First Sunday of Advent
November 27, 2005


Where do you learn about the meaning of advent?

The meaning of advent showed up at my door on Thursday morning. Nicely bundled in a yellow plastic coating, there it was, ready and waiting for my understanding. And so with eager anticipation, I opened up the package that I realized has become a thanksgiving tradition for me. In fact, so important is this information that most years, this thanksgiving gift would be stolen from my doorstep before I had the chance to open it. But this year, there was no thief in the early morning. And so there it was, ready to unravel for me the meaning of this year’s advent. (Plop the advertising section of the paper onto the floor.) Boom! There it is, in 50 pamphlets of vivid color! Everything I needed on my searching, for my uncovering of my journey toward Christmas, was right there, nicely indexed according to the proper destination, - ready and waiting to be picked up, bright and early on the Friday morning after thanksgiving. And in case I might have qualms if indeed, the advertising section of the paper really did contain the meaning of advent, really would set a course for the journey of the next 28 days, it appeared again on Saturday morning, as they sent the reminders. (Plop Saturday’s ads down…)

Now, you may be thinking, OKAY FR. BILL, we know you and we know that you are not really driven by this stuff, by this buying and shopping and consumerism, so what gives here? Confession time! I am a bargain-a-holic around thanksgiving. So I religiously await those ads with the thanksgiving sales in them, to see what kind of great “Deal” I can get. I am seduced every year for a little while into the magic of these ads, and the lure of their promise. There is at least one GREAT deal out there, one bargain that would make my life better. And though I catch myself, usually pretty quickly, it doesn’t stop me from looking and watching, and being seduced. And it is in the moment when I realize how fixated I am on the ads, that I learn the meaning of advent.

Be watchful. Be aware and awake and alert. Because it is so easy to be tempted, so easy to confuse a goodly thing for a Godly thing. It is so easy to close off consciousness to the 100 neediest cases locally and the 1000’s of neediest cases around the world to focus in on my own giving and getting. It is so easy to let the promise of a good thing, be that an I-pod shuffle or a proposed cure for cancer or diabetes cloud our vision of what is right and true and good. Advent is all about that watchful, alert hope and expectancy, waiting for God to come down and find us doing the right when he comes. (Isaiah)

And to that end, that God would meet us doing right when He does come, the Archbishop has written us in regard to a specific challenge before us on the political front. As you know, there are people who are collecting signatures on a ballot referendum for next fall that would allow unlimited stem cell research to be conducted and paid for by your tax dollars. If I could simplify a long letter, the heart of the issue for people who might sign the petition comes down to two ethical questions.

First, and most importantly: Can you end a life to save a life? There are forms of stem cell research that are acceptable to the Catholic Church, indeed that have led to treatments for 65 diseases and conditions. The church has no problem with adult stem cell research and umbilical cord stem cell research. However, the Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer process which would also be allowed under this provision kills a human embryo in the process of procuring these stem cells. And that is not acceptable. Because human life begins at the fertilization of an ovum with a sperm, the stem cells obtained in this way kill a human being.

Secondly, with both embryonic stem cell research and cloning research, scientists are ‘creating human life, not as an end in itself, but as a means for something else.” That something else – be it organs for transplanting in cloning or stem cells for research into possible cures – exist not for their own sake, but to be used. Neither of these options pass the ethics test for human being.

It is a brave new world of science out there, and like my fascination with the advertising section that comes out faithfully on Thanksgiving day, it is easy to be seduced by false promises or things that appear good. We will be putting into your hands some helpful information about stem cell research as bulletin announcements as well as scheduling some adult learning opportunities. In the mean time, study, pray, reflect and be watchful. You may be approached to sign the petition. Will your response find you alert and watchful? Will it find you ‘doing the right’ when the moment is upon you? “What I say to you, I say to all: Watch…”