WEBVTT 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:26.079 My friend, standing here in Florence under Brunelleschi's impossible dome, under just this masterpiece, surrounded by the imagination of the Renaissance, you can almost feel what Advent is trying to do in us. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:42.240 Advent is a season when God teaches the human heart to look up again, when everything around us these days pushes us to look down, to hurry up, to get through the list, to be efficient. 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:46.320 But God in his mercy interrupts. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:54.159 He interrupts with beauty, he interrupts with longing, he interrupts with a very important question. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:57.600 Are you ready for an encounter with me? 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:03.600 And that's the question not abstract for us today. 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:08.000 Our pilgrimage itself carries the name encounter. 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:10.079 It's not by accident. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:17.120 Jeff Runyon, our wonderful tour guide here, built this company around one conviction. 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:25.359 That a pilgrimage is not a tour of holy places, it is a journey to encounter a holy person. 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:27.599 And that person is Jesus Christ. 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:34.079 Every step, every chapel, every conversation is ordered towards meeting Christ in a new way. 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:38.640 And I hope that all of you on this pilgrimage has been experiencing that. 00:01:39.519 --> 00:01:49.439 And if Florence teaches us anything, it is that when human beings truly encounter God, something in us begins to create again. 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:53.840 Create beauty, create hope, create a future. 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:57.840 But encounter never happens automatically. 00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:09.680 So on this second Sunday of Advent, the church gives us a roadmap, who, where, how, but a way that speaks differently when you preach it beneath this dome. 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:19.199 Isaiah speaks of a Messiah who will judge with truth, defend the poor, and remake creation from the roots up. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:28.719 John the Baptist points towards someone whose very presence exposes our false selves and awakens our true self. 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:33.280 Someone whose fire does not destroy but purifies. 00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:37.360 We are not waiting for a memory. 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:39.919 We are waiting for a presence. 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:43.919 We're waiting for someone who refuses to stay distant. 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:48.719 He wants a relationship, wants to be close to us. 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:54.879 In a world that often treats God as an optional accessory, one thing among many things. 00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:57.360 Something you keep on the side of life. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:00.800 What Advent is telling us is the opposite. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:03.759 He is the God who crosses every distance. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.240 He is coming towards you right now. 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:16.879 Some of us may feel far from him, some may feel distracted, some may be carrying heavy, unspoken burdens. 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:24.000 The truth is you're waiting for someone who has already set his eyes on you. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:32.560 And when he comes, he brings light for your confusion, mercy for your wounds, and a freedom you've forgotten was possible. 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:41.520 Inside this beautiful duomo, surrounded by brilliance of human hands, it's almost instinctive to look up. 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:46.800 The very architecture forces you to lift up your gaze. 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:55.919 Yet the Christian paradox is this the God who reigns in heights chooses to be found in humility. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:03:58.159 Where do we find him? 00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:07.039 Well, we found him in we find him in his word, which has the power to burn inside the human heart the way it burned inside them on the road to Emmaus. 00:04:07.759 --> 00:04:12.000 We find him in his church, born from his wounded side. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:18.160 We find him in the Eucharist, where he comes not as an idea, but as his real presence. 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:27.519 And just as John the Baptist stepped into the wilderness, we must discover that Christ is also waiting in the desert places of our souls. 00:04:27.839 --> 00:04:30.319 Every person carries a wilderness. 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:38.240 Every person sometimes feels as if they're in this dryness of prayer. 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:46.240 Sometimes it could be exhaustion, disappointment, or even a sin that we continue to fall into. 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:49.759 Advent does not fear the desert. 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:55.759 Advent leads us there because that is where the voice of God becomes unmistakable. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:03.040 We re-enter that wilderness through silence, through confession, through honesty before God in prayer. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:08.160 And in that desert experience, grace does what grace always does. 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:16.480 It irrigates what has grown barren and reminds us that even the driest heart can bloom again. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:17.920 St. 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:22.160 Paul urges the church to persevere with endurance and encouragement. 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:27.279 John the Baptist urges a sincerity that cuts through religious performance. 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:29.600 Taken together, what do they teach us? 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:38.800 They teach us that Advent is not passive waiting, Advent is interior work, should be different than our other times of the year. 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:54.079 It is the work of welcoming people who we find difficult, the work of patience when we would rather hurry and be on our own, the work of truthfulness about who we have become and who God is calling us to be. 00:05:54.639 --> 00:06:03.120 It is the work of dropping the mask, because Christ only comes as deep into our lives as we allow him to go. 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:20.639 If we want a real encounter, not nostalgia, not something sentiment, a real encounter demands real openness to let go of everything else, to really truly surrender and desire a change, desire a discipleship. 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:29.600 It means changing patterns, forgiving someone, returning to confession, or finally letting the Lord touch a part of your heart that you have kept guarded. 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:35.040 Advent is that spiritual renovation project. 00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:39.839 We've come to the land of magnificent builders to remember that. 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:48.000 Imagine how many artisans would flock here just to be able to have the opportunity to work on such a masterpiece. 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:53.439 So today we ask for this grace, Lord, make us ready. 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:59.199 Not generally ready, but personally ready, ready for you, Lord. 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:15.199 And as we continue our pilgrimage, may everything we see and touch in Florence, in this cathedral, in this dome, this city, remind us that the human heart was made not just to admire beauty, but to encounter the one who is beauty himself. 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:18.480 So come, Lord Jesus, come. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:24.399 Teach us to seek you, to wait for you, and to welcome you with hearts renewed. 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:32.800 May this pilgrimage and all of the family members and friends and parishioners that we pray for back home. 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:39.839 May we always have a heart ready to encounter true beauty, he who incarnates it. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:40.800 Amen.