Happy (Liturgical) New Year!

November 30, 2024 at 9:47 a.m.

By Jim Murray, Fiat Ventures

The First Sunday of Advent

Happy New Year! For us Catholics, today is the first day of the Liturgical New Year. Our long period of Ordinary Time that began after the 50 day long celebration of Easter has come to an end and a new year of the church starts now. For those who don’t know, the Catholic Liturgical year is divided up into different segments, beginning with Advent, then the celebration of Christmas, then a period of Ordinary Time, then Lent, then Easter, then a long period of Ordinary time, and now here we are again, at the start of Advent and a new year. So how should we begin?

Our Gospel reading today is all about preparedness. Jesus is reminding us that we do not know the day nor the hour when He will come again in His glory. He warns us to not become sleepy or complacent in the practice of our faith:

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy

from carousing and drunkenness

and the anxieties of daily life,

and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.”

 It is easy to become drowsy-Jesus explicitly mentions “the anxieties of daily life” which are many and can easily become a distraction for us that pulls us away from our prayer life and draws our focus away from loving Jesus and loving others and pulls it downwards towards more seemingly pressing, earthly concerns. I think this can be analogous to the game of basketball, because in basketball, one of the basic things every player needs to learn is the art of dribbling the basketball without actually looking down at the ball. Although dribbling the basketball is an important part of playing the game, if that is our sole focus, and we are constantly looking down to make sure we are doing it right,  then we will miss out on what is most important. We need to keep our eyes up in order to see what is happening on the court and what the defense is doing and where our teammates are and what our coach is saying and what shot or pass opportunities there may be. This is called “Court Awareness” and is crucial to playing basketball at a high level.

We need to have “Court Awareness” when it comes to our faith life. We can tend to lose focus and to look down at the daily anxieties of life, which are important, but are not the most important, and miss out on what God is trying to say to us. Advent is a time to reset and get back to basics, to lift our eyes up and focus them on Christ-to shake off the spiritual rust and get the most important things in our lives in the right order. Has our time for daily prayer shrunken to almost nothing as “more important” things in our lives take over? Time to reset. Has our anxiety about the future caused us to be less present and less loving towards those we are closest to? Time to reset.  Have we started drinking on a regular basis and become dependent on alcohol to an unhealthy degree? Time to reset. Whatever it is in our lives that needs reorienting, use this Advent as a time to get back on track, to wake up and to lift our eyes to Jesus as we wait with expectant hope for His coming again in glory and, more pointedly during Advent, as we prepare to celebrate His entering into our humanity 2,000 years ago in a little manger in a little stable in the little town of Bethlehem.



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The First Sunday of Advent

Happy New Year! For us Catholics, today is the first day of the Liturgical New Year. Our long period of Ordinary Time that began after the 50 day long celebration of Easter has come to an end and a new year of the church starts now. For those who don’t know, the Catholic Liturgical year is divided up into different segments, beginning with Advent, then the celebration of Christmas, then a period of Ordinary Time, then Lent, then Easter, then a long period of Ordinary time, and now here we are again, at the start of Advent and a new year. So how should we begin?

Our Gospel reading today is all about preparedness. Jesus is reminding us that we do not know the day nor the hour when He will come again in His glory. He warns us to not become sleepy or complacent in the practice of our faith:

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy

from carousing and drunkenness

and the anxieties of daily life,

and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.”

 It is easy to become drowsy-Jesus explicitly mentions “the anxieties of daily life” which are many and can easily become a distraction for us that pulls us away from our prayer life and draws our focus away from loving Jesus and loving others and pulls it downwards towards more seemingly pressing, earthly concerns. I think this can be analogous to the game of basketball, because in basketball, one of the basic things every player needs to learn is the art of dribbling the basketball without actually looking down at the ball. Although dribbling the basketball is an important part of playing the game, if that is our sole focus, and we are constantly looking down to make sure we are doing it right,  then we will miss out on what is most important. We need to keep our eyes up in order to see what is happening on the court and what the defense is doing and where our teammates are and what our coach is saying and what shot or pass opportunities there may be. This is called “Court Awareness” and is crucial to playing basketball at a high level.

We need to have “Court Awareness” when it comes to our faith life. We can tend to lose focus and to look down at the daily anxieties of life, which are important, but are not the most important, and miss out on what God is trying to say to us. Advent is a time to reset and get back to basics, to lift our eyes up and focus them on Christ-to shake off the spiritual rust and get the most important things in our lives in the right order. Has our time for daily prayer shrunken to almost nothing as “more important” things in our lives take over? Time to reset. Has our anxiety about the future caused us to be less present and less loving towards those we are closest to? Time to reset.  Have we started drinking on a regular basis and become dependent on alcohol to an unhealthy degree? Time to reset. Whatever it is in our lives that needs reorienting, use this Advent as a time to get back on track, to wake up and to lift our eyes to Jesus as we wait with expectant hope for His coming again in glory and, more pointedly during Advent, as we prepare to celebrate His entering into our humanity 2,000 years ago in a little manger in a little stable in the little town of Bethlehem.


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