Homily: Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C.wav

We gather this week, maybe holding onto our children a bit tighter than usual and praying for each other and our families as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. But as the events of these past ten days fall into the background of the season, many find themselves still holding onto the key question: What can we do?We know we can’t wave a magic wand and make guns go away. We can’t snap our fingers and eliminate violence and evil. We can’t keep thinking that this stuff only happens someplace else, to other people in other places. What can we do? So on this fourth Sunday of Advent, days before Christmas, we find ourselves praying for a town and its people that are steeped in deep darkness as they look to regain a spark of that same light. And we gather around the light of four Advent candles seeking the answer to the same question:What can we do?And maybe, just maybe this Sunday’s gospel sheds some needed light on that nagging question.