The sisters who live here know what this little book is. It is called an “Ordo.” The real title of the book is “Guide for the Liturgy of the Roman Seraphic Calendar.” It is a detailed calendar that tells us priests and religious which Liturgy of the Hours to pray and which Mass to celebrate each of the 365 days of the coming year. A quick check of the title page tells us that it is authored and published by yours truly at the request of the Provincial Ministers of the English Speaking Provinces of the Franciscan Order.
Each year for the past twenty or so years, I type out the liturgical directions for all 365 days of the year. I send the completed manuscript to a publisher in June or July who then sends it to a printer in Peoria, Illinois. The printer ships the completed copies to me, and then I, with the help of Sr. Jeanette, sent them to all my customers. As the Franciscan Order grows smaller with each passing year, the number of copies printed also decreases. Still, I shipped about 2,000 copies this year.
The job presents me with some funny stories. Every year around the end of October or the beginning of November, I start getting telephone calls from people wondering when the Ordo for next year will be sent. When I mention that they won’t need it until the First Sunday of Advent, one customer said, “Oh Father, we are already planning the liturgies for next Easter!” It is at this point that I am tempted to say, “Someone needs to get a life.” Of course, tomorrow will be the craziest day of the year for me because all the people who forgot to order their copies will call me tomorrow to see if I still have some to sell.
What does all this have to do with the First Sunday of Advent? Well, it’s like this. Today we begin another liturgical year. As they do at the beginning of every liturgical year, the readings for this liturgy ask us to be alert, to be ready, and to be prepared because we do not know when Jesus will return. Just imagine how those people who are already planning the Easter liturgies would feel if Jesus decided to return tonight!
People who live in the Western World, people who are like you and I, tend to be people who are so fixated on the future that we fail to live in the present. Many of us, even some of the people who live here, are thinking about December 25 and January 1 and how we are going to celebrate these important days. So the readings for this liturgy are attempting to apply the brakes to slow us down, asking us to stop and consider today, the present. Are we ready for Jesus’ return?
Today’s Gospel takes lines from some familiar parables and sews them together to make a new parable – the parable of the doorkeeper. We hear of a man traveling abroad – a line taken from the parable of the man who gave each of his servants some money and then went away. We hear of how he places his servants in charge of his affairs – a line taken from the parable of the unjust steward. We hear that the Master might return at midnight – a line taken from the parable of the five wise and five foolish maidens. All of these lines urge us to be alert, for we do not know the day nor the hour when the Master will return.
Because this promise of Jesus’ return was made so long ago, we tend to put it off until some day in the future. We will get around to preparing for judgment day later on. It can wait. We’ve got plenty of time. There is no need to be concerned.
To be sure, when Jesus first uttered these words, he probably was not preparing the disciples for a long period of waiting for the second coming. He was, in all likelihood, warning them to be prepared for the crisis that was upon them. That is evidenced by the fact that these words are taken from the end of chapter thirteen of St. Mark’s Gospel. The very next chapter begins the story of Jesus’ Passion and Death. However, after the Resurrection and the Ascension, the Church remembered these words and shifted their attention to the promise that Jesus made before returning to the Father. Jesus promised that he would return, that he was leaving for a time to prepare a place for us in heaven and that he would come back to take us to live with him and His Father.
That’s where we stand today. As we begin another liturgical year, the Church asks us to spend some time paying attention to the present, to the here and now. Perhaps we have become so busy preparing for the future that we have forgotten the admonition that Jesus has given us to be ready for his return.
As we approach the altar today to receive his body and blood, we give thanks for the gift of another year to celebrate, to remember what Jesus has done for us. We do so mindful of the fact that tomorrow is not promised to any of us. We know not when the Master will return.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator