Today we focus our attention upon the entire time of this world. It is the beginning of the liturgical year, and so it is appropriate that we are inspired to begin well. To begin well it is necessary that we understand the goal and where we are going. So once again we are brought to considerations of the end of this world.

Interwoven in these considerations from the beginning of time to the end we are drawn to the desire for the coming of Jesus Christ. He is the focal point of all time. From the beginning of creation man has looked forward to God coming to this earth. Since the fall of man this yearning for the coming of God intensified. Throughout Advent we will spiritually take up this yearning that was so greatly desired in the Old Testament.

Since the birth of Christ we see that our measurement of time has been refocused as the time before His birth and the time after His birth. Today we do not look forward to His first coming to this earth, but rather we look forward to His second coming. In preparation for the celebration of His first coming (Christmas) we likewise prepare for a spiritual coming of Christ into our lives and look forward to His second coming at the end of time.

St. Paul in his letter to the Romans that we read in today’s Epistle gives us the tone of spirit that we are striving for in the season of Advent. “Let us cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

In our preparation for Christmas, it is time to put out of our lives all that is evil and all that is unbecoming the children of God. We must renew the promises of our baptism: “we renounce Satan and all his works, and all his pomp’s.” We have listened and followed the temptations and suggestions of these evil spirits for too long. Now is the time once and for all to put them behind us. Now is the time to break off our evil habits.

In our longing for the coming of Christ into our lives we must make the necessary preparations for Him. It matters not to Him whether we have rich and fine material ornaments, or rough and coarse ones. What is important to Him is that we have a humble heart that is filled with love. Christ willingly found His abode on Christmas day in a stable. So no matter how poor our hearts may be He will be pleased to enter. What He refuses to enter is the hearts filled with pride and self-love. These have no room for Him. These are most unwelcoming to Him. No matter how much perfume they may use, the stench of a soul dead in sin repulses the desire of God to enter their souls.

On the contrary, the soul that is steeped in humility, no matter how bare and uncomfortable it may appear becomes a most desirous place for God to dwell. The key is contrite humility.

Christ came to save those that were lost – the sinners. The first graces He gives them is humility and contrition. If we cooperate with these graces our souls will be most agreeable to Him and He will gladly take up His abode in them. A stable may appear to be the most unfit of places for Him, but this He has preferred to the proud and haughty dwelling places of men. So it is with our souls; He prefers the poor and humble soul to the self-righteous and proud one.

Advent then is a season of penance. It is a time for us to put off the sins of our past and begin a new life. It is time for us to yearn with our entire being for Christ to come to us. We look to the time before His physical coming into this world and with the same sentiments and desires we anticipate His arrival into our souls to transform them from stables into heavenly tabernacles. We also look forward to the second physical coming of Christ into this world when He will put everything into right order. He will remove the evil souls casting them into the depths of Hell for all of eternity. He will renew this earth transforming it into the paradise it was originally destined to be when God first created man and time.

Let us heed St. Paul’s admonition and make this Advent the best one that we have ever passed through. We consider all of created time and see that now is the acceptable time. Now is the time to prepare our souls by ridding them of all that is offensive or repulsive to God.

The Sunday Mass brings us to the end of the Church year of public worship. Hence, the general theme appropriately refers to the end of the world. In preparation for our final judgment, we beseech God to arouse “our wills” for “divine service” (Prayer), to be on our guard, awake and active, lest our faith sleep or be merely sentimental.

The Epistle, therefore, begs us to be filled with a “knowledge of God,” to be “fruitful in every good work,” to recognize our duty and privilege to work with and for one another in true Christian community , which is the Communion of “saints,” all for the sake of Him Who shed “His Blood.” Lest “His Love” fail to inspire us.

The Gospel fills us with sentiments of holy fear, as we consider the destruction of the Jerusalem's of this world, the end of all time, and  the beginning of eternity; as we consider further the necessity of fleeing to the “mountains” of God from the Judea of “false Christs” and false leaders, who sometimes are so clever as “to deceive even the elect,” enslaving, misleading, corrupting their minds, especially in the modern press, radio, television and internet. Today, we may well implore God through our Sacrifice to turn “our hearts” to Him (Secret) and to heal through our Sacrament what “is diseased in our hearts” (Postcommunion).

The 21st November is the wonderful Feast of the Presentation of the BVM, dating back to the VI Century. Although not commemorated in Masses using the newer rubrics, pray to the BVM to turn back the evils infiltrating our society.

Jesus came to found a universal Church and to unite Himself with the individual soul. The Gospel is a “leaven” of Divinity hiding in the “three measures” of our intellect, will and body until our “whole” humanity is leavened. Like the tiny mustard seed becoming a large tree of shelter for the birds of the air, the Church, from humble beginnings in the Catacombs, has stretched out to undiscovered ends of foreign missions, her divine culture transforming or overcoming all human culture throughout nineteen centuries.

The Epistle first describes the interior life of faith, hope and charity in the souls of the first lay converts to Christ, and then proceeds to describe their Christian Action in propagating the Faith, so that they “were a pattern” to all, and their neighbours ‘in Macedonia and Achaia” like “birds of the air” came and “dwelt in the branches” of the Church.

November 14th is the Feast of St. Josaphat E., M., Ruthenian Rite, a Basilian monk, who made it his life’s work to bring the Orthodox back to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, but was martyred by the schismatics in 1623. He is one of the Patrons of Poland. Although not commemorated today under the newer rubrics of the Mass, pray to the Saint for courage to uphold the teachings of the Church against modern age schismatics and heretics.

In England and Wales today, it is permitted to offer one Mass of Requiem (on the anniversary) for the war dead as it is Remembrance Sunday.

Easter being variable, the number of Sundays from Pentecost to the First Sunday of Advent is, of course, variable also; but there cannot be less than twenty-three, nor more than twenty-eight. The Mass for the Last Sunday after Pentecost is always said on the Sunday preceding Advent. If there are more than twenty-four Sundays after Pentecost, the Introit, Gradual, Offertory, and Communion of the twenty-third Sunday are repeated on all the remaining Sundays. But the Prayers, Epistle and the Gospel are taken from the Masses of the Sundays omitted after the Epiphany.

It is not what enters a man that defiles him, but rather what comes forth from his heart that harms him. (Matt 15, 11-19) It is by the fruits that spring forth from our hearts that we are going to be judged. With this in mind, we should look into how these evil seeds get planted in our hearts and minds in the first place.

Today's Gospel instructs us that the enemy has spread these weeds in our souls while men were sleeping. The devils, the world, the concupiscence of our fallen natures are all our enemies. We give these enemies access to our souls when we overindulge through gluttony or when we are careless and lazy. We must always be on our guard (never sleep spiritually) when it comes to avoiding the occasions of sin. When our bodies are over-indulged, they begin seeking sinful indulgences and pleasures, our resistance is down and so, we become easy prey to the enemies of our souls. One fault or failing leads us forward to even greater faults and sins.

The angels in Heaven see clearly the weeds (evil thoughts and desires) after they have taken root in our souls. These are ready to do the will of God and ask if they should pull them out. God does not allow this lest in rooting out the weeds, the good grain should be destroyed also. It is often this patience of God that causes us to pause or wonder about the Divine Will. We often hear things like: "Why does God allow this?" "Why does God not do something about this?" "Why does not God just strike him now?" God is patiently waiting for the time of harvest.

There is often a grain of goodness that is to be saved even in the worst of sinners. God did not destroy Esau because He foresaw that the saintly Job was to one day descend from him. God did not call forth the destruction of the tax collector Matthew, because He knew that He would one day become a great Apostle. He did not strike out Saul, because He was necessary to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

We often may consider that even the evil in this life provides help or assistance to the good. While it generally happens that good parents have good children; history also records good children coming forth from not-so-good parents. We also see that evil shopkeepers may provide the necessities of life for good people. There is even a spiritual benefit if we look deep enough. Bad people give good people the occasion or opportunity to practice patience, long-suffering, and many other virtues that could not otherwise be practiced and developed. Thus, it is that bad people do some good even in spite of themselves.

God has a way of drawing good, even from evil. This in no way condones the evil or makes it good. For example: Jesus has instructed us that scandals are necessary. (They strengthen the good and help them to advance in grace.) But, He also says "woe to those by whom the scandals come." (St. Matthew 18, 7) We must hate evil and resist it to the best of our abilities so that it does not take root in our souls, but we must, likewise, patiently bear with the evils we find around us and, in this manner, advance in grace.

We find that Jesus instructs us: to turn the other cheek; to not render evil for evil; even to love our enemies. We must do good to those that do evil to us. We must bless and not curse.

In examining ourselves, we should begin to see that evil thoughts arise within us because an enemy has planted them there. He was able to plant them there because we were not on guard and protecting our hearts and minds from evil influences. We should not have become careless and should have avoided the occasions of the temptations that lead to these thoughts. We can blame the enemy, but we must also blame ourselves for allowing the enemy access to do his evil deeds. Let us not despair when we see our hearts and minds filling with evil thoughts. What are we to do?

Psychologically, if we work to directly remove these thoughts, they only tend to become even more embedded in our minds. Just try telling yourself not to think of something. At that very moment you begin to think of exactly what you decided not to think of. This head on, or direct approach does not work. We are best off, if we leave them alone for the time being. There will come a time when they will be gathered up and burned. For now, the best thing to do is to focus upon the good seedlings (the good thoughts) it is best that we work on cultivating and nurturing these.

We must obviously repent and confess our evil thoughts if they are serious sins, but then we should direct out thoughts to good things, and not dwell upon the evil ones. The very thought of sin often causes more sin. The thoughts of virtue often lead to even more thoughts of virtue and eventually to the very practice of virtue.