12th Day of Advent - University of Washington Prince of Peace Catholic Newman Center - Seattle, WA - December 12th 2010

        Do you want to know one of the most peaceful experiences in religion? Try a candlelight Mass. There are few better places for thinking about the big questions and feel peace from a physical location. The Mass I would be attending with my girlfriend was the last Mass of the day. Outside it was completely dark and the darkness complimented the candles that were around the alter and the walls.

    First, what is Advent? Advent is the countdown to Christmas day and the birth of the mythical birthday Jesus Christ. Advent literally means arrival or coming. The coming of God to the Earth. Effectively it's the lead-up to the Nativity, when Christians believe God humbled himself into the form of baby in order to understand and be a part of his creation in order to save it. The countdown is a time to reflect on that birth on the idea of God becoming a child and baby and being completely dependent on his children to care for and raise him to adulthood.

    The readings were Isaiah 35:1-6a, 10, and Matthew 11:2-11. The first reading is Isaiah describing that the Lord will heal the sick, cause the lame to leap like a stag, the mute to sing and the deaf will hear. It is one of the times Isiah is speaking of hope to Israel about God and that God loves them and those who the lord has ransomed will enter Zion. This passage is seen in Christianity as a preview to Jesus which Matthew plays upon in the next reading.

    In Matthew the reader is with John the Baptist and he tells his apostles from Prison to ask if Jesus is the Messiah. To which Jesus replies that he has performed the miracles that Isiah described (without mentioning Isiah) and says that his coming was foretold and that he is more then a Prophet.

    The readings compliment Advent extremely well. Isiah is used in Christianity to tell of the coming of God to Israel and then Matthew is used to say that he has come.

    As I meditated the psalms that spoke of the weak being protected and God watching over the people I couldn't help but be at peace. My heart beat became the rhythm I would focus on and in that focus and moments of silence during the Mass I saw the heartbeat as a metaphor for the "First Cause" the sound of the Universe coming into existence and the sound of so many forms of life.

    This would be one of the more powerful sermons I've attended and most of that power came from the imagery of candles and the sound of quite song and silence.