For some reason this year, I am particularly glad that the church year starts well before the calendar year. Perhaps it is because this has been a year of so much division and difficulty in our country --- a bitterly contested election, a war that seems to get increasingly costly, and an economy that can't seem to generate the jobs and the financial security that we need and crave. A new start is most welcome because it offers hope for renewal and refreshment.

Of course, the church year begins with Advent and with all the mixed messages that our culture has attached to the holiday season. Advent and Christmas seasons are pretty much blended by popular culture into a single entity of shopping, entertaining and travel.

But Advent is meant to be more than a retail prelude to Christmas. It is meant to be a time where we prepare our hearts and souls for the arrival of Jesus Christ into the world, and a time when we position ourselves to help usher the presence of Christ into our communities and families.

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus tells how in Noah's time people were going about their normal business when the flood came. They were not prepared for the arrival of the judgment of God in the form of a catastrophic flood. The same can be said of the people of Israel when the historical Jesus came; they were not prepared for a Messiah that would suffer and be killed.

And so we too are challenged this Advent to prepare our hearts and souls that we might recognize the presence of God in our own communities. How will God appear in our neighborhoods?

The Scriptures tell us to look for God in the strangers and the needy among us --- the naked who need clothes, the prisoners who need companionship, the hungry who need a meal. If you're like me, you don't see these people very often. While I like to do my part for the needy, I usually do so from a distance through the donation of money or merchandise. Each year our parish has a "giving tree" where we select the name of a needy family and some gifts they would like for their children. We purchase the requested gifts and drop them off at the church and never see or meet the family that receives the gift.

"Be prepared," Jesus concludes, "for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." Jesus tells us that we cannot conduct our lives in a "business as usual" manner and expect to be prepared for the arrival of Jesus Christ in our world. And we are called not just to welcome Jesus Christ but to help bring his presence into our communities. We cannot bear the presence of Christ into our world if we do not know him, and we cannot know him if we do not spend time where he is.

As the church year starts, I would like this year to be different not just politically or economically, but spiritually. For that to happen, I need to be prepared to identify and follow Jesus Christ. I for one plan to put myself in a position to be where Jesus Christ is this Advent --- with the neediest members of my community, that I might be prepared to greet and assist the Son of Man when he comes.

Bill Peatman writes from Napa.