In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs, St. Joseph.
St. Lucy, our patron saints and guardian angels.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The saint we celebrate today in the church's calendar, St. Lucy, is an appropriate saint for this time of Advent.
And as we approach Christmas, Lucy, her name comes from luce, meaning light.
That she was truly a light in her day, in the fourth century.
She was living out her Catholic faith very seriously, and obviously some pagans,
whether it was someone who wanted to marry her, and she refused because she had made a vow of virginity.
And like those days, they didn't like no as an answer.
And they began to try and pressure her to give up her vow of virginity.
And eventually they tortured her, and thought they would somehow destroy her attractiveness and her beauty.
And she was a naturally beautiful young lady by gouging out her eyes.
And that is why she is the patron saint of those suffering from eye disease, and those who might say who are in the dark.
And those who are lacking the light of faith, for both of those are a certain, are a type of blindness.
Those who do not, are not able to see physically, and those who are not able to see spiritually, are blind.
And so she's their patron saint.
And I still think of the All Saints Party with the little St. Lucy with the bucket full of eyeballs.
I thought that was kind of cute.
Cute as a representation of St. Lucy.
But whatever St. Lucy is in a special way is that she's a light to us.
Because she shows us as in the first reading from Isaiah said,
I will lead you, I the Lord your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you in the way you should go.
If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity will be like a river.
That the commandments of the Lord are a certain light to us.
And if we have the faith to understand that the commandments of God, and that God has a certain direction for us,
and that his commandments will lead us in the way of all good things,
then, you know, when we have that kind of light of faith, then we are going to prosper in the ways of virtue.
And in all other ways.
We'll be much better off than those who are refusing to follow the commandments of the Lord.
It is obviously the Lord who is our light.
That's the light that St. Lucy looked to and who filled her soul with so much light that she was able to stand fast when persecuted.
The Responsorial Psalm even repeats that, you know, that those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
So, that means that those who don't follow our Lord will be in the dark.
You might say, the darkness of death.
And that's why we live in this culture of death today.
Because so many people refuse the light that Christ and the Church is handing out to them.
The Church says, if you want to live in the light, don't contracept.
If you want to live in the light, don't abort your babies.
If you want to live in the light, don't destroy marriages.
There is between one man and one woman, and fidelity till death do you part.
But our culture today wants to live in the dark.
It's almost as if they've gouged their own eyes out.
And want to think that somehow living in this fantasy land of relativism will somehow make them happy.
And now they go all to all sorts of means to deaden their pain by drugs, alcohol,
going to see doctors, going to see doctors, going to see doctors, going to see doctors, going to see doctors, going to see doctors.
Going to see psychiatrists.
When the real solution is much simpler.
And that is to follow the commandments of the Lord.
Today, let us, as we approach Christmas, you know, the season is a season of,
as the world outside is getting darker, as we approach the winter solstice,
the Church in its wisdom uses this, you might say, our surroundings,
to help us to kind of understand
the significance of this season.
As we approach the light, though, of Christ,
the days begin to get brighter after the winter solstice.
And so Christ is truly that light who is coming.
And we must follow that little, you know,
if you're in the darkened room,
and you can only see a little pinpoint of light,
we follow that, and that will lead us,
that light of faith, in the times when it seems dark.
And that Christ is truly the light that has come into the world.
And he has given that light to us in baptism.
And that light is expressed to us in the teachings of the Church,
through his word, through the pronouncements of his vicar,
the vicar of Christ.
All these are means in which Christ gives us the light of life,
so that we can truly be happy, and not be in the dark.
So let us pray.
So this Advent season, as you know, the Advent wreath,
gets brighter as we approach Christmas,
because the light of Christ is approaching us.
And that we must, you know, continue to live in that light,
like Saint Lucy, who was a light in her day.
And even if they tried to snuff out the light,
you know, as they tried to take Lucy's life from her,
yet she still manifests that,
because the light that she had was not her light,
it was Christ shining through her.
And so they couldn't put out the light.
She became a witness to those around her,
and we still celebrate her today,
as being one of those great heroic followers of Christ,
who gave their life for love of the Lord.
Let us pray in a special way for all those who are in the dark,
especially those who refuse to listen to the Church,
that they will receive that grace this Advent season
and Christmas season,
that the greatest gift they can get is the gift of faith,
that light of faith that Christ holds out to each and every one of us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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