Today, we start our
journey during the holy season of Advent at the beginning of our new liturgical
year. In the upcoming Sundays
of Advent, we will hear from some great Advent messengers about how we can
prepare a way for the Lord in our lives:
from John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus' ministry and from
the Virgin Mary, who prepared herself for Jesus' birth. On this 1st
Sunday of Advent, we hear Jesus' prophecy about the end of the world and his
second coming. We might wonder how this message about the end times to come ties
into our celebration of Advent and our preparations for the birth of Christ. I had not been a priest
very long when a rather new Catholic came to me, telling me that this was the
first Advent and Christmas he was observing as a Catholic. He was a anxious,
wanting advice as to what he needed to do. He put it this way: What
are the rules of Advent? What kind of
fasting, praying, and other preparation do I need to do?
Although we journey
through Advent and Christmas each year, perhaps we're also not quite sure how
we should approach Advent this year in preparing for Christ's birth. If we have challenges or
struggles in our family life or at work or in school, perhaps it's tempting to
think that these challenges and struggles prevent us from entering into Advent
properly. Perhaps we believe that
in order to observe Advent, we need a big change in our mood and need to
separate ourselves from our tough real life experiences. In fact, the opposite is
true. Advent is about letting
God come to us, about letting God enter our world in a special way in this time
of waiting and expectation. Many of us might think
that we need to clean up our lives before we start Advent. But, by opening ourselves
to Advent in the messiness of our lives, we'll open ourselves to God's message
of salvation and his saving love, a message that we so desperately need to hear
even if we’ve heard it before.
Today's Gospel might be a
wake-up call for us in the midst of our daily reality. The signs to come in
the end times will be so profound and so frightening that the sun, the moon,
and the stars will be changed, the nations of the earth will be perplexed and
dismayed. This vision isn't meant to frighten us, but to
encourage us and to give us hope in the midst of our reality. Jesus predicts that chaos
will occur in the end times, that the world's natural order will be shaken up. But we are to stand firm
against these upcoming disorders and temptations. We are to raise our heads up high because
redemption is at hand. Jeremiah predicted that
calamity and exile would befall Israel and Judah, but he gives a promise of new
hope as well, of a shoot that will bud on the old stalk of David. Jeremiah gives the people a promise of
recovery and of God's eternal fidelity. F. The Jews who suffered in exile and
who looked back at bountiful days of the past can now look forward with longing
and hope. During Advent, we are
called to long for the Lord of justice that was foretold by Jeremiah, we are
called to long for the birth of our Lord.
“Be vigilant at all times
and pray”: this is Jesus’ command in today's Gospel. This is a good theme for
us to keep in mind this Advent season: Be vigilant and pray. As a time of waiting and
anticipation, Advent gets its title from the Latin word “adveniat,” which means
to come or to arrive. But Advent is not a
passive season where we sit around doing nothing while we wait. We have work to do during
Advent, but this work is a process, an act of becoming. Before we can be
vigilant, perhaps we need to become more transparent, to remove the masks we
put up to ourselves and to the world. As part of our Advent
preparations, the Church calls us to participate in the Sacrament of
Reconciliation, to do penance for our sins and to make the changes we need to
make in our lives. We will have Advent
reconciliation services these next two Mondays at 6:00 pm. This upcoming Monday, November 30, it will be
in Spanish, and the next Monday, December 7, it will be in English. However, on both evenings, priests will be
there to hear your confessions in either language, so you may come to either
service, since I know we have very busy schedules this time of year. I really want to
encourage to participate in this sacrament and to make a part of your Advent
time of preparation. This Advent season, may
all of us be open to the many ways God is present to us as we prepare for the
birth of our Lord.
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