Here we are in Advent, the beginning of the new liturgical year, and oh boy, are we ready for a fresh start.

After a year which began with bushfires in Australia, then floods and of course the unexpected arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are weary and are looking to turn the page. Advent is the perfect season to slow down and re-set.

Every time I read today’s Gospel I am reminded of an experience I had when I was a young priest.  I was helping out in a neighbouring parish and really did not know much about them.  So I based my homily on the conversation that some of us priests had at breakfast about how easy it is for us to “sanitize” this Gospel text and how easily we lose the sense of shock and surprise that Jesus’ listeners must have felt. 

Imagine you got the windfall of a lifetime. You’ve just won the top prize in lotto, which was worth millions of dollars. What would you do with this windfall?

Our Gospel reading for this 32^nd Sunday of ordinary time challenges us to be vigilant and wise. We often hear people say that “she has lots of wisdom or he has lots of knowledge”.

Let me read to you once more the wonderful message of John’s apocalyptic vision:

For those of us living here in Australia or in New Zealand, if you take notice, you’ll see that on all of our coins, we see the image of Queen Elizabeth II or whoever is the ruling monarch in England.

The Parable of the Wedding Feast in the Gospel invites us to reflect on our personal invitation to enter the reign of God.

Beloved in the Lord! There are just two points I would like to share with you this morning. From the first reading, I highlight the deep concern of the vineyard owner for the future growth, development, and produce of his grape vines. He did all he could to ensure that growth and future harvest.

God or Jesus doesn’t choose us because we are more gifted or holy than others. God chooses us because we are the ones available at a particular time and place, writes Fr Michael Knight SVD.

Sometimes when we look at ourselves or our confreres we wonder: “Couldn’t God or Jesus have done better than this?”

It was the last year of my term in office as Dean of our Seminarians in Chicago, and it was the most difficult year I had ever suffered.