December 19: Final Advent School Mass

[The homily from our School Mass]:

A long, long time ago, there was a man whose name was Eugene Skinner. He lived in the Willamette Valley: do we know where that is? It is roughly, everything south of Portland  and all the way to Eugene. Hey! Eugene Skinner ... lived in the Willamette Valley. In fact he lived in a place that would be named after him! Eugene!

Mr. Skinner lived on a big hill – called a Butte. A “butte” is an isolated hill which is sometimes like a mesa (with a flat top). There are a lot of Buttes in Oregon: Rocky Butte, Powell Butte, Black Butte ... and Skinner’s Butte, which is about 700 feet high.

When Fr. Mark was a child, he and his family (every Christmas vacation, when there was no school) would go for a hike up Skinner’s Butte: all 700 feet. We had a rule which our Dad told us every time we hiked: the rule was “leave the trail better than we found it.” Does that sound like Boy Scout or Girl Scout advice? Like, “leave a campground better than we found it?” No trash, no litter, no messes ... nothing would be left behind on our Christmas-vacation hikes. Again, “leave the trail better than we found it.”

We may not go for a hike this coming Christmas-vacation. So, how about if we make another rule? Ready? Leave everyone better than you found them (over the next two weeks). Have a positive impact on everyone you come in contact with. Make a difference (for the better) for every person that you meet or  have a meal with or go to church with or pray with or watch a movie with or go shopping with or go on a trip with or open presents with ... every person! Leave them all better than you found them!

All of that singing you did on Tuesday night at our concert, all of the prayers you have offered in class and at home, all of the other Advent-things we have engaged in – all of that was aimed at leaving everyone in our lives better than we found them! Jesus did that! He left the world better than when He found it! In fact, He saved it! Are we His followers? Let’s do the same.