- 08
- Dec
- 2024

Advent. Year C. Second Sunday
St. Michael’s Church, Limerick
Homily Notes of Bishop Brendan Leahy
I attended a retreat event a few weeks ago and we were invited to ask ourselves and reflect on a good question – if you were to meet Jesus, how do you think he would view the way you are carrying out your mission? Each of us has a mission. Already from the very fact of being a parent, a son or daughter, an employee, a retired person, we have a mission. But even more so, we have a mission to be a follower of Jesus precisely in the life circumstances in which we find ourselves. So, how do you think Jesus would view the way you are carrying out that mission?
No doubt, Jesus would see all that is positive in what you are living and doing. Jesus always looks at us through his eyes of mercy. That we must recognise. We need always to give thanks to God for all the good aspects of our own lives, our talents, our contribution. But Jesus would also see the potential in us. He sees what we can become. And each of us knows, we are not perfect. As followers of Jesus, we are a work in progress. I know I really can’t say the way I think about things is always according to the mind of Christ. The actions I take aren’t always motivated by love in my heart. I know that there’s always more that I can give of myself in terms of reaching out to others, offering patience or a listening ear, feeling their suffering or joy, or speaking up about situations of injustice around us or in our world. I read somewhere recently a good test of where we are in our Christian journey is to notice how we react when we suffer some wrongdoing or some insult or criticism from people.
In the two middle weeks of Advent, John the Baptist is presented to us at Sunday Mass in the Gospel readings. He is the one who came at that moment in history, described precisely by Luke in the Gospel, just before Jesus started his public ministry and called out to the people of Israel to convert, turn around, to begin again so as to be ready for the coming of the Messiah. John the Baptist quoted the prophet Isaiah about preparing the way of the Lord.
To prepare the way involved: filling in valleys of darkness or despair, repairing the potholes of the road we travel that cause us to fall, straightening the pathways if our lives have taken crooked turns, even if others don’t know externally anything much wrong with how we’re living, but we know it ourselves in our heart.
Advent is the season when we’re invited to be honest with ourselves and convert. So often we think conversion is from being an atheist to a believer, or from being a big sinner to repenting. But really, conversion is written into our Christian life, every single day.
I’ve been reading Carlo Acutis’s life story. His relics visited Limerick a few weeks ago. He was a remarkable young Italian man who died 18 years ago at the age of 15. Pope Francis is going to canonise him next year which is a Jubilee Year. He’ll be the first millennial to be canonised. He was big into computers, and really lived a very full life before being suddenly hit by leukemia. But he was amazingly wise for his age. Speaking about the need for conversion, he advised we should have a diary like he did. He gave himself good marks for the days he lived well as a Christian and bad marks for the days he did less so. He spoke of conversion as a process of subtraction, removing piece by piece whatever it is that keeps you distant from God and your neighbour. This process happens yes by removing but also by adding, adding love. As St. Paul says in the Second Reading, we are to improve always in loving one another.
Every evening, Carlo Acutis would examine his conscience on how he had tried to be a follower of Jesus that day. He kept a diary and sometimes, he’d give himself marks - good marks for the good aspects of charity that he had lived during the day and bad marks for the times he had failed to live the Christian life.
So, let’s take up this Advent invitation to conversion. What little or large step do I need to take to be more like Jesus in life, in my family, at my workplace? If someone has offended me, is there a first inner step I need to take in my heart to forgive. It’s never easy to forgive. But at least we might be able to take a step in our heart. Is there someone who really tries my patience, perhaps I can try to be more patient? Are there people calling out for my help? Perhaps I can give more.
When we are thinking about this, remember we need to ask God’s help. We can’t make ourselves perfect! Listen again to what St. Paul said in the Second Reading: “I am quite certain that the One who began the good work in you will see that it is finished when the Day of Christ Jesus comes.” With God’s help we can do what on our own resources we might never manage. After all, nothing is impossible to God.