Just a word...First Sunday of Advent...December 3, 2023

“Attention, attention must be paid!”  These words of  Linda Loman, wife of Willy Loman, in Arthur Miller’s famous 1949 play, “The Death of a Salesman,” were uttered at her husband’s funeral.  She was speaking of the tragedy of his life, hoping to urge her children to wake up to the reality that every human life has value and must be respected.  Linda was also referring to the failure of her husband and her sons to take advantage of the many opportunities life presents to enrich relationships and thereby the lives of others as well as one’s own. 

Linda’s words are applicable to our own lives, especially during this first week of Advent, when the Gospel enjoins us to stay awake for we know not when the Lord will come.  Advent reminds us that we are not living in a fairy tale of our own spinning.  Life is not a dress rehearsal, but is a gift, a gift that is rife with opportunities to encounter God in the people and the events of our lives. Every experience contains the possibility of leading us closer to God’s reign, as Isaiah’s image of the clay and the potter suggests. As our life’s circumstances change, we are to trust the potter to keep forming and molding us, leaving the fingerprints of God upon us, that God’s love might shine forth through us.

The Good News of the admonition to stay awake, to pay attention, is that a life lived fully in the present, awake and aware, listening and watching, makes us more cognizant of those times when the Lord is revealed. For the Lord is arriving not only at Christmas, or at the end of our earthly lives, but at every moment of our lives.

We need the season of Advent to help us remember that the potter’s hand is still reaching out, that the Lord is arriving at every moment and is inviting the better angels of our nature to collaborate in the work that is to be accomplished in order to bring about the kingdom.  Linda Loman was right...there is no substitute for paying attention.

And speaking of paying attention, is my great privilege to announce that three of our parishioners...Anne McCrory, Andrew Schultz and Brian Wallace, are being presented with Papal Honors tomorrow for their work on behalf of furthering the kingdom.  They have paid attention to the needs of the people of Fairfield County and responded, by giving of themselves so generously. When you see them please express your gratitude for their service and extend congratulations for receiving this great honor.