First Sunday of Advent – November 29, 2020
We begin another liturgical year with the
season of Advent. The word ‘Advent’ (from the Latin adventus),
we know, means ‘coming’. The readings for Sunday explore this theme of ‘coming’. Isaiah calls us to confess our sins and
hope for the coming of better days. Paul’s thanksgiving to God is upbeat about
the coming future. In the gospel Jesus warns us against complacency, for the end
is coming sooner than we expect.
We know that Advent/‘coming’ is understood on more than one level.
First of all, we are preparing ourselves to celebrate in a suitable manner the
coming of Jesus and the manifestation of God among us as a human being. Secondly,
we are being reminded of the reason why Jesus was born among us in the first
place, namely, to be our salvation, our wholeness. He comes now so that we may
be prepared and ready to meet him when he comes again at the end of time “to judge the living and the dead”.
There is a third coming which is also of
crucial importance. This is when God enters into our daily life and calls us to
follow him and be with him. God not only came in Jesus at Bethlehem; God not
only will come at the end of time to gather us all to himself; God comes into
our lives at every moment, through every person and every experience. For God
in Jesus is our Emmanuel, God-with-us. “I am with you always.”
We usually think of Advent as a period of
four weeks to prepare for the celebration of Christmas, when we remember and
celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Lord. However, there is no explicit mention
whatever in today’s readings of anything that seems to do with Christmas Today’s Gospel is speaking on the level of the
future and present comings of Jesus. The key word is ‘readiness’. “Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know
when the time will come.”
Advent invites reassessment of where our
ways are leading us. What are we preparing for? This annual reminder that the
world as we know it will one day end, sounds more appropriate in the northern
Wintry season, when daylight is short and darkness seems to be winning over the
light. But the positive side of this is that a new Spring day is dawning over
the horizon, when Christ will come again into our lives with power to save us.
Notice people at airports, waiting for
loved ones to arrive from a flight. They are excited, eager for the first
appearance of the familiar face, ready with the wide smile of greeting to
embrace the returning traveler. We, too, wait for the Lord’s coming with
eagerness, because we long for his presence. The waiting is important because,
during our life’s pilgrimage, we know ourselves to be incomplete. As St.
Augustine said, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are
restless until they rest in You.” At some deep level of our personhood we
are in need, a need that only God can fill.
This is a time to open our hearts and
invite the Lord to bring us to completion. We begin Advent, yearning for his
coming. Today’s first reading puts this yearning into an image. “We have
all withered like leaves … blown by the wind.” The whirling, withered
leaves of autumn are a familiar scene these past few weeks. Isaiah proposes the
dead leaves as symbols of what might be dried up and withered in our lives, our
incomplete faith. But he also calls us to look for a better day. God is still
in charge of creation, and our personal lives are under his loving care. We
pray this Advent, “Come, Lord Jesus,” and make our own the words of
the psalm, “Visit this vine and protect it, the vine your right hand has
chosen.” It is a central plank of our faith that the Lord never abandons
His people.
Back to the people at airports waiting for
loved ones to arrive. It is an alert, active waiting – keeping an eye on the
time. In today’s gospel Jesus says, “Be on your guard, stay awake.”
He wants us to focus on our task here and now. We are to grow more mature in
our relationship with others and with him, paying attention to prayer and
living with his message in our hearts. That’s what waiting for Jesus should be
like. And while we wait, we can enjoy his gifts, as promised, for as Paul
assures us: “You will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit while
you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Fr. Don, C.P.