Advent is like a Club Sandwich.

It has all kinds of layers with a variety of flavors.

 There is the layer of bologna: the auto ads appearing long before Thanksgiving promising ultimate happiness if you wrap up a Lexus for the Missus.

There is another layer of bologna with the stores hawking Christmas bargains on Black Friday, a term they have co-opted from the Catholic liturgical day called Good Friday.

And then there is the lettuce, the green stuff, the moola that gets paid to all the workers who work long and difficult winter days and nights to sell the Christmas merchandise, and that is necessary and a good part of the Christmas buying spree, but all too often the green stuff in the Advent Sandwich is cut too thin.

(And that is why there will be a demonstration here at Walmart of Black Friday.)

And then the tomatoes could be the red Christmas lights and glitter.

But the sandwich is nothing without the crisp bacon.

It is th bacon that gives the ultimate flavor.

And for believers the bacon might well be a hopeful longing for the Christmas SEASON, a hoped for peaceful pause in the maelstrom.

So in the midst of all the clamor for sales,in the midst of all the colors, the Church gives us a slice of purple.

The Advent Purple is not yet red, nor green. It is in between.

And Advent is meant to be in between Ordinary Time and Christmas time.

And the heart of the Advent sandwich for believers has to be the Advent Longing for the Birth of the Saviour.

So we take time out today to savor this in between slice of the sandwich.

We can let the Advent Scriptures soak in like gentle rain, or melting snow. It can soak deep if we are open to it

Or another image that Isaiah the Advent prophet uses: we are the clay to be moulded:

"You O Lord are the potter; we are the work of your hands."

The Pre Christmas frenzy is all about us doing many chores, and they are usually good chores, gifting our loved ones and being generous to the poor.

But what about letting God do something with us and for us?

We need to be aware that God does want to do something in this in between time, this time of purple, not yet red or green time.

St.Paul's greeting to us today in the Second Reading is:

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!"

So what is the Advent "Peace?"

What is the Advent "Grace?"

What is the flavor the the Advent Club Sandwich?

What is the flavor that tries to break through the bologna and lettuce?

THE ADVENT FLAVOR IS HOPE.

We need to feel it. We need to grasp it. We need to savor it.

In today's Gospel, Jesus proclaims:

"Be watchful! Be alert!'

In the midst of the 24 hour news cycle, in the midst of Ferguson, in the midst of ISIS, in the midst of Ebola.....hope is brewing.

Purple yearns to turn to red and green.

Against all odds there is HOPE.

"But hope is not hope if it's object is seen. How is it possible for one to hope for what one sees? And hoping for what one cannot see means awaiting it with patient endurance.' 

Romans 8:24-25

And so we pray:

O God, grant me the grace of patient endurance.,

May I wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

As I wait, fashion me into the gift you mean ME to be.

Give me the resolve "to run forth to meet your Christ,

with good deeds at his coming,

so that gathered at his right hand,

we may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom."

Amen