1st
Sunday of Advent (Year A)
First
Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5 Second
Reading: Romans 13:11-14 Gospel
Reading: Matthew 24:36-44
“COME,
LET US WALK IN THE LIGHT OF THE LORD!”
Today
we begin a new
season of Advent
and it is its 1st
Sunday.
Here we go again! Another Liturgical Year has ebbed away. The
Liturgical Year C of St. Luke has come full circle and a new one,
viz. Liturgical Year A of St. Matthew is upon us. This means that
throughout this year, we will be reading through the Gospel of St.
Matthew, though at times we will also be reading some of St. John’s
Gospel, which is interspersed in all three
Liturgical Years, as St. John doesn’t have a year to himself.
VARIOUS
COMINGS OF CHRIST:
Now,
in the general literal
sense, the word 'advent'
means
'coming
of someone,'
but in the Christian Liturgical sense it specifically implies to 'the
coming of Christ.'
So specifically therefore, with the start of Advent today, we begin
the period of expectation and waiting for the coming of Christ, our
Savior — his birth on the first Christmas day.
But actually, the Lord comes to us in three ways:
- The first coming of Jesus about 2000 years ago when he came as our Savior. This was the event long awaited for by the Jews of the Old Testament. During Advent, we relive in our own lives their experience of waiting for the Lord's coming as our way of preparing for the anniversary of his birth, which is exciting, but also predictable.
- The second coming is the glorious return of Jesus in future at the end of time. Risen Jesus who is now seated at the right hand of the Father will come again but this time as King and Judge of both the living and the dead. But we do not know when will it happen.
- The third coming is situated between the first two comings. It is Jesus' daily coming into our hearts here and now at every moment of every day in the sacraments – very specifically through the Eucharist, and therein lies a challenge for us as well as a comfort.Thus in a general sense, the period of Advent encompasses all time viz. Past, Present & Future. So, a Christian in this sense is always a citizen of Advent. Therefore, it is not surprising that we begin the new Liturgical Year this Sunday, with the same theme of 'the coming of Christ', where we ended it last Sunday.
Again,
we have about 4 weeks of Advent and the 4 Sundays of Advent are
supposed to prepare us for the celebration of Christmas. During
these four weeks therefore, the Church invites us to enter into the
longing of those who
first waited for the coming of the Messiah. Scripture helps us to do
this through
the figures of Isaiah, John the Baptist and Mary. But
the Holy season of Advent has an even more important preparation in
mind viz. the readiness of each one of us for the 2nd
& final coming of Christ at the end of the world, spoken of in
today's Gospel Reading from St. Matthew. And this we do by means of
our constant & active involvement through properly welcoming
Christ, and receiving him in our hearts who comes to us today in
sacraments.
A
VISION OF MESIANIC PEACE:
The
First Reading of today from the Book of the prophet Isaiah is from
very early in the prophecy of Isaiah, from whom we shall hear a great
deal over the next four and a bit weeks. This one gives an account of
Isaiah’s vision 'concerning
Judah and Jerusalem.' It
is a vision
of messianic peace
and a promise
of hope.
The Lord’s 'advent'
in salvation history is beautiful and heartening; it
is an eminently hopeful and accessible event.
He
will enter the world at a certain time and place.
The
locale of the Lord's house will be established
as the highest mountain,
to which all
nations shall stream.
It results in an enormous
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the recasting of weapons of war into farming
implements, and universal reconciliation. A reign of peace is
predicted as a result of the nations’ reception of God’s
instructions, walking in God’s ways, and submission to God’s
judgment. It
is in this light and vision that our God calls
us to walk.
“O
come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!”
is the reading’s final invitation and it refers prophetically to
the coming of Child Jesus in Bethlehem, who is the
Light of our life. That is what we may call
the First Coming. This
also introduces us to one of the dominant images of Advent – the
difference between light and darkness. Each day now before December
21, the day gets darker and darker. At Christmas it will begin to get
lighter and lighter each day. We are much in darkness now. Before
Jesus came, we were a people of darkness. But with the coming of
Jesus, the Incarnation, God becoming a person, we have been shown the
light, and the kingdom of God.
“STAY
AWAKE! FOR YOU DO NOT KNOW ON WHICH DAY YOUR LORD WILL COME”:
The
Gospel Reading of today from St. Matthew talks about the
second and final coming of Jesus, but we do
not know when. Not knowing when he would come again, Jesus urged for
watchfulness and vigilance on their part, "Therefore,
stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come."
To illustrate this, he tells two short stories:
The first is
the story about what happened to the people during the time of Noah
when the Great Flood wiped away sinful humanity. They were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. This was not unusual and
there was nothing wrong with it. What they did wrong was in not
living up to their fidelity to God. Instead, they did what was
abominable in God's sight: they worshiped idols. Signs were sent to
warn them against their infidelity but they ignored the telltale
signs of an impending flood and were swept away; they
did not know the day their Lord would arrive. Only
the faithful Noah,
who heeded the word of God and proceeded to build an ark in a most
unlikely a semi-desert place, and
his family were saved.
The second story
is about the thief in the night. As we know, a thief never telegraphs
ahead his timetable. Otherwise, the owner of the house would be ready
for him. Comparing Jesus to a thief in the night is a beautiful
image. Like a thief, he will come to break into our hearts when we
least expect it. He will come to open what is closed - our heart
which is filled with everything else but the desire for God. But if
we are vigilant and watchful, then we will be ready to welcome him
when he does come.
“NOW IS THE MOMENT FOR YOU TO WAKE FROM SLEEP”:
However,
there is still a third coming
which forms an important and indispensable link between the First and
Second Comings. It is the welcoming of Jesus into our lives in the
here and now. This is
something which takes place every day.
This is all made more clear in the Second Reading of today from St.
Paul's Letter to the Romans. “Now
is the moment for you to wake from sleep,”
he says. We are to lay aside the works of darkness and put on the
armor of light. We should not spend our days in partying and
drunkenness, in sexual immorality or in gossip and quarreling. Rather
we are to live honorably pleasing God in our everyday behavior and to
‘put on’ the
Lord Jesus Christ. What an interesting metaphor that is. St. Paul
likens Jesus to clothing that we can wear. We are to clothe ourselves
with Jesus.
CONCLUSION:
During
the Second World War a Protestant theologian named Dietrich
Bonhoeffer was imprisoned for criticizing Hitler. Even in prison he
continued to urge fellow believers to resist Nazi oppression although
this led to severe punishments. A group of Christians, believing that
Hitler was the Antichrist, asked Bonhoeffer, “Why
do you expose yourself to all this suffering? Jesus will return any
day, and all your work and suffering would have been for nothing.”
Bonhoeffer replied, “If
Jesus returns tomorrow, then tomorrow I will rest from my labor. But
today I have work to do. I must continue the struggle until it is
finished.”
Bonhoefer knew and understood the Scriptures that it was not his duty
to determine when the Lord would return. He understood that it was
his duty to
stay awake
and be
ready
for the Lord’s return.
In
the Gospel Reading of today our Lord tells us to 'stay
awake'
so that his coming which will come at an unexpected moment does not
take us by surprise. It takes a lot of effort to remain awake when we
are actually feeling sleepy. The similar effort is required to remain
awake in spiritual matters. Remaining awake means being constantly
aware of God's presence, remaining attentive to what he wants us to
do and doing it, while refraining from that which displeases him,
even when our natural inclination would lead us to it.
Knowing
how hard it is for us to remain awake by our own efforts we might
choose to use some aid, such as an alarm clock. In the same way, the
Church, knowing how easily we dose off and fall asleep in spite of
Christ's warning, has placed at our disposal means of turning our
attention constantly back towards God, and that is the different
forms of prayer. Advent is a good time to recommit ourselves to the
full celebration of prayer, if we have grown lax. Let us choose our
alarm clock to help us stay awake through this season of grace while
we await the coming of the Lord.
For some of us it may not
be a question of just staying awake, but actually
of waking from sleep because we have been sleeping. This is the
invitation of Paul in the Second Reading. He says: "Let
us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of
light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies
and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and
jealousy."
Advent is an opportunity
to prepare our hearts for the arrival of the Christ Child at
Christmas. Advent is a call to watchfulness and
vigilance specially as regards the coming of Jesus into our hearts
each and everyday. Advent
also directs our minds and hearts to await Christ's second coming at
the end of time.
Advent
is a time to wake up to God's love, and to realize more fully that
God wants us to love one another as HE loves us, unconditionally and
magnanimously. It is a time, especially, to renew our hearts in and
through love. May Isaiah's prayer guide our
journey through this Advent: “O
COME, LET US WALK IN THE LIGHT OF THE LORD!”
And this is the Good News of today.
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