Advent is About Not Giving Up

Recently, I heard the story of Jason Evert’s recent trip to Australia. Jason is a well-known chastity speaker. Schools often invite him so that he can share a pro-purity message to their students. His recent trip to Australia, however, was met with some fierce opposition.

Resistance to a Pro-Chastity Message

Some parents, especially mothers, were concerned about Jason giving antiquated messaging regarding sexuality to their young girls. They had raised them to be “strong and independent,” not to fit into traditional roles. Things got more complicated when a group of witches decided to limit the reach of his message.

As a result of the witches’ actions, several schools canceled the talks Jason was supposed to give, and the witches put out a statement that they were proud of their achievement. Though he was eventually able to schedule other events in the place of the ones that had been canceled, things did not stop there. At one venue for young adults, members of the same group of witches began signing up for the free tickets to avoid the intended audience arriving to hear the pro-chastity message.

Witches and a Catholic Priest in the Back of the Room

He still spoke to a packed room. At the back of the room, a group of women arrived and remained standing. A priest who was there went over to them to offer a place to sit. They refused, saying they were cold. As the talk began, they proceeded to chant against Jason. The priest refused to let this go unchecked and proceeded to pray his rosary out loud.

Jason was unaware of the slight disturbance in the back of the room. The talk concluded, and as some of the volunteers prepared the room for Eucharistic adoration, a young man approached the stage and poured a can of tomato soup on top of Jason’s head. This controversy and the resulting struggles then led to some of Jason’s posts getting much more reach than normal.

Chance Encounter in Sydney

At the same time in Sydney, there was a young woman from Hawaii who was visiting her boyfriend. She found out that he was cheating on her and she was distraught. She had been saving herself for marriage and felt tremendously betrayed. It made her feel like all her efforts to preserve her purity were for naught. She said to herself “forget it” and proceeded to get on a dating app to find someone with whom she would lose her virginity.

She lined up three possible dates and proceeded to Instagram to look up the three men and decide the lucky winner. On Instagram, she saw a post from Jason Evert. She was amazed that they were both in Sydney, remembering a chastity talk she had heard from him while still in High School. The young woman reached out through direct message, and he invited her to his next talk. She went, experienced a reversion, went to confession and made a commitment to living out her faith more than ever before.

Advent is about not giving up

Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man (Lk. 21:34-26).

Waking Up

Jesus knows that our hearts may become drowsy. It is easy for us to fall into the traps of the world. Maybe we have been trying to live a Christian life for a long time, but we feel tired and worn out. This Advent is an invitation to renew our intentions and to be renewed in our love for Christ.

Advent is about not giving up because Advent is about hope.

The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will fulfill the promise
I made to the house of Israel and Judah (Jer. 33:14).

What are the promises that God has made to your heart? Have they come true? These questions are part of why we spend time in prayer. God speaks, but not always right away, and certainly not always as loudly and clearly as we might like. If we spend time in prayer, though, we eventually come to the awareness of what he is trying to tell us.

Beware and Promise

In conclusion, we can hold on to two words from today’s liturgy: “Beware” and “Promise.” Jesus asks us to beware because he wants to avoid us giving up in our efforts to lead a holy life. He wants to remind us of the promise that God makes each one of us. God does not promise material wealth or well-being. What he offers to us is salvation from sin, which is much more important. Take some time this week to reflect on the promises that God has made to you in your life and see what you are doing to help them come into being.

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