Homily

I have been thinking about contrasts this past week and while looking for a definition I read this: “Contrast is important because the meaningful essence of anything is defined by its value, properties or quality relative to something else.” My vestments are blue because we all recognize that this color is not red, or orange or black. If every adult male was the same height as I am, we would have very little to say about how tall I am. But because there are many males who are taller than me you can say that I am a shorter person. True, there are also many males shorter than me. We call them toddlers. A one-dollar bill is the same size as a hundred-dollar bill, but the $100 bill has much greater value because of the two zeros after the one. With one bill you can only buy one nativity set raffle ticket, but with the other bill you can buy 100 tickets!

It’s about contrasts. One reason traveling to another country can be so interesting and thought-provoking is because of contrasts. You hear a different language, eat different types of food, see different sights and experience a place, a people and a culture that are not American. You can compare the two: the people, places and culture you know can be compared with the people, places and culture of where you are visiting. Nobody goes to Rome because it’s just like Eugene. And those differences, those contrasts, not only tell you something about Rome, but they also can teach you something about Eugene. When you are standing in a church that is 800 years old, the Shelton McMurphey Johnson house by Skinner Butte doesn’t really seem very old. You might feel much safer driving in Eugene than you ever would driving in Rome. It’s the contrasts, the differences, that can help us sometimes to understand things better and give us a better knowledge of their value, their properties and their qualities.

For example, this is why the Church provides us with feast days, days of celebration of the saints or some event in the life of Our Lord, or the Mother of God. By marking these days as more special than other days it can help us to better think about the truths of our Faith and to help us grow in Christ. Let’s take Christmas. If we celebrated Christmas, if we celebrated the Nativity of Our Lord, every Monday of every week, how important would that celebration be for us? There would be some importance, because it would be the only day of the week on which we celebrate the Nativity, and there would be six days every week when we did not. That’s a contrast and a difference. But we only celebrate the Nativity once every 365 days and that huge contrast lends itself to making Christmas an important day. Look at how differently we treat that day than so many other days in the year. That difference helps to create a value, and hopefully that value helps to enrich our life in faith and bring us closer to Christ.

To assist in that goal, I ask you to consider creating some temporary contrasts or differences in your life between now and December 25th. To create some changes in the way we spend our usual days that will help us to even better appreciate and grow spiritually in the difference of the celebration of the feast of Christmas. Put a few contrasts into your days between now and then. Can you find five minutes a day to read a section of Luke’s Gospel and think about it? Can you pray for five minutes during your lunch break? Make the sign of the cross every time you get into the car? And let’s be bold! Make the sign of the cross every time you enter a store!

Think about a virtue that you would like to teach your kids and try to model that virtue for them every day. Devote some of your Facebook time to a blog or website that teaches you something about the Faith. Set aside some money for a good charity and maybe even every day do it in cash—put a one-dollar bill, or a five or ten, physically into a container as a tangible reminder, and then send off a check at the end to that charity. Fasting is a good way to make a contrast in our lives because food is so important to our survival. So fast in some way for the next 16 days and let that difference in your life help you to prepare to soak in the richness of the great celebration of Christmas.

By thoughtfully making some good differences in our daily lives for the next two weeks not only do we make a small move away from the same-old, same-old, but we also help ourselves to open our eyes, our minds and our hearts more widely to God’s truth and His love, and He Himself will provide grace to enrich our good works and our good desires.

Christmas will be more special to us, and for us and our families if we prepare for it in special ways. And I’m not talking presents and trees and dinners. Those all have their good place in the celebration. But if we put some contrasts and changes in our lives for the next 16 days to prepare ourselves for Christmas, even those material goods used to celebrate can take a greater value and importance because we will better understand what and Who they are being used for.

Change it up a bit in the days ahead—so when that guy or gal at the checkout stand asks you, “Are you ready for the Holidays?” you can answer, “Yes I am, and better than ever!”