One of the traditional images for monastic way of life is the desert. Enter to join a monastery is to enter the desert. The reason for this is two fold. First, monasticism in Christianity began when people left the cities and went into the desert, actually physically, so they could live more deeply the Christian life. But once they were in the desert they discovered that the life style created the desert in their spirituality. That is, they began to become aware of the change in their lives and how the desert was an environment in which the word of truth would arrive in their consciousness. So they would appreciate this experience because it meant for them a growing and deepening awareness. When all those meanings that they had in their life, all their convictions, all their descriptions of life and all their images, began to really fall away. When they couldn=t sustain their life anymore in the desert that=s when they discovered new meaning and the possibility of an emergence of a richer, deeper life.

        So leaving the noisy city putting aside the activity and distractions of work and engagements, allowed them to cut through illusions. All of a sudden the Word of Truth and the Word of the Lord began to really be heard. It=s no surprise that today=s gospel, on the Second Sunday of Advent has John the Baptist coming out of the desert and what is he doing, he=s proclaiming the Word of Truth. He says: AMetanoiete!@ which in Greek is what we would translate as repent, but the Greek is richer, it=s a richer statement then just repent. First of all it=s a summary of the whole mission of John the Baptist in his preaching. It=s the core message he wanted to get across to his people. This summary really addressed the core issues of each human being, namely, what exactly is your wisdom? And how is it really eternal and lasting? And it therefore really challenged and addressed each person and was really a call to turn away from all that they have gathered over the years to define what they think life is and what=s going to make them happy and what=s going to keep them together, all that was challenged so that they would turn and come back to the mind of God. To see things as God saw them. We need to come to see the world as Jesus sees it and then come to continue a life in that vision so that you can be part of the kingdom. That=s really the positive side. But you know this is a little difficult to do. It=s hard for us to really face the truth. Let me give you an example. Fr. Walter Ciszek was a Jesuit, missionary in Russia under the Communists. He was sent to Dudinka, which is a city near the Arctic coast on the Russian boarder, and the river that he was near was on the Yenesei. Since it=s in the Arctic area it=s frozen most of the year. The only time it=s not frozen is during the summer time which is the time in the north when you get like twenty-two hours of sunlight. What was he called to do with the rest of that camp? The cheap labor? He was to move coal around in the hull of a ship as the conveyor belt poured it into the hole. He didn=t mind exercise but when he had to do it twelve to fifteen hours a day he learned about his body. His muscles from head to toe were in pain. He was exhausted by the end of the day. When he came to sleep at night, he couldn=t sleep, the whole body was pain filled and crying out and yet he got up the next day and started again.

        What did Fr. Walter say about that period in that particular camp. He said: AI have discovered about the real truth that man is made body and soul.@ He just didn=t discover the limit and the transcendence to going beyond the body=s limits. He discovered the relationships between the soul and the body and he began to treat his body rather respectfully and with great joy and appreciation. Now if it takes a human being that much to discover such a core question of our life, I am a person made of body and soul, what can we say about spiritual things?

        If we listen to the gospel when John sees the Sadducees and the Pharisees coming what does he say? AWho told you that you can get away from the wrath of God?@ That=s what he=s referring to. God hates sin. Then I turned the page and there is a description of how we are making progress in medicine by research on stem cells at the cost of murdering babies. There=s no discussion about how God looks at this. This is a violation of who God is. God is life and life-giving and we have chosen to deaf dealers. There is no discussion that this could put us in the position of receiving the wrath of God. But it=s clear. Read the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28, and the curses that come to those who don=t follow the covenant. Whether you are Catholic or not it doesn=t matter.

        If we have difficulty with the negative side how are we going to get to the positive side of which Advent is all about? What should we learn from this? Well I know what some peoples= solution is they don=t watch the news anymore and they don=t read the paper. That=s their solution to the problem. That doesn=t do any good. Why? Because this is the reality of our time. You and I are believers and we=re called to do something. What=s the call here? It=s to really cry out, AJesus, we need you!@ A We need a Savior!@ I need a Savior, you need a Savior, we need Jesus.

        Therefore, part of the Advent season is precisely to grow in tremendous desire for salvation. That it becomes more articulate, clear, and deep. Because we begin to realize that God really has looked at our situation and has provided salvation. So the negative side evokes our desire for salvation and for Jesus. The positive side is even harder to get across. And that=s why we=re gathering here to have the Viliya.

        The Viliya is an awareness that salvation is an abundance. So this a supper that has a lot of symbol food, meaning abundance. What is that abundance? God has given us solution to our problem in Jesus. That when we make him the center of our life not only do we see things from God=s point of view, we begin to experience the things we heard in the first reading and also in the second reading. Then we begin to gain wisdom. We begin to see what is really lasting and eternal and worthwhile. We begin to experience inner peace. We begin experience the closeness of Jesus and we begin to experience goodness in many ways.

        Look at what one woman did, Mother Teresa, who said yes to Jesus with holding nothing back. She spread God=s mercy over the whole world and it continues today because she said yes to Jesus. So much so that thousands of people were taken from their life of misery and allowed to live as human beings again. Whether it was children or elderly. I remember one quote specifically. This man was dying and was in the hospice under the sisters and he said: AI lived a life like an animal and I am dying like an angel.@ He moved completely from destitution, rejection, and evil into the company of the sisters who brought him peace, took care of him and treated him like human being, and gave openness to faith and he accepted it. He died in tremendous peace. That=s just one thing of our time. I could mention a number of things that are going on in our world today that are responses to the faith.

        So the Advent season, that the church makes us go through it is great wisdom, is to evoke in us a great desire for salvation know where we can find it and realize that it=s near at hand. John says: Athe kingdom of God is at hand.@ It=s here. Don=t miss it. Realize what you have and go for it because God has no other desire but to make us fully alive and fully happy. That=s what our life on earth is. Is to hear the movement of the Spirit to move us in this direction so that we are not only in the kingdom but we stay in the kingdom. Which means we come to see what it means to obey and to love God in such a way that he points us to our neighbor and we love them with his love.

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