As I begin today, I need to let you know what has been going on in my conversations with the diocese regarding the construction of our Parish Life Center.  I have spoken with Mr. Barker, the Chief Financial Officer of the diocese and with Msgr. Laughlin, the Vicar General.  And, I have had others, including Fr. Harris, speaking with them and attempting to bring some pressure to bear on them. As you know, I had hoped that the Vicar General would be able to help us.  In my conversation with him this past Wednesday, however, he began to echo the same concerns that the Chief Financial Officer initially brought up.

 The concerns are basically two points.  The first is our parish’s ability to take on any more debt at this time.  Given the current level of debt that we already have, they do not feel confident that we can handle any more, or at least not as much as we need at this point in time.  The second is the amount of pending construction in parishes all around the diocese.  The diocese has a finite amount of credit available to it and is concerned that what is available is spread around, so that it is equally and fairly distributed.

 I have argued our case, and so have others.  Those are the realities in which we are operating.  Until just a couple of days ago, I believed it was possible to convince them that we could in fact handle the debt.  I still believe that we can handle the debt that we would need, but I no longer think that I will be able to convince the finance office about that.  The cold, hard fact is that now I do not think that they are going to let us borrow any more money.

After I got off the phone with the Vicar General on Wednesday morning, I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.  I know many of you are probably feeling that way now.  The natural reaction is to be angry.  I have been for the last couple of days.  Getting angry is the natural human thing to do.

But that doesn’t mean that it is right to take action out of that anger.  Deciding what to do and how to proceed in the concrete circumstances of life, whether those circumstances be good or bad, is known in the spiritual life as “discernment.”  The very first rule of discernment that is taught, and is the hardest one to learn and practice, is this: “do not act out of strong emotion.”  No matter what the emotion may be.

The highest power of the soul, as I have told you before, is the rational power.  Discernment and the life of Christian discipleship demand that, in the concrete circumstances of life, we must look at everything objectively in order to determine how to proceed in accordance with God’s will.

That is the only way that things will work out for our good in our own personal lives and in the life of our parish.

So each of us has a choice before him or her about how to react to this disappointment.  We can let anger govern us, throw up our hands in frustration, and quit.  We can pull out of the campaign, stop paying our pledges, blow off our parish and its needs.  That’s the devil’s way.  That is what Satan wants us to do – react out of strong emotion and end up hurting ourselves.  That would make the devil quite pleased.  Do you think that he wants to see this already vibrant parish continue to grow and flourish?  Do you think that he wants us to have a place where our community can come together and grow even stronger than it already is?  I can assure you not.  And if we quit now, we play into his hands.

Or, the second choice, we can proceed with rationality and objectivity.  So the diocese will not let us borrow anything – very well.  Then we keep at this.  We continue our campaign, we pay our pledges, and we raise the money we need to build that building without a loan.

That is not far-fetched.  That is not beyond our ability.  Not as long as we stick together.  We already have a little over $800,000 sitting in the bank, getting interest.  We just have to keep paying our pledges like we have been, and we will get the rest.  Doing it without borrowing anything is a pretty good outcome.

That does mean a delay – there’s no getting around that – maybe as much as a year.  In that year, we are going to have live in hope and in expectation.

Today, we begin Advent, the season of hope and expectation.  Over these four Sundays, we are called upon to be a part of those thousands of years of hope and expectation that preceded the birth of Jesus.  We are called to experience with all those holy men and women of ancient Israel the expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promises to the human race.

We hear that expectation given voice in our first reading from the prophet Jeremiah: “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.”

Where would we be, if all those holy men and women, like Jeremiah, Elijah, Isaiah, King David, Ruth, Judith, and so many others, had given up on that hope and expectation?  They all faced difficulties in their lives and challenges to their faith.  For example, when you read the Book of Jeremiah, you find that he was threatened with being murdered and with being executed by the king.  He was locked in the stocks, thrown in jail, even imprisoned in an old water cistern for a time.

Through all of that, however, he clung to the promises of God – through every challenge, every difficulty, every obstacle.

Because God sometimes allows obstacles and difficulties to come our way.  That is the only way that we grow in grace and in the virtues of faith, hope, and charity.  That is the only way that we rise to the level of greatness in our discipleship.  That is the only way that we know who we are, what we are made of, and how strong our faith really is – when we overcome the challenges.

And He never allows us to be tested beyond our capacity.

So, yes, we have a disappointment right now.  But, at the same time, God is offering us – all of us – a very special Advent.  He is offering us an opportunity to take a giant step in the life of grace.

 Because if we stick to God and to each other and raise our money and build our building without a loan and without outside help, if we overcome the obstacle before us, then the strength of this parish and its witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be such that the Devil and his demons will tremble and flee in fear at even the thought of us.