Sam Sawyer, S.J., editor-in-chief of America Media, returns to “Preach” to discuss his Advent homily series, designed to be more cohesive than the usual week-to-week, stand-alone Sunday homilies that preachers typically prepare. Sam shares with host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., how Pope Francis’ latest encyclical, Dilexit Nos, inspired him to create these homilies for the season, specially commissioned for Homiletic & Pastoral Review.
As he studied and prayed with the readings, prayers, and propers of the Sundays in Advent, Sam noted a repeated reference to the heart. This inspired him to draw on the encyclical’s focus on the Sacred Heart, offering a unique opportunity to engage this devotion so closely tied to the Jesuits. Sam sees this as a chance to help the congregation explore the pope's encyclical on the Sacred Heart more deeply within the context of the Mass and with far wider reach than in a typical adult faith formation session in a parish.
Over the four weeks, Sam leads the congregation through a four-part reflection on the heart: awakening the heart, trusting its activity and passion, recognizing our heart’s capacity to desire something greater, and embracing God’s grace in our heart as it overflows from within us
Scripture Readings for the First Sunday of Advent, Year C
First Reading: Jer 33:14-16
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
Second Reading: 1 Thes 3:12—4:2
Gospel: Lk 21:25-28, 34-36
You can find the full text of the readings here.
Homily for the First Sunday of Advent, Year C, by Sam Sawyer, S.J.
Last Sunday, the liturgical year came to a close with the Solemnity of Christ the King. And this Sunday, it starts anew at the beginning of Advent. Generally, as we round the corner of Thanksgiving and head into December, we start looking toward Christmas. And we can think of Advent as a kind of countdown to the feast of the Nativity, following the pattern of every Advent calendar, one door a day, until we reach the 25th.
Holiday parties start in the first week of December. Christmas cookies are prepared, and of course, the decorations come out. The America Magazine office where I work is around the corner from Rockefeller Center, where the giant Christmas tree will be lit on Wednesday, December 4th. And for the whole month, our patch of the city is filled to the brim with the Christmas spirit, as well as crowds of tourists blocking the sidewalks to take it all in.
It’s a lovely and nostalgic summoning of memories of all the Christmases we’ve celebrated before. But Advent—it is right there in the word itself—asks us to look forward, not back. And it asks us to look forward not only to the commemoration at Christmas of Jesus’ birth and first coming in the flesh, but even more in these first weeks of Advent to the final fulfillment of Christ’s second coming, rather than reminding us of the Christmas stories we know so well—following Mary and Joseph on the journey that leads to the manger, or seeing the shepherds with their flocks. The Scripture we pray with at the beginning of Advent reminds us that we are waiting for Christ to come in glory and judgment and justice, that we are waiting for the fullness of the Kingdom of God.
The second coming is often depicted in Scripture as cataclysmic. In today’s Gospel, Jesus warns that there will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars. And even that people will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world before they finally see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And Jesus counsels us to be eager to greet that moment when our redemption is at hand. So it seems strange, at least to me, that Jesus warns us not to become drowsy while waiting from carousing and drunkenness. Perhaps Jesus knew something about holiday parties or from the anxieties of daily life. If the second coming is going to be cataclysmic, how could we possibly sleep through it? Why is drowsiness the risk that we need to be cautioned against here at the beginning of Advent?
In order to explore this question, it may be helpful to notice that Jesus is concerned that we might become drowsy. Similarly, in today’s Second Reading, Paul prays for the Lord to make us increase and abound in love, so as to strengthen our hearts so that we might be blameless, that Jesus is coming. In preparation for this Advent season, I have been reading Pope Francis’ new encyclical Dilexit Nos on the Sacred Heart, released at the end of October. That encyclical begins not by immediately looking at Jesus’ heart, but by asking “What do we mean by the heart?” And as I have noted, there are Advent references to heart as well, scattered throughout our readings and liturgy, both this week and in the weeks to come. So today, in continuing through Advent, I’m going to delve into this recent encyclical to help us reflect on how we are asked to prepare our hearts for Jesus’ coming and on how our encounter with the human and divine love of the Sacred Heart transforms and changes us.
For today, for a beginning of Advent and a beginning of the encyclical, it is worth looking at that question of what we mean by the heart. Pope Francis speaks of the heart as a core that lies hidden beneath all outward appearances, even beneath the superficial thoughts that can lead us astray. It is also the locus of sincerity where deceit and disguise have no place. It is where we are authentic, real entirely who we are. But if the heart is where we are at our most authentic, then it is also true that we sometimes struggle to know our own hearts behind all the superficial appearances and concerns that can distract us. It takes patience, the encyclical says, to engage in the interior life by which we come into contact and harmony with our own hearts. The heart is more than just our ideas and more even than just our soul and its spiritual reality. For as the encyclical says, everything finds its unity in the heart, which can be the dwelling place of love in all its spiritual, psychic, and even physical dimensions. In a word, if love reigns in our heart, we become in a complete and luminous way. The persons we are meant to be for every human being is created above all else for love and the deepest fiber of our being, we were made to love and to be loved.
In light of this meaning of heart, what is Jesus saying when he tells us to beware that our hearts do not become drowsy? What is Paul praying for when he asks that the Lord strengthen our hearts? We’re being asked to let love move us to action. We are being asked not to be content just with the feeling of love or a sense of warmth and devotion, but for love to shake us up as much as it comforts us. We are being asked to face love as the fire of God’s presence, and not just as a warm blanket around us. In the deepest fiber of our being, we were made to love and to be loved. We need to hear that both as comfort and as challenge, both as reassurance and as mission.
Here at the beginning of December, as we look toward Christmas, we remember through Christ’s first coming all the many ways that we know that we have been loved. Let’s also allow Advent to call us to look forward to Christ’s coming and set a fire in us to carry Christ’s love to all those in need. May Advent wake us from our drowsiness, strengthen our hearts, and set our feet on the road in the words of our opening colic today to run forth to meet Christ. It is coming.
