First Sunday of Advent, Year A – Nov 27, 2016
Readings: Is 2:1-5; Responsorial Psalm Ps 122:1-2,3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Rom 13:11-14; Gospel Mat 24:37-44.
Theme: Of Times & Seasons: Welcoming Jesus in Our Hearts!
Beloved in Christ, the Book of Ecclesiastes reminds us about the necessity of change in times and seasons when it says: “To everything there is a season, and a time under heaven” (Ecc 3:1). The Season of Advent is here again – a time when the liturgical colour changes to purple/violet; a time when a new liturgical new calendar begins; a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the nativity of the Lord at Christmas.
The word Advent comes from the Latin, adventus which means “coming” – the word is synonymous with the Greek parousia which also stands for (coming). As a season of looking forward and waiting for something really important, Advent is about both the preparation of the annual celebration of the birth of Christ and his second coming. Little wonder in the gospel (Mat 24:37-44) Jesus likens his parousia (coming) to the days of Noah, before and after the flood.
Before the flood, it was a situation of business as usual. We are sometimes caught up in living our own lives and forgetting the concerns of God. As it was in Noah’s days, so will be at Christ’s parousia. Christians are likely going to be caught up in web of mundane affairs while Christ’s rapture takes them off-guard. Just as Noah’s people ignored the warning of God through his servant, the faithful today often take for granted, the word of God as proclaimed by his ministers.
The phrase, until the flood came and “took them all away” is crucial to the after-flood consequences. “Taking away” carries the connotation of removal or separation which is represented by God’s judgement and subsequent destruction of the wicked. Biblical sayings such as: “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29) and “every branch that does not bear fruit, he takes away” (John 15:2) bears testimony to the consequences of living a life of sin vis-à-vis God’s judgment.
Jesus’ allusion to Noah’s time is indicative of a message of preparedness which Advent is about. The season of Advent leads us to a spiritual-nostalgia of recalling the incarnation events. By his birth over thousand years ago, Christ established a kingdom. Upon his paschal mysteries, Christ returned to the father with the promise that he would return in glory – a return we are all waiting for. This season aids our understanding of the Christ-events which Advent prepares and Christmas celebrates.
Meanwhile, in between the remote events leading to Christmas and our spiritual preparation, is the glorious wait for Jesus’ second coming – Surely, he would come to judge the living and the dead. Little wonder, in the first reading (Is 2:1-5), the prophet Isaiah assures that God would judge between nations while urging all to walk in the light of the Lord. The times and seasons constitute a period of welcoming Jesus in our hearts for the greater events that would unfold.
According to the New Catholic Encyclopaedia, during Advent Catholic faithful are asked:
To prepare themselves worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord’s coming into the world as the incarnate God of love;
To make their souls fitting abodes for the Redeemer coming in Holy Communion and through grace, and
To make themselves ready for his coming as judge, at death and at the end of the world.
To put the season in perspective, we must “cast off the works of darkness” (Rom 13:12) and make no provision for the desires of the flesh as the second reading recommends. The message of the prophet Isaiah that God would judge the world, the warning of Saint Paul that we should shun concupiscence of the flesh and Jesus’ call that we should be prepared, provides us with a spiritual recipe on the first Sunday of Advent - Have a grace-filled Advent!
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