Please read this passage before reading the homily.
For the past three years, I have given homilies on the second readings at Mass. Today I begin a series on the gospel readings.
When the father of the family says, “If I had known when the thief were coming, I would have been awake and not let my house be broken into”, he is speaking about a past action, the crime already committed. All that is left is to find the criminal and recuperate the loss.
The Lord is coming. In fact, the Lord has already come. It is like a baby in the belly of the mother: the child is here but the child is still coming until birth. It is the same with the Lord; he has come and is still coming.
It is like a present, wrapped in paper and decorated with ornaments. It is here but it still must be unwrapped in order to come completely. It is he same with the Lord; the Lord is here, but the Lord is coming.
In the days of Noah, the Flood started the first day it rained. The Flood was not seen until the fortieth day when the dike broke.
Advent is here, the time of the Posada. The Lord is coming again, but the Lord is already here in our assembly here, in the proclamation of the Scriptures, and likewise in the bread and wine of the Eucharist.
The Lord is here, but yet he is coming again and again into our lives.
The Lord moves among us like a mother playing peekaboo with her child. The Lord is here, but the Lord is coming at the same time.
He is coming like a thief, but he is not a thief. Perhaps we are the thief, robbing Lord of his glory and honor.