Dear Friend,

Friday of the Third Week of Advent

Reflection by Rev. Msgr. Joseph Reilly

Some time ago, I was visiting a friend and we decided to attend Mass on Sunday in the local parish.  It was Advent.  I had celebrated Mass earlier in the day, so I did not concelebrate; rather I sat in the pew for a different perspective on things.  The first thing that struck me was how distracted the priest seemed.  In his homily, he spoke mostly about himself, not the Gospel.  As the Mass continued, I noticed that some of the prayers were not as I had remembered praying them earlier in the day.  What I realized by the end of Mass was that he was omitting any reference to heaven or eternal life.  Very strange and unsettling indeed.  His actions came to mind as I was looking over the Collect for Mass today:

      May your grace, almighty God,

     always go before us and follow after,

     so that we, who await with heartfelt desire

     the coming of your Only Begotten Son,

     may receive your help both now and in the life to come.

Not making excuses for the aforementioned priest, but all of us realize how at this time of the year it is so easy to become distracted and to allow ourselves to be taken up in our own hectic and frenetic worlds.  We, too, can lose sight of the reality that heaven has indeed come to earth on Christmas day.  The time in which we all live “is clothed with eternity” (Stinissen, p. 174).  Father Stinissen later writes that our days are “touched by eternity at every moment, and that contact gives time a deeper dimension” (p. 175).  He asserts that our lack of understanding of the concept of eternity and its place and purpose in our everyday lives are the reasons for our ongoing “shying away from” things eternal. 

I don’t think it’s a matter of finding heaven unappealing, unsatisfying or uninteresting.  I think it’s more a matter of being blinded by the constant motion of our lives and the ongoing fluctuations in our heart’s focus. Perhaps that is all the more reason for us to live this Advent with greater intention and deeper desire – that our hearts might be “fixed on that place where true gladness is found” (from the Collect of Fifth Sunday of Lent).  There are less than 10 days now before Christmas.  No pressure, really.  But pause, please. 

The perfect place for each of us to pause is before the Lord Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.  The silence, calm and the peace are truly through Him, with Him and in Him alone.  He is the Bread that came down from heaven for the life of the world.  In Him we come to realize that are lives are drawn upward, not simply around and about. 

Today’s image is from our main University Chapel.  Our eyes are drawn upward to the beauty of this consecrated space.  And we are reminded, yet again, of how heaven meets earth each time Holy Mass is celebrated.  A perfect place for a pause.

Prayer:

May your grace, almighty God,

always go before us and follow after,

so that we, who await with heartfelt desire

the coming of your Only Begotten Son,

may receive your help both now and in the life to come. Amen.

Know someone who may be interested in receiving our daily reflection emails? Invite them to sign up by visiting our subscription page.

Rev. Msgr. Joseph Reilly, S.T.L., Ph.D., former Rector/Dean, Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. He holds a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, a licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) from Pontificio Istituto Teresianum, Rome, and a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from Fordham University. He has served as a member of the Archdiocesan Priest Personnel Board, the Advisory Committee on Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests, the Archdiocesan Vocations Board, and the Board of Trustees of Seton Hall University. Pope John Paul II named him a Chaplain to His Holiness in 2005, with the title of Reverend Monsignor. In 2016 during the Holy Year of Mercy, the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization sought priests who were living signs "of the Father's welcome to all those in search of His forgiveness." He was the only priest from the Archdiocese of Newark formally commissioned as a Missionary of Mercy by Pope Francis.