 of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. So as some of you know, I was away last weekend in Savannah, visiting an old priest friend as well as preaching, a parish mission for Advent, and of course, Father Cooper covered the masses here. I hope you enjoyed Father Cooper. He's a good homilist, a great priest. He would never tell you this, but he's also an American hero. He served as a naval officer during Vietnam. And after serving in the Navy, as he says, he joined the priests in order to save his soul. He served as one of our pastors in the Greenville area, then retired from active ministry. Now he just goes and he helps priests who are still in active ministry. So I was glad that we could get him here, that he could preach and be with us for that weekend. For myself, I was also glad to be in Savannah to see another parish. Pastors don't like to admit it, but whenever we go to another parish, we always look for ideas or programs that we can steal. What can I bring back to my parish to make it even better? Well, I'm happy to say that the parish I was at was a good parish. But one thing I realized about Team Grace is that we seek not simply to be a good parish, but we are constantly seeking to be an excellent parish. We understand that our parish is not a maintenance shop. Our accomplishment is not status quo. If we just get everything right, that's the accomplishment. No, that's status quo. We understand that we're not called to be a maintenance shop, that we are called to be a mission post for the kingdom of God. And those of you who are here are part of this parish, you understand that. Because I boldly proclaim the radical call of the Lord Jesus. I hold nothing back. And that's the message that every Catholic, every Christian should be receiving. Regrettably, we live in an age of compromise and dissension, so people receive only portions of the gospel. So here at Team Grace, we preach the full gospel, exactly as the Lord did. And we hold that demand exactly as the Lord has given it. And you're here because you desire that. Because something in your heart resonates with that message. Because you also see our commitment to Christian formation and holy fellowship, to prayer and to the service of the poor and those in need. And so you want to be a part of this community. The vast majority, there are a few that are still sticking around. We're not sure what's going on there, right? Because the vast majority are here because you're on board. And being away just brought into my heart a deeper appreciation for what we try to do here at Team Grace. We're not perfect. There are things we can do better. But we're striving to do them and to make them better and to make them excellent. That's what Team Grace is all about. That's what my pastor is all about. And so again, I'm just very grateful for our parish. With that in mind, let's look at our plan for the Advent season. So far we have been talking about the theological virtues and we covered faith and hope. Today we have to talk about theological love. It's important that we understand how is it that we are able, how are we supposed to love God? And that's a pressing question. But before we get to that, I want to draw from our intellectual tradition. A lot of Catholics don't realize that we have a vast intellectual tradition as Catholic Christians. In fact, it's one of the longest consistent intellectual traditions in human history. Two thousand years of authors and artists, scientists and poets who are drawn from the treasury of faith and the belt to masterpieces. That's our tradition. Today I want to draw from that tradition one of our French poets. I read this work many years ago as he described the three theological virtues. I was moved and I hope that you are encouraged. He described the theological virtues in the context of a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter. He goes on to say that the grandmother is a personification of faith because faith has knowledge. The grandmother has wisdom. She has perspective, insight. She's been around. Faith knows. Grandma knows. I'm curious, how many grandmothers do we have in the congregation today? All right. So you know, grandmas, you know what's going on. Then the poet goes on to describe hope as the child, the daughter in this communion. That the little girl is a symbol of hope because everything we do, all that we invest in young people is the hope for the future. Their future, our future. We put a lot into the future to children with this great hope. And so the child is a symbol of hope. I'm curious, how many daughters do we have, even the adult daughters, how many? Okay, but then here we get to it. The poet says it's the mother, the one in the middle, not the grandma, not the child. It's the mother who's the personification of love because she's still in the fight. She's still the one that has to labor and sacrifice and do what is needed for her family. She's willing to pour out herself in service for whatever her family needs. And she is the personification of love. And I'm curious, how many moms do we have? And you know moms what I'm talking about. Look at these holy women of our church, a reflection for us of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Now with that understanding, let's go back to theological love. What is theological love? That's not simply the love we have for one another. That's hard enough. That's a natural love. Right? St. Paul tells us love is patient and kind. Love bears all things. It's not rude. Love makes excuses. That's hard enough with one another. How are we supposed to love God, fallen, broken and sinful creatures that we are? This is even possible for us to love God. And it's not. It's not. We cannot love God. Left to our own devices, we cannot love God. We are too broken, too sinful, too fallen. We cannot. We cannot love God. This is exactly why on the day of our baptism, God infused into our soul the theological, the supernatural virtue of love. All three theological virtues is God saying to us, I know you can't believe in me the way you're supposed to, so I'm going to help you. I know you can't hope in me as you're supposed to. I'm going to help you. And I know you cannot love me as you are called to, so I'm going to help you. And he has given us theological faith, hope and love in order to empower us, build up our nature so that we can believe and hope and love him. So God is helping us by this virtue and by his grace to love him. Okay, that's got that. Okay, that makes sense. But what does that look like? What does it mean for us to love God? Well, the answer is actually very simple. The Lord Jesus tells us, if you love me, you will obey me. Now in the West, we don't like that word obedience, right? In fact, you can tell some Americans, don't do it this way and they will purposely do it that way because who do you think you are to tell me what to do? We are a rebellious people, a fallen race, an obedient. So that just does not sit well. But as Christians, we know how important that virtue is. Obedience comes from the Latin word to listen. We listen, we consent, we are compliant. And we see how powerfully displayed in our ladies today in our gospel. I am the handmade of the Lord be a done unto me according to your word. We are called to obey God. If we love him, we will obey him. Okay, well, what does that look like? Well, first, God orders us, commands us to worship. He tells us to worship him, not because we add anything to his greatness, but because when we worship God, we become greater because we were built up by his grace and because we're doing what we were created to do to praise and worship God. But here's what oftentimes happens. The American author Mark Twain wrote once that God created man in his own image and man is forever trying to repay the favor because what oftentimes happens is we tend to say and to want supposedly to worship God, but we end up worshiping ourselves. We all have this little pet God we've created. My God understands. I do this, it's against the moral law, but my God understands. I can transgress this or offend that, but it doesn't matter, my God understands. But eventually we have to look at this little God and say, wow, that little God looks a lot like me. And eventually we realize we're just simply worshiping ourselves. We have turned ourselves into an idol. We have to die to that and worship God. Every once in a while too, someone will come and say, Father, you know what we need to do to the mass? You know what will make the mass better? This is what we have to do. Do you know what we have to do? Do you know what has to happen? I'm thinking in my mind, you have to stop talking. Anytime you hear anyone say we can make the mass better, they're already off on the wrong foot, right? It's perfect. But say, Father, you know what we need to do? We need to get some guitars, and we need to get this thing going. Really. Well, that might be emotionally satisfying to some, but eventually are we worshiping God or just worshiping ourselves and desiring some type of emotional fulfillment, right? We are called to worship God. That means our heart as Christians is on this altar because the Lord commanded us, do this in memory of me. Sometimes when I'm training the older servers, they say, Father, when you say that part, why do you yell it? Because it's a command. The Lord wasn't asking. He wasn't suggesting. He commanded, do this in memory of me. And for those of us who want to love Him, we obey Him, and so our heart rests on this altar. We are a people of worship. We're also called to be a people of prayer. If we love God, we'll obey Him. He calls us to pray. Sometimes when I look at the Pew reports, and honestly at times I have to stop because it's so depressing, but when I look at the Pew reports, I'm like, how? How is it that so many Catholics can be so off when it comes to biblical teachings baptized in Christ, confirmed in the spirit, receive and eat on the flesh and blood of the Son of God? And yet you look, how many Catholics support abortion? How many Catholics vote for pro-abortion politicians, utterly shameful, completely foreign to our way of life? But how many do it? How many Catholics support gay marriage? And sometimes I look at this and I say, how? How? Do they read the Gospels? How is this possible? But then I get going and I realize, oh, the Pew report tells us that very few Catholics actually pray. Well, dear friends, if we're not praying, then we're going to think like the unbeliever because we're fallen. We don't think right in our fallenness. This is why St. Paul says, brothers and sisters, allow for the transformation of your mind. That means we need God's grace to change us. Allow for the transformation of your mind so that you might know what is good and pleasing and perfect to your Father in heaven. We have to pray. The Lord commands us, if we love Him, we obey. Also the life of virtue. The Lord displayed the perfect human life for each of us. And in His life, we see all the virtues, just anger, gentleness, peace, fortitude. We see all the angers displayed in perfection in His life. And we are called to follow Him. That means we die to ourselves and we seek to reflect in our own lives all the virtues we see in Christ. If we love Him, we'll obey Him. He also commands us to read the Scriptures. Don't you think it's interesting that in the time of our Lord, the Pharisees who were the educated class on the Old Testament, the Pharisees were afraid to engage our Lord in conversation? Because of His mastery of the Scriptures. This country bumpkin rabbi from the north, from Galilee, was feared by the Pharisees. And we know in His earthly life our Lord veiled His divine nature. He had to learn just like we did. He had to learn carpentry at the hand of Joseph. And He had to learn the Scriptures by reading them and studying them just like we do. And the Lord commands us that if we love Him, we will obey to read the Scriptures. Now perhaps some are sitting in the pew saying, wait a minute, wait a minute. This is starting to sound like this is stuff we're supposed to do. Absolutely. Because some Catholics still think that prayer or Scripture, these are like extra. They think you get extra credit, right? No, dear friends, these are not optional. This is what it means to be a Christian. That we live this way of life modeled and given to us by Jesus Christ. But wait, He commands more. The Lord commands us to serve. Now as soon as I say that, I know some say, well, Father, you know what? We're in a pandemic. What are we supposed to do? We need to know our own history. As Christians, we have thrived in the midst of plagues. In the midst of plagues, we have created hospitals and hospices and outreach centers. Pandemics are no excuse in order to give ourselves a pass on what the Lord commands. The Lord commands if He loves, we will do it. Now admittedly, we have to be creative. The church will tell us to be safe, prudent, but creative. Sometimes, dear friends, the people we are called to minister to are in our own families or our extended families. They are the people who need more time, an attentive ear or a compassionate heart. And sometimes we miss them because they're right in front of us. Perhaps in the creative call to serve, we can look around and say, who in my family needs my service? Or perhaps it's the person across the street or in your neighborhood, the person who is alone or the person who needs help. I thought it was powerful that here at the parish, we oftentimes have a food drive. We couldn't do it this year because of the pandemic. And I gave out the appeal and asked you to rally your local areas in order to collect food. And so many of you responded. And the purses of Our Lady of Grace donated thousands and thousands of pounds of food to the local outreach center. That is food for our neighbors right here. You know what was powerful about that? If we had done a parish drive, you would have just brought your food and that would have been it. But many of you, you had to organize, talk to your neighbors, share your faith with your neighbors, and rally your local area in order to serve the poor. You were being a far better Christian and far more evangelical, giving witness than if you had just dropped off a few cans during the parish drive. In theology, we call that subsidiarity. Popular jargon would call that grassroots efforts. We have to get creative. We have to try to serve others. But the problem right now is so many Christians are acting as unbelievers. They're allowing their hearts to be covered in darkness. They're being plagued and weighed down by self-pity, entitlement. Well, there's a pandemic, all the national elections, all the stuff's happening, I don't know what's going on. We are not orphans. We are not orphans. We are the children of God. And especially the midst of tragedy and uncertainty, we are called to shine. This is our moment. That is if we've been living our faith. But if we've been living as a young believer, then this is really rocking our world. And perhaps these virtues of faith, hope, and love are summoned back to the life that we are called to live as the children of God. There are some people who reach out and say, Father, I don't know what's going on. My family doesn't want to be around me. They don't want to talk to me. I say, well, I love you, so I'll tell you the truth. My goodness, you're depressing and boring. My goodness, you just sit there and talk all the time about yourself. I don't feel well, get the doctor's appointment, but who wants to deal with all that? Get out of yourself, go read a book, go for a walk. Ask them how they're doing. Get out of yourself. If we love God, we will obey him. And he has called us to serve others. So oftentimes we create that idol. We worship ourselves. We talk only to ourselves, not to God in prayer. We seek only to live how we want to live. We serve only ourselves and we get plagued in this monologue stuck in our minds. A cesspool and we just keep going around and around, wondering, what is the point of it all? The Lord Jesus has given us the answer. On December 25th, the dawn from on high shall break upon us. The light of the world will shine. And he will wait and expect his followers to be ready. Are you ready? Have you been cooperating with faith, hope and love and the workings of his grace? Because of Christmas, dear friends, we will present the Lord our heart. And one heart will be distracted, plagued in self-pity and entitlement, covered in darkness and unacceptable sacrifice. The other heart, however, will be filled with the virtues of faith, hope and love and enriched by God's grace and know the freedom and the joy that comes with the life of God. Which heart will you give to the Lord Jesus at Christmas? What heart have you prepared? Now, if you haven't done anything for Advent, we still have time. There is time to prepare for the coming of the Lord. Go to confession today. Tonight, sit down and recommit yourself to a life of prayer. Find some easy achievable program in which to study and read the scriptures. Identify the people in your life who need your attention and your service. If you have not been doing it, do it now. The time is at hand. Prepare your heart for the coming of the Lord. We must be prepared. Stay alert. Be ready. Because whether we're ready or not, on Christmas, dear friends, the Lord is coming. And he will ask a heart from us one way or another. Which heart will you give him? Be ready, dear friends, for the Lord is coming.