The Time is Now!

Last Friday I went to see or I went to the AMC in Oakbrook to see, as we've been mentioning the first two episodes of The Chosen, uh, the third season, and I was excited to go, I was excited because while we rented the theater. and he was exhausted, so he was there with the parishioners. I was excited to go with five of the religious sisters to Our Lady of the Angels. I was excited to see uh The Chosen. I was determined to go to a movie theater. Had been. For a long

time

and I enjoyed the first episode.

It's been a great fruit of prayer for me the last few weeks and watching the chosen ones and then when the first episode ended and the second started, I discovered that the chair reclines. all the way back and I was out, I mean, I mean, I don't know what genius thought it would be a good idea to put lazy kids in movie theaters, but growing up on the farm we didn't have movie theaters with lazy kids. . and I woke up with the credits on. The lights are on. The parishioners walked beside me. I turned to the sister sitting next to me and said, why didn't you wake me up?

She said you look so peaceful but we all know that. I don't know what it's like, we know the feeling of being sleepy right in your head Bobs listening to the teacher the teacher at school or maybe even at some point in this homily your head Bobs, you check to see if anyone has noticed it's difficult to be busy when we are drowsy it is difficult to function well if we are drowsy and it can even be dangerous if we are drowsy, you know, think about the rumble strips on the side of the road, think about, you know, the The warning label on the medicine says you know it can cause drowsiness.

Do not operate heavy machinery properly because it could damage it. It may not only harm you but could harm others around you, but the Bible speaks of a more dangerous type of drowsiness. that physical drowsiness and that's spiritual drowsiness, the Bible, you know, and I and I think you know, just in our culture, you know, maybe more than any other

time

in human history, we tend to take a long time to sleep. Spiritually, you know. Simply our culture itself forces us to sleep spiritually and much less, as we often talk about, the amount of spiritual tranquilizers that we have at our disposal all the time and what that does is that we lose our focus, our attention is not correctly ordered. . the way it should be should be the way we are wired as humans our order is out of place we are not properly ordered and that is not a good thing it harms us and inevitably harms those around us our family and community and even in a broader scale and that is why it is an important theme throughout the entire Bible and it is intensified here we hear in Advent the that and it is this it is this wake up prepare for the coming of the Lord Advent the Latin word adventus means the coming and so on These four weeks we are beginning a new series of preachings that we call awake.

The hope is that these four weeks in preparation for the coming of the Lord at Christmas will bring us out of any spiritual slumber we may find ourselves in. We come here this first Sunday and this first week, what we find and see is that now the time is so similar to what you wake up in the morning, no matter how many times you press this news button, there is no harmony, how many times. you turn around there eventually the moment comes where you say now is the time I have to get up the moment has come where there are no more five minutes left I am now is the time I have to get up and the same is the case in the spiritual life the same thing happens in the moral life and you know, when we say moral morality we can have an aversion to it.

The word morality simply means principles related to good and evil. Behavior of a goodness or evil in my character is aligned in such a way that I am acting in such a way that I live in such a way that takes me to where I need to go, to what I want to go and so, just as I wake up there, it comes to a point where it is like Now is the time, I have to get up, the same thing we know, the feeling is like in us, it is like Now is the time, now is the time, I have to start or Now is the time, I have to stop.

Now is the time I have to change Now is the time I have to mend this relationship Now is the time I have to delete the app change my habits, whatever they may be. Now is the time when there is a CS Lewis inspired exchange, eh, that's it. you know that the devil is training the number of demon students as they are sent to go up to Earth and finish their training and so, while they are sent or before they are sent, Satan asks you: do you know the class of the three demon students and you ask, the first says how you are going to operate when you go and are sent to Earth to annoy and tempt us, and to the demon students, the first says, I will instruct them that God does not exist, and the devil in response shook his head and said: You must do better than that.

The majority knows that our enemy God exists and the second, the second student demon, appears and says, intervenes, says: I am going to convince you that hell does not exist and Satan, in response to that response, gets upset and says after millions of atrocities in this world, everything that has happened, people know well that hell exists and the third finally appears the devil and says breathlessly, I'm going to tell you that you have a lot of time for Satan to be with such good satisfaction demon why are your colleagues not so intelligent? How you do that and you will take them down for billions Satan's tactic the father of lies says you have time you have time to stop to start changing men start praying whatever the reality is that the Bible always says Now is the time Now is the time where Paul is Romans wrote his letter to the Romans in 13 we hear that the time is now for you to wake up from sleep to get rid of the works of darkness and put on the armor of light and he says: now let us conduct ourselves appropriately what is this about correctly ordering my life where I put my attention to stop doing the things that I know I need to stop doing or start doing the things that I know I need to start things that I don't even like, I don't need you, father Mark, tell me I know, because the moral law is written in our hearts, that some of us need to be better trained with our conscience because maybe it is numb and our culture has numbed our conscience in some areas, yes, and there is time to Let's talk about it and we need it, but for many things, even we sitting here now know that I don't need my spouse. to tell me I don't need Father Mark to tell me I know that now is the time and there is great hope in that there is great hope as we hear that and we listen to it, but if we don't live in the mindset that now is the time that we have to know that it's too late, just like it's too late to wake up in the morning, where it gets to the point where it's like now you're late, just like in the spiritual case.

In the moral life it is the same as in the moral life, that we are not prepared and we hear a kind of warning from our gospel. Jesus says in the verse that begins in verse 37, he says as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the son of man in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking married marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the Ark they didn't know it until the flood came and took them all away what's interesting about it is saying that Noah oh with him and his family are in the ark well you'll wonder why he's up in the ark why is he saved and with his family the Bible says that Noah was a man who walked with the Lord he was a righteous man he obeyed God you could say that Noah was a man who stayed awake that he allowed himself to be prepared that he allowed himself to know that the flood was coming and then build the ark and then an advent message is this build your Ark build your Ark and build it today build it now because the flood is coming the flood comes with our death the flood comes in the second coming whichever happens first and As some commentators say about this in the Genesis passage with Noah, the flood also comes in your life, the flood comes in your marriage, the flood comes in my priesthood, the flood comes at some point in your life where tragedy is going to happen, something is going to happen. happen and the question will be if you were prepared, what does that mean?

CR: Do I have my life now properly arranged so that when the flood comes and it will come, I will be ready? I have built the ark and so the question for us is what is the arch you need to build. What is the arc you need to build during these four weeks? What is the arc I need to build so I can be prepared to build it now? The time is now and truly for us to enter the place where there is great hope. I hope it's okay, now I'm going to start or now I'm going to stop.

There's great hope in that and maybe to end this there's great hope in that, but the push of hope is greater hope because. Also now is the time for some of something else, it is also a time for us to think about all those things, let us stop to change men, it is also the time, now that he is coming. I was watching the one-line trailer for, uh, The Chronicles of Narnia. The lion witch in the closet with my nieces and nephews was the trailer for the first one and the lion witch in the closet you know with C.S Lewis and other works by C.S Lewis or a lion is the lion is his name is Aslan he is the christ- The figure of the witch, of course, represents all evil, the White Witch, and then the Wardrobe is the land that these four brothers enter at the beginning of the series, when they enter the closet, they do so with their friend Thomas , whom White Desire had just captured and she entered and he entered the castle and, of course, those who enter the castle turned to stone and the four brothers are also there, they are there, they are meat with the beaver. talk Talking about the beavers, isn't it, it's interesting, and while they're there, they're distraught and they know how to get their friend Thomas back, and the Beaver leans over the table and says you don't understand what comes into the White Witch's Castle and doesn't come He comes out and as his wife prepares the food, she says, well, tell him there is hope because yes, of course there is hope and he leans in and whispers and says there is hope because Aslan is on the move, the Lord is on the move, the Lord is coming, we have a savior who is coming to rescue us so that we think this week about changing to stop the beginning, etc., well, that is only possible because he came and we have grace and the Holy Spirit in us.

He is on the move in your life and he is on the move in my life. So what is the ark that you need to build, do not delay the time to awaken from our spiritual slumber, it is now.