trying to break a habit or a vice, it always feels worse, right? Before it feels better. It feels worse before it feels better. But we know that that feeling of pain just lasts a little bit before freedom comes. Repentance is necessary. Many times repentance is painful. And as people of faith, what is our challenge and what do we ask God's grace to, especially as we prepare for Christ's coming to allow God's grace to flow freely through us to make straight that pathway, is to be courageous in the sense of dealing with our sins. To be courageous when perhaps there's guilt and shame that comes back, that God never desires. That God only desires in the sense that he brings us into freedom that he casts it into the past, no longer to be part of our lives. So praise God for this time of advent, this season of repentance the season where Christ gives us freedom we pray for the grace not to turn back when it feels bad before it feels when it feels worse, before it feels better. Entrance: Christ Be Our Light Text and Music: Bernadette Farrell, b. 1957 © 1993, 2000, Bernadette Farrell Published by OCP. All rights reserved. Psalm 85: Lord, let us see your kindness Text: Based on Psalm 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14. Text and music: © 2017 Scott Currier. All rights reserved. Preparation: Instrumental Communion: Ready the Way Text: Based on Isaiah 40:3, 4a; Curtis Stephan, b. 1973 Music: Curtis Stephan; keyboard acc. By Gus Pappelis, b. 1953 Text and music: © 2004, Curtis Stephan. Published by spiritandsong.com a division of OCP. All rights reserved. Sending Forth: Soon and Very Soon Text: 57 57 57 86; Andrae Crouch, b. 1945 Music: SOON AND VERY SOON; Andrae Crouch; adapt. By William F. Smith, b. 1941 Text and music ©1976 Bud John Songs, Inc/Crouch Music. All rights reserved. Administered by EMI CMG Publishing. Used with persmission. Mass of Christ the Savior Text: © 2010 ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Music: Mass of Christ the Savior; Dan Schutte, b. 1947, © 2007, 2009, Daniel L. Schutte. Published by OCP. All rights reserved. Permission to podcast/stream the music in this liturgy obtained from ONE LICENSE, License No. A-718591. www.HeartoftheNation.org