Are you ready for Christmas?

I’ve been hearing that question a lot lately – and the answer is always “No.” Last week, I attended the ordination of transitional deacons at the seminary out in Huntington. And I had a chance to chat with Bishop DiMarzio after. I asked him that question. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. That said it all.

I know the feeling. I spent yesterday wrapping gifts to send down to Maryland and finishing up Christmas cards. There are still decorations to put up, a tree to trim. There are piles of things on my desk at work that I need to catch up on before the end of the year. There is never enough time.

But I stand before you today, along with Msgr. Funaro and the other priests, as a figure of optimism. We’re wearing rose, or pink. A color of joy, of hope, of springtime. It’s for “Gaudete” Sunday,” “gaudete” meaning “rejoice.”

“Rejoice in the Lord always,” the epistle tells us today, “I shall say it again: rejoice!”

Rejoicing isn’t always easy this time of year. Some of us may panic – this means that it’s only 12 more days until Christmas! – but this color, and the message of this Sunday, reminds us that this is a wondrous thing. The source of our redemption is near.

And that, in fact, is part of the message in this Sunday’s gospel. Salvation is more attainable than people realize.

In the middle of John’s preaching, people came up to him, wanting to be saved, and they asked him, again and again, the same question:

“What should we do?”

And John’s answers were so simple, so direct, so clear. He didn’t tell them — as Jesus later would — to sell everything, give it to the poor, and follow him. And John didn’t ask them to follow his example, by putting on animal skins and eat locusts. No. His advice was practical and plain.

It starts with caring for others.

If you have two coats, give away one. Share your food. Stop cheating people. Be generous. Be fair. Be honorable.

Exercise your heart for the good of others.

“What should we do?,” they asked John.

We all know the answer.

As Spike Lee might put it: do the right thing.

There’s a story that’s told of the Hebrew scholar Hillel, who lived a half a century before Christ. Someone once asked him to sum up Jewish teaching in just a phrase, and he replied, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and learn.”

John is telling his followers something very similar.

It’s not burdensome. And it is rooted, first and foremost, in concern for others.

When you consider what he is asking, I think it is all within our grasp.

But why don’t we try harder to seize it?

What’s holding us back?

A few weeks ago, I had a visit with my doctor, and she was not happy with my cholesterol levels. My bad cholesterol is good and my good cholesterol is bad, if that makes any sense. And my doctor suggested I try and get more exercise. “Just try something simple,” she told me. “Maybe take the stairs every day.”

Well, she gave me that little prescription about two months ago. And I think I can count the number of times I’ve taken the stairs on one hand.

But it’s that way with a lot of us, unfortunately. It’s a metaphor for the way we live. When it comes to so many things in life, given the choice between the elevator and the stairs, the elevator usually wins.

And I suspect it is also that way when it comes to making more important changes in
our lives, the kinds of changes John the Baptist was asking. Changes that seem, actually, pretty small.

But our hearts and our souls are shaped by millions of small choices like those, until the small choices become larger ones.

A compromise here, a white lie there. We look for the easy way. We rationalize the irrational and defend the indefensible. And the next thing you know, you’re Tiger Woods, and your life has become unmanageable, and you’re on the front page of the New York Post, and Oprah wants you to sit on her couch and cry.

But John the Baptist is telling his followers: it doesn’t have to be that way. Start small. Make the effort.

Exercise your heart. Take the stairs.

Make those choices that will make you ready to welcome the Messiah.

Last week, we heard from the prophet Isaiah. Level the mountains, he said. Make the crooked ways straight. This week, John gives us more concrete advice on how to do that.

Exercise your heart! Open it. Give it. Christ is near! But so are the tools to change our lives, to make ourselves ready for him.

And, whether we realize it or not, I think that alone is one more reason for rejoicing on this Sunday of rejoicing. We can change ourselves — and by extension, perhaps, begin to change the world.

In the meantime, the clock ticks down, and there is work to do, and annoying people like me will continue to ask: are you ready for Christmas?

Over the next 12 days, we’ll all be kept busy hanging wreaths, trimming trees, wrapping gifts, baking cookies. There’s decorating to be done.

But John’s words to his followers are a reminder: we should spend this time also doing some personal interior redecoration — taking a hard look at ourselves.

We should be transforming not just our homes, but also our hearts.

Doing that will make us ready for Christ – and make us truly, joyfully, ready for Christmas.