Twilight Twitches

Dear Family,
Handel's melody bounces around my mind and my heart. His 1741 oratorio, The Messiah, follows the liturgical year, so Advent shapes Part I and that's where we hear Isaiah's prophetic words, in 9:5, for unto us a child is born.

If you take the time to go and read Isaiah 9 you realize that the expectation of a messiah comes in the midst of war and struggles among the tribes of Israel. That's where the composer of the word¬book of the oratorio, Charles Jennens, found the inspiration to envision the messiah who emerges to bring light. Isaiah 9 begins, "A people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." It is to these people in darkness, to us, that the child is given.

Dear Family,
Last week I ended my Twitch with the following couple of paragraphs.

“I think if you went to (the sacrament) reconciliation regularly for the purpose of asking yourself, ‘Who has the Lord been trying to touch through me?’, you might be very happy with the experience. ‘Lord, let the grace of this sacrament help me see those people and those opportunities.’ ‘...and thank you for giving me this opportunity to ask myself that question in your presence.’ Aha! True Reconciliation.

Maybe that can help us stop thinking of the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a giant dumpster; the Republic or Waste Management Sin Bin.

Dear Family,
A few weeks ago, I experienced a first in my 50+ years of priesthood. At the regularly scheduled time for the sacrament of reconciliation, NO ONE came. Not one person.

It shouldn't have been a surprise, I guess, because even normally the numbers each week are low.

A hundred thoughts began to germinate. Why are so few sharing in the sacrament? Are we teaching badly? Was there a bad experience with some priest and his less-than-pastoral approach? Have we succeeded in stressing God's mercy so well that when we mess up, we don't think it matters much? Are the hours for the sacrament inconvenient? Sometimes I think we already do good imitations of 7-11's trying to be the convenience store for all. We say you can come anytime.

Dear Family,
Advent! Ad venire, literally 'to come to.'

Last Sunday I spoke about the Aramaic word, maranatha. Depending on how you pronounce it, marana-tha, or maran-atha, it can have two meanings; "Come, Lord" or "The Lord is come." Our on-going challenge is dealing with what theologians call the 'already' and the 'not yet.' (It's something like, I already have my bills but the money to pay them is 'not yet' in my bank account. Bad joke. Nevermind.)

Many years ago, I remember one of our seminary profs talking about trying to communicate. He said, "Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them." I think he was also the one who may have told us that someone had to hear something eight times before it really stuck.

I know he wasn't saying people are dumb. I think he was saying that our attention span sure can be short, and that was before a world of 24/7 news cycles. This morning's crisis is this afternoon's old news.

I don't know if those ideas are true, but I'm going to use them as an excuse for repeating some things I know I've said in the past.