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Bishop's Homily for the First Sunday of Advent

November 30, 2025

(diananyar / Shutterstock.com)

Homily of Most Reverend Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu
[Sacred Heart Church, Waianae (Installation of Pastor)]

When I was a pastor in Oakland, I lived in a very large rectory. Even though it was a poor parish, I tried very hard to make sure the rectory was always in good repair and clean.  About ten years after I left that parish, I became Vicar General of the diocese and moved back into that parish in residence. Unfortunately, it had fallen into serious disrepair and neglect.  One day I was in the kitchen with the pastor. The paint was peeling off the walls. I said “Is there someone in the parish who could paint this kitchen? I will be happy to pay for the paint, if someone could paint it.” He looked around and said, “Why? You don’t like the color?” He had been so close to the situation for so long that he did not even notice that the paint was peeling or that the house was in disrepair.

Sometimes we can be the same way in our own lives or in the lives of our communities. We are like the people of the time of Moses, who were “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,” without noticing how badly life had deteriorated. Then, of course, came the flood, which was the wake-up call, but by then it was too late. This season of Advent is meant to be a wake-up call for all of us, urging us to be alert and attentive to the signs around us. The image of the mountain in Isaiah to which all the nations are called is a reminder that sometimes only from the mountaintop can we see things that we simply do not notice when we are on the plain. Advent calls us to climb that mountain of the Lord, so that we can be more attentive to what needs to be renewed and changed in our lives to truly live with God-with-us, Emmanuel.

As we install your pastor today, we are invited to reflect on how we as a community need to be more awake and alert to prepare the way of the Lord.  Just as individuals can become so accustomed to our sins and disorderly way of living that we do not even notice them, the same thing can happen with a community. So we are invited to reflect on how we can renew this parish community as well.

The first thing that comes to my mind is evangelization, which is the mission that Jesus himself entrusted to all of us who are his disciples. But very often, when I hear people talk about evangelization, they talk about having better programs in the parish, welcoming people more warmly, or having good liturgy that attracts people. These are all good and important things, but if we do all of these things very well, we may not have evangelized anyone. Evangelization is to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ OUT to others, so that they can come to know him and love him, who loves them so much. Some of our own family members, or neighbors, or coworkers are people who are so caught up in our secular culture that they do not know there is something more beautiful, which is living in Jesus Christ. Yes, we need to have a welcoming place for them if they do come, but they will not come simply because we are welcoming people. They need to be invited to be disciples of the Lord.

Another issue that indicates we have become too accustomed to our ways that we do not see what is most basic is the way we live our faith. Yes, it is important that we regularly attend Mass, that we learn well the beautiful doctrines of our faith, and that we work as hard as we can to become a beautiful, caring and welcoming community. But sometimes we forget that the basis of our faith is not liturgy, doctrines, or community, but the person of Jesus Christ. We forget that this person is not just someone who lived 2,000 years ago, but someone who rose from the dead, who lives now, and who lives among us, especially when we encounter the risen Lord Jesus in the Eucharist.  Our faith is not primarily about programs, hierarchies, and doctrines – though these are very important – but about the person of Jesus, who is God and man, who is our Savior, and who lives among us now. Perhaps climbing the mountain this Advent means renewing our awareness of and love for this person who so loves us and who is with us always, even until the end of the world.

Another way our community can go about its wonderful business yet not see the reality that is all around us, is to see only those who come here to be with us to celebrate our faith. If all nations and peoples are indeed to stream to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, we need to be awake and attentive to who is NOT with us. Are the youth with us? The homeless? Immigrants who are struggling to learn a new culture? People who do not necessarily agree with us? The Lord’s embrace is for all, and as his disciples, we are called to reach out to all so that they can climb the mountain of the Lord and experience his love.

Like that pastor who was just so caught up in his daily routine that he did not notice his own house deteriorating, we can also become such creatures of habit that we fail to see the conversions that are needed in our own hearts or in the life of our communities. This Advent season is a great gift to call us to be awake, to be alert, to climb up the mountain of the Lord, where we can have a better perspective on all that needs to be done to prepare his way. Jesus has already come, and we are grateful. But he is yet to come again, and we are to be the ones who prepare his way, so that he truly can be for all Emmanuel, God-with-us.