Preparation, Reinvention

...and maybe therein lies Redemption.

Great Sunday. Fr. Hart continues to refine his message and fit it into our preparation for Advent. He managed to remind us, during a season specifically set aside for preparation, that preparation, awareness and reinvention or changing our minds is our business as Christians.

This season, preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ is at the center of our faith. This is not to say that Catholics are infant worshipers or sitting on the sidelines cheering for the apocalypse and the return of the big bad, ass-kickin' Christ to slay the evils of this world.

These things will happen if we repent, if we change our minds and recognize that the kingdom of God is at hand.

That does not mean swift justice for those we deem to be evildoers.

This means justice done by us.

The Christlike who see the glory of God's creation everywhere...beginning with the humble, the sick, the imprisoned, the downcast - basically the last fucking places we usually see it & then it's up to us to change our minds to see creation as God does and serve the least of these just as God's love gives me, a sinner comfort when life seems to do its worst to me.

We redeem the world by repenting, by changing our minds and if our minds are right we find Christ in the world and bring his message not in the form of judgment of others but the love we display in every act we do.

We see the victim so willingly sacrificed for sin and do not waste that sacrifice on guilt, unworthiness, more darkness...

We do good deeds, we make manifest the love Jesus shows and we close our eyes - seeing those arms stretch between heaven and earth...

And we know what we have to do.

Here.

Now.

Maybe the next time you see me you'll see a small glimpse of the kingdom of God.

Although most people remember me as the man who tried to bring about the Kingdom of Dick Jokes.

As Flanders once said: "Gettin' closer."