Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
To start this brief reflection, let me just go back to the collect, the prayer we said at the beginning of Mass.
This is what we prayed.
Almighty and merciful God, may no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your son, but may our learning of heavenly wisdom gain us admittance to his company.
In Advent, we fix our attention on God who by his nature is a God who comes.
Years and years ago, Benedict XVI put it well in just one sentence, and I love this sentence.
Every time Advent comes around, I remind myself of it and I use it in a homily.
Benedict XVI said, awaken, remember that God comes not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today, now.
The importance of living in the present moment.
God comes at every moment.
He comes now.
He didn't just come yesterday.
He's not just gonna come tomorrow.
He's coming now in the present moment.
And he makes it our responsibility to prepare ourselves to make straight his path by removing the obstacles that are in the way, and these obstacles can be reduced to one, sin, and specifically mortal sin and venial sin.
So we know that mortal sin is just totally an obstacle.
God can't get into our soul at all.
He's unfortunately not able, not able to dwell in our souls as he wishes.
But then there's also venial sin, which yes, gives access.
Well, rewinding lets me say that better.
There's venial sin, which is the condition of somebody who is in the state of grace, meaning God does dwell in his soul, but because of venial sin, God does not have the liberty to move freely within that soul, to use a bit of an analogy.
God is impeded, he's hindered.
He cannot freely operate in that soul because there are attachments, there are sins, venial sins.
So I'll use an example that really happened to me years ago and I think it's a good image, a good visual image of what it is to be attached to venial sin.
Okay, because venial sin, after, of course, mortal sin, are the biggest obstacle to holiness, and I'm gonna use this example and then just explain a little bit more about how important it is to avoid venial sin, especially deliberate venial sin.
That's what I'm talking about.
So the image, years and years ago, long before I was a priest and before I even became a friar, I had a friend and I was visiting him once and I knocked on the door of his room.
I opened and I tried to get in, but I was surprised to find just the most cluttered room that I had ever seen in my whole life, that I had ever seen in my whole life.
Like, literally, I was just shocked because the floor was just covered with every possible thing you could imagine.
Every square inch of the floor space was covered with something.
So, needless to say, I couldn't get very far into his room.
I couldn't hasten to meet him.
He couldn't hasten to meet me.
We were just both stuck in this clutter.
He was sitting at his desk.
All he could do is just look at me and say, hey, and I could just look at him and say, how do I get in?
And there was that clutter in the way.
There was way too much stuff in the way.
So again, the way certainly wasn't prepared for me.
And I use this image, this example, because, again, it applies to deliberate venial sin.
Again, we open the door to our Lord, we let him in, we're not in mortal sin, but there's all that venial sin on the ground.
And we can't hasten to meet him.
He can't hasten to meet us.
He's a friend, we let him in, but he can't enter very easily.
Again, to maneuver in that room, like literally you had to look at the floor, find, okay, maybe I can put my foot over there.
I'm gonna try that.
And then where do I put my other foot?
And then you have to stop and think about that.
It was a minefield.
That's the way he, he's a great friend, but that's the way he organized his stuff, just on the floor everywhere.
So, venial sin, again, the biggest obstacle to holiness after mortal sin.
And if you recall, there was a priest a while ago, often an EWTN, Father Thomas Dubay, and one of the things that I remember him emphasizing over and over again, he says, okay, if you wanna make a good resolution, if it's Lent or Advent or just a good spiritual resolution, how about this?
Give up your deliberate venial sins.
And he would always preach about that.
Just think of the sins that you're attached to, the deliberate venial sins, the ones you know you're committing and you want to keep on committing and you don't wanna let go of, deliberate ones, you know?
Think of those.
Give those up.
Okay, that's a great resolution.
Break those attachments.
Get rid of that clutter.
What are the typical examples?
You know, we frequently, if we should examine ourselves, okay, we frequently deliberately judge others.
Yeah, I know I shouldn't judge that other person, but I don't like him, so I will judge him.
It feels good to condemn that other person in my mind, you know, and we don't make an effort to stop the venial sin.
We frequently make more effort to justify it.
Oh, you know, he probably judges me, so I get to judge him, whatever.
Deliberate judgments, deliberate lack of charity, deliberate retaliations.
Oh, he was nasty to me.
I'm gonna be nasty back to him.
Then we make excuses.
I do a lot of other good things.
I pray a lot.
I do a lot of charity work.
I volunteer, so I can be nasty to this person.
Just, you know, just this one, you know, just this one individual who kind of just, is just outside of the rules of the gospel.
He's like, he's not lovable, you know?
I get to judge him.
I get to be nasty to him.
Deliberate, again, gluttony, laziness, distractions in prayer.
Again, commonly occurring deliberate venial sins that we think are no big deal, but are like all that clutter, okay?
We just see our Lord from a distance, you know?
Hey, Lord, come in, and there they are, deliberate gluttony, deliberate laziness, deliberate judgment, deliberate lack of charity, all in a way, and they can't really get in, and we can't really hasten to meet him.
So, to prepare the way of the Lord means to remove the obstacles, and in Advent, well, we should all examine ourselves whether we have these deliberate attachments, and if we do, and if we do, then we should remove them with the help of Our Blessed Lady, right?
She can motivate us, give us the grace to break those little chains or threads that hold us bound.
So, let's examine our consciences, and whatever we find that stands in the way, let us remove it.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.