...to discern what is of value..

What do big closets and the mass murders in California have in common?

The other day I sat looking into my closet and the realization dawned on me of how different it was from the closets we had at home. They were small and here I am with this gigantic walk in space filled with clothes.

In fact at 3062 South 32 Avenue, my home in Omaha, the first time I ever kissed a girl, (the lovely Jeannie,} I was about 7 years old and it happened in our front closet, where there was barely room for the two of us!

And now the mass shootings in California? What do big closets and mass shootings in California have in common?

They should teach us to heed what Paul proclaims in today's Second Reading:

"And this is my prayer:that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value...

As we enter into the mad rush towards Christmas and filling up our closets, what is of ultimate value?

 Our consumer economy needs Black Fridays I guess, but they have nothing to do with what is truly of value in our lives:

Our Faith

Our Hope,

Our Love,

Our Relationships.

Those are the things that really count, and when a group of work related friends are gunned down at a Christmas Party we must begin to realize what a fragile fabric of life we all weave.

And to realize what a cowardly gang of politicians in Congress that "leads" us, a group who quiver at the wrath of the NRA,

And a group ththat IGNORES THE WILL OF A VAST NUMBER OF AMERICANS for some sensible gun laws.

It is a group similiar to those that the Advent Prophet, John The Baptist rejects:

"A voice of one crying out in the desert, 'Make straight the way of the Lord!

Make straigt his paths!"

While we worry about Syrian refugees crossing our borders, American citizens buy automatic weapons of mass destruction at unregulated gun shows with impunity and turn them on innocent fellow citizens.

How crooked the path we walk! How circuitous! How dangerous! How foolhardy!

Is anyone listening?

'MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD!"

The "way of the Lord" is not the "way" of too many gun worshipping Americans.

And so we pray:

Almighty and merciful God,

may no earthly undertaking hinder those

who set out in haste to meet your Son.

Make straight our path.

Deliver us from fear.

Help us to discenrn

what is truly of value in our lives.

Amen