First Sunday of Advent November 27, 2022
Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans
13:11-14 Matthew 24:37-44
Answer this without looking at the answer below
You are sleeping. You are
dreaming. A big lion is chasing you. You try to run away and you see a tiger
coming in front of you. You turn sideways, but every side you turn to, you find
a ferocious animal coming after you. How can you escape?
By waking up one enters a whole new world of reality, different from that of the dream world. What was a huge problem in the dream state becomes a non- issue in the waking state. Dream state concerns and priorities lose their importance and new concerns and priorities take their place. For example, you discover that your problem is no longer how to escape from wild beasts but how to beat the morning rush and arrive early for work. We can relate to the change that occurs between a dream consciousness and a wake consciousness. A similar and even more significant change occurs when we move from a state of being spiritually asleep to that of being spiritually awake, when the soul is awake and alert to spiritual reality.
Originally, the term Advent
applied to the feast itself. Gradually it came to designate the time before
Christmas. One of the prayers for the second Sunday of Advent proclaims the
central theme of the Advent season:
“Stir us up O Lord to make ready
for your only-begotten Son. May we be able to serve you with purity of soul
through the coming of Him. Who lives and reigns…”
Here the word ‘coming’ refers to
the feast of Christmas. On the feast of Epiphany the proclamation, “Behold the
Lord has come…”. Advent, then, is first of all the comprehensive name for the
Incarnation (God becoming human) and all that the Incarnation accomplishes.
Waiting is difficult. Advent is
about waiting. Waiting is part of our life, whether waiting in traffic, or
waiting for the results of a competitive exam. Life is all about waiting. Think
for a moment about the meaningfulness of some of your own experiences of
waiting. What have you waited for? What has been worth the wait? Some of our
most vivid memories of the soulful nature of waiting may come from our
childhood. Childhood is full of these “not yet” promises. There is a real joy
when the waiting ends and what we waited for becomes a reality.
It is wonderful to realise that
Jesus comes everyday in our lives. He comes He comes ever comes. Jesus comes daily in the sacraments and in the
Eucharist in a very special way as our food and drink to strengthen us and fill
us with his grace. We also prepare ourselves to celebrate the feast of Jesus
Christ born among us as a human person in a stable of Bethlehem to be one with
us and remind ourselves of the great work of salvation began for us. The Gospel
reminds us of the second coming of our Lord and the authority with which he
will come as a king and a judge. It presents us with the challenge of preparing
for the coming of Christ now and at the end of history. But Jesus warns us
against complacency in being prepared for the coming of the Lord.
In the early days of the church,
Christianity had raised the expectation that the Son of Man would return soon.
Matthew in his gospel clearly reaffirms the fact that the Son of man will
return. Secondly, he stresses the uncertainty of the exact time of his coming.
This leads to the basic stance a Christian should have in the face of such
uncertainty. Every Christian must live in a constant state of watchfulness. It
tells us of the situation that surrounded Noah’s day before the flood. No one
was prepared because no one was aware that a crisis was at hand. In those days
leading right up to the Flood, people were eating, drinking, taking wives,
taking husbands. They suspected absolutely nothing and suddenly they were swept
away. Only Noah, his family and the animals they took into the Ark survived.
What does it mean exactly by
being ready? It means to be holy because Jesus is holy and we all know that
holiness and sinfulness can not mix. While it is true that as human beings, we
always commit sin, it is also true that we can strive with all our might that
we can be holy though we are sinners. And here is the application or usefulness
of being awake. To be ready means to be awake. It doesn’t mean we don’t sleep.
It only means that during our waking hours, we live in the present moment with
God. It means that we should always be aware of His presence in our life. It
means that in everything we, whether we work or rest, eat or drink, we give
glory to God (1 Corinthians 10:31). When we do this, we live in love and
continuously ask for His forgiveness for our sins. Moreover, living from moment
to moment with full awareness of God’s presence give us the familiarity with
Him to the point that we are not afraid to meet Him and instead we have the
eagerness to live in His kingdom in eternity.
The answer to the question I posed
before you is: Wake up.
Happy Sunday
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