Today, we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent and the first Sunday of the new liturgical year. Advent is an important time for us as we prepare for the coming of the Lord. We prepare not only for the nativity of the Lord at Christmas, but we also prepare for the coming of the Lord in glory at the end of time.
During the last liturgical year, which we ended in our Sunday liturgies with the celebration of Christ the King last weekend, we heard primarily from the Gospel of Luke. During the Cycle A of readings in this new liturgical year, we will hear mostly from Matthew. Today, in Matthew’s Gospel, we are to be watchful and to be prepared for the arrival of the Son of Man, for we do not know when he will come. Matthew’s Gospel was written primarily for the Jewish community, probably sometime after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, which occurred in the year 70 AD. It appears that Matthew’s Gospel was originally written in Hebrew, but the earliest surviving texts are in Greek. One main focus of Matthew is on Jesus as the long awaited Messiah and Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
The prophet Isaiah helps us prepare for the coming of the Lord during the holy season of Advent. Isaiah calls us to walk in the light of the Lord. In Isaiah’s vision, all the nations will be led up to God’s house located high on the mountaintop, where they will learn the Lord’s ways of justice and peace. We are to be attentive and to awake from our sleep, to not be distracted from those things that keep us from the light of the Lord.
During this time of waiting in joy and in hope, let us be reminded to stay awake so that we can recognize the ways that God comes to us and instructs us in ways of peace and justice in the people and events of our daily lives to help prepare us for God’s coming in Jesus Christ.
As we wait and prepare, we should not worry about looking for signs as to when the end times will come. Just as a thief breaks in during the night, so will the Lord's coming in glory be, arriving without any warning. So, how are we to prepare? The vigilance required of us Christians is compared to the vigilance of a homeowner who knows the plans of the thief. If one knows that the thief's action is imminent, one remains watchful. We Christians know that our Lord is coming, even if we cannot know the precise timing. If we become complacent in living out the values of our faith, we may be caught unprepared.
So here are some suggestions as to how to prepare. We have the little Blue Books for Advent and Christmas that we are making available again this year. A lot of people enjoyed using these books last year. Some of the small faith groups in the parish are also using other Advent devotional books. There are also other Advent themed resources on the Formed website. Those are all good ways to enhance our Advent journey. We also have our daily masses during Advent that you can attend. And if you are unable to make it to daily Mass, you can follow along in the readings for the daily Masses each day as an Advent devotion. The USCCB website is a very convenient way to find the daily readings. We have our Advent reconciliation service, which is on Wednesday December 17 this year. The sacrament of eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation are really good ways to prepare for Advent. We also have our adoration room in our religious education building, where you can spend time with the Lord in adoration of the Blessed sacrament. There are a lot of good things we can do to make this time of Advent as a blessed season of preparation for the coming of the Lord.
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