Daily Reflection Thursday of the First Week of Advent

Do you remember the 1990's wildly popular Seven Habits of Highly Effective People ?-- management consultant Stephen Covey's primer for business and for life. "Begin with the end in mind," he counseled as one of his principles. Let everything you imagine and do always serve that greater purpose -- your 'end,' no matter how defined.

My husband Jim and I had an end-in-mind experience recently as we made plans for our burial, even ordering up the headstone and its banner --"Loved much; much loved" -- a bit presumptuous now that I type it out!?? (We are in good company, it seems. The Vatican announced last month some of Pope Francis' own planning -- burial in a simple cypress wood casket in a crypt not at St. Peter's but at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the place where he has gone to pray before and after each of his pilgrimages.) What a humbling experience it was to see our names etched in stone, with our birth years, the long dashes - and then the big empty spaces. These in-the-short-term 'endings' are unknown to us, but we know, in faith, just what is in store for us: the eternal rock-solid promises of our self-emptying God fulfilled in ways beyond our imaginings.

Early now in Advent, we celebrate the beginning of that beautiful end, the first stanchion in the bridge from crib to the cross to the crypt to life eternal with our loving God. And what is our obligation as we begin each day with this end in mind? Two other pieces of advice from our management guru seem on point: Be proactive. Put first things first. Jesus' parable of the wise and foolish builders in our Gospel today drives home the mandate. Pay attention now, plan, pray, prepare, now while you are living in the dash.

We know the ultimate end of the Greatest Story Ever Told, Jesus' Second Coming in the fullness of time. What a precious gift to open and celebrate, even if Christmas is still weeks away. Peeking is allowed.