Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. Share this program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we’re celebrating the first Sunday of Advent. The Opening Prayer Grant your faithful, we pray Almighty God the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that gathered at his right hand they may be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
A reading from Isaiah 63rd chapter, 16th verse through the 19th verse and the 64th chapter second through the seventh verse. You, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer, you are named forever. Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways and harden our hearts so that we fear you not return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. Oh, that would rend the heavens and come down with the mountains quaking before you while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for such as they had not heard of from of old no ear has ever heard. No eye ever seen any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him. Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways.
Behold, you are angry and we are sinful. All of us have become like unclean people. All our good deeds are like polluted rags, we have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away in the wind. There is none who calls upon your name who rouses himself to cling to you, for you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our guilt. Yet, O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, and you the potter. We are all the work of your hands, the Word of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face, and we shall be saved. O Shepherd of Israel, hearken from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth, rouse your power and come to save us. Lord, make us turn to you, let us see your face, and we shall be saved once again. O Lord of hosts, look down from heaven and see. Take care of this vine, protect what your right hand has planted, the Son of Man whom you yourself made strong. Lord, make us turn to you, let us See your face and we shall be saved.
May your help be with the man of your right hand, with the Son of Man, whom you yourself made strong. Then we will no more withdraw from you. Give us new life, and we will call upon your name. Lord, make us turn to you. Let us see your face, and we shall be saved. A reading from St.
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, first chapter, third through the ninth verse. Brothers and sisters, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always on your account, for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony of Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift. As you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, he will keep you firm to the end. Irreproachable. On the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful, and by him you are called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
The word of the Lord. Show us, Lord, your love and grant us your salvation. Alleluia. The Gospel is from Mark 13:33, 37th verse. Jesus said to his disciples, be watchful, be alert. You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch watch. Therefore you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening or at midnight, or at cock crow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to the Gospel of the Lord. Take a few moments as we listen to the music to ponder the wisdom and the truth found in these readings.
We begin this Sunday with a new season, season of Advent, and it’s the beginning of our church year. I always want to tell people on this Sunday, happy New Year, because in the spiritual world it’s not on the same exact time as the calendar that we follow in the world. But maybe it makes sense that it’s a little bit off because it’s a different kind of time. And what I want you to think about with me is where you are in this journey with God. And it’s important that you take stock of that because it’ll give you a beginning point and you can move forward and invite God into those places in your life. In my life I want to do the same thing where he isn’t yet fully alive, fully infused into our understanding of life.
So I love the opening theme. It’s always the same for each of the Sundays of Advent and the three seasons of A, B and C cycle. Wake up. Watch, watch, watch, Watch what? Look at what? The image for me is that at this time, when I start a new year, I’m wondering where I was years and years ago.
And I look back on those years and realize how far I’ve come, how much I’ve changed. Each season has brought with it some gift, some interest in something that I didn’t talk about before. And when I think if I go way back to my seminary, for some reason, I was thinking about that today. And I remember Advent was always the time we were getting ready to go home for Christmas. So the first two weeks we were in the seminary, last two weeks we’d be home. And I remember it was always an interesting time.
It was about family, about relationships, about coming home. That was my experience of it, being in a seminary. But what I really look back on is there was a lack of enthusiasm in me for the challenge that I was being offered in the seminary, because it seemed to me over and over again what I was being asked to do was to perform rituals. And that was important, but to know that your major job is to say Mass and do it with solemnity and dignity and belief and forgive sins. And we were encouraged to also be sure that we encourage people to go to confession, even though it was just a venial sin. But weekly confession, monthly confession was considered a very good practice.
So sin was always on the table as an issue. And then at the same time, there was this whole notion of. Of preaching. And somehow it wasn’t really talked about that much. I mean, I didn’t even have a course in homiletics because of the seminary I went to wasn’t an offering at that time, and so I skipped that. But I don’t remember the enthusiasm that I have now.
I don’t remember anyone filled with it when they would talk about telling people about this God, who is so incredibly wonderful and powerful and transformative. I mean, it was just more about, do what you’re told and you’ll receive what you need. And it was kind of bland and not very exciting or mysterious or frightening or enlightening. So I want to look at one thing that I’m looking at in my own heart right now, and it came from these readings. And I think it might help us all think about where we are in our relationship with God. Because in this set of readings, we have A great contrast, particularly the first reading and the second reading.
And the first reading reminds me so much of the way I used to think about myself. I was always considered myself as not being yet what I should be. I was always considering myself as being ashamed of who I was. The focus of my training was sinlessness is the goal. And if that’s the goal, which you can’t ever accomplish and shouldn’t ever try to actually accomplish, you should pay attention, watch your sinfulness, learn from it. But in the beginning, it was the thing that I was burdened with, and I lived in a world of shame.
It was just natural. And when I listened to this reading, it’s so perfect when it describes that kind of understanding of God as someone so different, so contrary to the sinful person, broken humanity, that there’s a great divide between us. And, I mean, the images of, you know, we are nothing but, you know, polluted rags and withered leaves and unclean, and that we have nothing to offer God at all. And yet we do say in that reading, which is hopeful, but, you know, we’re in a place of work. We’re in a place where you are molding us. And that’s the most positive, wonderful thing I think we can say about this set of readings.
And that is, be aware, be alert, watch the way in which you’re being molded, the clay that you are, the influences. We are such clay. Like, when you think about it in terms of our families of origin, what we learned at the beginning, it forms us, and it’s really hard. It gets baked in. Sometimes you have to break the pot again to start over again. So that’s a beautiful image to stick with in this set of readings.
As we begin with Mark’s Gospel, to listen to his insights as we weigh them against where we are in this journey. We are being molded, remade, broken and then remade, broken and remade. And then we listen so clearly in St. Paul’s letter about the beauty of the fullness of the revelation that came in the New Testament, that this God is a seeker, a God who longs for us to be open to Him. He is pursuing us. In the Old Testament, it seems we were always pursuing God’s favorite by trying to do the right thing, follow the rules, follow the regulations.
In my early years, it was really a very clear thing. You do what God wants, you receive what he needs to give to you so that you’ll be even more pleasing to Him. So it was almost impersonal. Do this, get that. Do this, get that. Nothing is further from the Truth, I mean, Paul alludes to it so beautifully when he says, you know, we have been given Christ.
And when I say the word Christ, know that that’s not Jesus last name, as I used to think as a child, but it means anointed. And what I want you to believe with all your heart that this work that I do as a priest in my preaching is to anoint you with. With this awareness of the power of God living in you, manifesting through you. Because you said, yes. You said yes. Watch what you’re saying to God.
Do you say, yes, use me, make me into what I need to be. Or do you say, wait, I prefer to be in charge of this, and I’ll do what I think I have to do in order to please you? No. Human beings by nature are longing for a relationship with God. God by nature, finally fully revealing himself throughout the New Testament is a God with a passion, a longing, a desire to be a part of your life that’s in my life. That’s what’s so radically different about where I was back in the seminary days and where I am now.
I never had an image of God longing, desiring, passionately wanting an intimate relationship with me, so that I would feel his presence floating in my heart, being there with me, resonating through my heart, through my very being, the miracles that Jesus performed. That is so exciting to me. And I remember at times in the seminary, I didn’t really think about anything in my ministry that was that exciting. Obviously, it was so unknown. I couldn’t really figure out what it was going to feel like to be a priest. But I knew it didn’t demand that much.
I mean, everyone can learn these rituals, but I had no idea the depth and the breadth and the beauty and the frightening aspects of this journey of intimacy with God. And that’s what I want you to be watching for and looking at. Jesus uses an image with his disciples. It’s very, very often used in all the scriptures and the Synoptics, rather. And basically he’s saying, you know, you disciples of mine, you’re going to be managing a household of servants, and this is my house. And so we know the kingdom of God is a house often considered a people gathered together, believing, trusting in God, listening to his marvelous personality.
If I can say that, that’s funny, I’ve never said that before. God’s personality is so complex, but at the same time it is so endearing, so intensely in love with us almost, it seems at times wanting to tell us how much so that he can Shake us up and make us feel like we have to work a little harder to be open to him. But ultimately his desire is just to be inside of us. Watch for that. Say yes to that. And then he says about this house, he said, you know, it’s like you’re running this household that’s you in charge of all the people in your life.
You know, you’re not in charge of them, just living your life with them. And the good steward of the house is the one who takes care of the others and cares for their needs and makes sure that they’re well paid, that they’re cared for and that they know what they’re doing. It’s this image that God has placed in our hearts that we are not individuals working on a salvation track with him. We are on a track with a community of people called our church, our friends, the people God has called us to share our lives with. That’s the work is to be somebody for them, not to be somebody just so I can please God and then he can give me what I want. It’s not that kind of one on one solely.
It’s about God in me, the Christ in me, ministering to the people in my life. And there are multiple opportunities. Watch for those opportunities. Watch for the mystery of the way in which God will give you something, a longing, an intention in your heart for someone that you know and you love and believe with me that that intention is the most powerful prayer that you could ever offer anyone. Watch for those signs, those longings in your heart for those around you. Know that they are powerful agents through which God is working.
There’s much to learn, there’s much to see, there’s much to wonder about. That’s my promise to you that I will give everything I can to this work that we have for this next year. And then another year, another year. I hope, I hope, I hope keeps going. So let us be blessed with the attention that we’re called to have to the great mystery of a God who longs for us and we who long for Him. Amen.
Foreign Father, we celebrate a wonderful mystery, our union with you, you and us, we and you. And that unity is something that we need to pay attention to. So help us in this time of watching and waiting and hoping and longing for the growth that is at this intention of the season. Every season prepares us. But these first Sundays of Advent call us to a beautiful opening. Bless us with that eager desire to see, to know, to feel you.
And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible.
Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a non profit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher Produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections and Institute Studios. Copyright 2023.
