Advent 2 - December 4, 2016

Advent 2

December 4, 2016

Clean House

 

            A man was going about his daily business in his house when, all of a sudden, he heard a knock at the door. Upon opening it, imagine his surprise to find that Jesus Himself was standing there! “May I come in?” the Lord asked.

            The man was flabbergasted, and stuttered his response, “Oh…uh…of course, please, come in!” The man began to quickly think about all the rooms he needed to clean before Jesus could see them. He ushered Jesus into his living room and nervously said, “Please, make yourself comfortable. I just need to prepare for your visit.”

            So Jesus sat down on the couch, and picked up a magazine laying on the coffee table. Immediately the man grabbed it out of His hand, embarrassed at how impure it was. “Oh, Jesus, this isn’t the type of thing You should be reading,” he said. Instead he handed him the Bible, which was crisp and pristine – obviously never opened. “Here, read this instead.”

            The man went into another room to start cleaning, when he heard the TV on. Coming back into the room, the man was horrified to see that Jesus had turned it on – it was showing the last TV show the man had watched – and he was embarrassed to have Jesus see it! He quickly turned it off and told the Lord to stay just in this one room.

            He went into another room and prepared to clean, but he heard a creak and a crash. Hurrying back, he saw that Jesus had opened a closet which was a wreck – dirty, full of trash and garbage. Again, the man was embarrassed, and he started to show Jesus to the door. “You know what, Jesus, perhaps it’s better if You come back later. I have some cleaning up to do beforehand!”

            What if Jesus came to visit your house? What if He came to visit the house of your soul? Would it need some cleaning? Are there closets full of stuff – memories, bad decisions, hidden sins – that are so dark and ugly that you couldn’t let Him see it? What about your senses – have you replayed on the TV screens of your mind and imagination things that you would gladly show Him? Or would we be embarrassed to let Him into every part of our house – all our thoughts, emotions, words, actions?

            We are often so busy this Advent season, preparing for Christmas, that we don’t think of Advent as a time of repentance. But that is precisely the message that John the Baptist preaches in the Gospel. He is the prophet who prepares the way for the Lord precisely by calling all to repentance. The Lord cannot dwell in a soul that is still dirtied by sin.

            Of course, it is only through His grace that we are able to repent at all. But we must cooperate with that grace, and abandon our sins.

The Pharisees prided themselves on being sons of Abraham, thinking that their bloodline and their genealogy was enough to save them. But John deconstructs their pride and says that God can even make sons of Abraham out of rocks! They were not imitating Abraham’s faith or his righteousness. They were sons of Abraham by blood, but not in their actual lives – where it really counted!

Likewise in today’s world, some people believe that they are saved simply by being a Catholic. But being a baptized and confirmed Catholic cannot save us – even being a Sunday Mass-goer cannot save us – if we still cling to our sins and prevent the Lord from invading our life! We may be Catholic in name, but are we followers of Christ in reality? That requires living the type of life Christ offers – a new life, far from sin, seeking Him alone.

So – let’s start by taking advantage of Confession! And not just confessing the same things over and over, but really examining our lives and asking Christ into those “dark closets” that we’ve kept hidden for so long. We have to want to change – and He will change us. We have to want a friendship with Him – and He will become our most intimate friend. If we just go through the motions, nothing will happen – we must genuinely seek Him, and we will find Him.

I hated cleaning the house for visitors. I always got stuck with the vacuuming job, which I hated, because our house was never that dirty and it seemed like my vacuuming never made much of a difference. But, of course, I realized that a clean house shows respect for the dignity of our guests, even if it was just our aunts and uncles. A clean soul shows respect to the Divine Guest who resides there.

As we consider what parties to have this Advent season, we will be cleaning our houses for guests to arrive. But the whole point of this season is to remember the coming of THE GUEST – Jesus Christ – Who dwells in our souls through grace. Only a clean soul is a fit dwelling place for the Lord!