Homily First Sunday of Advent Year
Welcome to the wonderful season of Advent. A special time given to us by the Church so that we may fully prepare for the coming of Christ.
Advent has a twofold characteristic: as a season to prepare for Christmas when Christ’s first coming is remembered, and, as a season of remembrance and preparation because it directs our hearts and minds to await Christ’s second coming at the end of time — the ‘Parousia.’ It is a time of watching and waiting and most of all, a time of prayer.
Advent invites us to ‘Stay awake, praying at all times’ watchful for all the signs of the coming of God into our world — a time of preparation and being ready to welcome him when he comes again. It is a season of joy and anticipation, with a clearly eschatological orientation; that is, it is directed toward the end of the world as we know it — to last things.
It is the beginning of the liturgical year which clearly expresses what is at the heart of the life of the believer — the Church, and the liturgy — the ardent desire for God and his reign — the hope for the return of the Lord.
Each year, the first Sunday of Advent focuses on the coming of the Lord, of which no-one knows the day nor the hour. The certainty of this manifestation is at the heart of Christian faith, the liturgy, the assembly, and of the Sunday Eucharist especially. It gives to the life of the believer and the Church its dynamism and proper goal. Liturgy not only celebrates the end of human life and of all things: it allows us, here and now, to participate sacramentally in the salvation that has already come, that comes now, and will come again. Everything proceeds on its way from this time toward the end of time. This is the meaning and importance of Advent; as this season opens the liturgical year, at the same time, it defines it from beginning to end. Jesus Himself spoke to his disciples about his coming. He said: ‘No-one knows the day nor the hour. Stay awake at all times!’ Saint’(s) Matthew, Mark and Luke each make a mention of this teaching, which they received from tradition. However, each treats it in his own way. Today we hear the witness of Saint Luke. He stresses, on the one hand, the attitude the disciples must assume when they see the signs pointing to the Lord’s return; and on the other hand, he emphasises the role of prayer and vigilance. With this Gospel, we also read a passage from the Book of Jeremiah and an extract from Saint Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians.
‘Again, and again [God] offered a covenant to man, and through the prophets taught them to hope for salvation.’ (Eucharistic Prayer IV) Sacred history is punctuated with God’s solemn promises reiterated from the past and proclaimed again at specific moments, to reawaken the hope of his people. Among the words of the Lord that emerge are those of the prophet Nathan transmitted to David: ‘And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his throne firm forever. I will be a Father to him, and he shall be a Son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.’ (2 Sam 7:12-14,16) This promise is engraved in the memory of Israel and the Church. Nothing can turn God away from keeping his promise, not even the sin of Davids descendants. What he has sworn, once for all, the Lord will accomplish, but under a new form, raising up a shoot from the stump of David: the tree fallen to the ground will blossom again, because God cannot forget ‘his first love,’ that which he swore to David. (Ps 89:50) As sincere and assured as it may be, this expectation over time has been subjected to doubt and indifference, so at certain moments the voice of the prophets, repeat the promise and reawaken the hope and widen our perspectives. Yes, proclaims Jeremiah, ‘Behold, the days are coming’ when God ‘will fulfil the promise.’ This ‘Gospel’ is no longer concerned only with the royal line, but with ‘the House of Israel’ and ‘the House of Judah’ i.e. the Northern and Southern Kingdoms — It has ecumenical scope. The symbolic name ‘The Lord our Righteousness’ is no longer given to the new David, but to the city itself. Ezekiel said that its name will be ‘The Lord is here’ It is a place where, ‘In those days, in that time,’ salvation will come.
In the Book Revelation, the last Book of the Bible, one reads that when ‘the former heavens and the former earth had passed away,… a new Jerusalem, the Holy City’ will descend from ‘from God.’ The seer Patmos hears a voice cry out: ‘This is God’s dwelling among men. He shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people and he shall be their God who is always with them.’ This Jerusalem is not an earthly city. It symbolises the flowing of a new world into the present one, inaugurated by the coming among us of ‘The Lord of Justice.’
On this first Sunday of Advent, Jeremiah’s prophecy reawakens our hope, confronted with the defiance of history. This world of injustice, suffering, war and division—isn’t this proof that the words of the promise are dead? ‘NO!’ responds Jeremiah vehemently, God acts in a more subtle and complex way than we are inclined to imagine. The Word is there, at work among visible realities through the Spirit, who’s coming and going we do not always perceive. Nothing can hold it in check. The time will come when the great day of salvation will finally appear, a process that is being accomplished now, in secret. Earthly Jerusalem is not a city on high nor is the Church the heavenly kingdom. Nevertheless, the kingdom is already among us, in gestation. This assurance grants us hope ‘against hope’ with all who have believed, who believe now, and will believe in the promise. As if they already see the invisible, the faithful march toward ‘those days’, their eyes are lifted to the Lord who teaches them his paths: ‘To you I lift up my soul, O my God.’
Jesus also spoke of those things, that would happen ‘in those days.’ — In the day of his coming. In his own authority, he preached first of all about how his disciples were to behave while waiting for his coming. This is particularly clear in Luke. Cosmic disorder — ‘Signs in the sun, the moon and the stars… the clamour of the oceans and its waves’ a traditional style of apocalyptic literature which seems to be obligatory. Is the coming of the Son of Man ‘with power and great glory’ thinkable without the movement of ‘the powers of heaven?’ Having said this, the evangelist focuses on the attitude of the believers: ‘when these things begin to take place.’ People will be fearful, ‘Dying of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the earth,’That is when, therefore, they must ‘Straighten up…. And raise their heads.’ Not because they will be animated with an extraordinary courage or, even less, unaware of the present danger, but because they will see in these manifestations signs that foretell that their redemption is at hand. Are not ‘those days’ the object of their hope? The disciples have nothing to fear in the events that will declare the victory of the Lordship of their Master. Like wanderers leaving the mist and finally seeing the splendour of the sun, they will straighten up, they will lift their heads high, radiant with joy: their final liberation is in sight.
It is nonetheless important not to forget the unforeseeable suddenness of the coming of the Lord. Jesus insists on that. Constant vigilance is required. We must never revel in debauchery and drunkenness nor be engrossed by earthly care that distract our attention. The net will be cast upon everybody on earth, but will not be a snare for his disciples, because they will be found ‘standing ready’ like good and faithful servants fulfilling the task conferred on them by the Master.
Not surprisingly, Luke states that ‘prayer at all times’ is the answer and is part of the attitude of being alert. The Church always tries to fulfil this condition. Through the wonder of liturgical prayer, the Church stays vigilant taking into consideration the present condition of ‘not yet’ and celebrates that which it possesses ‘already’ in hope; i.e. the redemption that is coming. In the Mass, the Lord is here, really present among us — He is shown through the efficacious signs of the liturgy. Each celebration unveils his presence a little more.
To keep watch in prayer while remaining upright before him is to keep oneself ready to receive him, without fear when he will come ‘on a cloud with power and great glory’ to be our judge. ‘The sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church.’ Not just prayer ‘at all times’ — the liturgy is more. It is a source of grace because of its sanctification in Christ, which ‘increases you and makes you overflow with love’ with regard to all; says Saint Paul (1 Thess 3:12-42). The apostle witnessed to this love by devoting himself to it, in addition to announcing the Good News, itself true spiritual worship. To live ‘blameless and holy before our God and Father is the other side of watching for ‘the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his holy ones.’
grace of the season of Advent is a reawakening of our hope in the salvation that has already come, that comes now and will come in the fullness of the ‘Day of the Lord.’ The liturgy of this Sunday reminds us that God is not inactive. Once again, he solemnly swears to us that the days are coming when he will fulfil the promise he made to the House of Israel, and Judah: ‘I will raise up a righteous shoot for David…. He shall do what is just and right in the land.’
Today God calls us to him to re-establish our confidence now and always that we may not be discouraged by delays, tribulations, and troubles of every kind, for he is present in our world. Today, the Church and each Christian community assembles for the liturgy, hearing this divine protestation; this cry from the heart of God, and responds with all the faith it can muster: ‘To you my God, I lift up my soul, I trust in you, let me never come to shame….For you are my Saviour.’ It is God who can make us ‘increase and overflow with love’and that, Christians must show to their brothers and sisters in faith and to everyone. It is he, who by the gift of charity establishes believers, ‘making them blameless and holy….. at the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with all his holy ones.’ Through the Eucharist, he feeds us and forms us, ‘teaching us to love heaven and guiding our way on earth.’ We are assured of seeing the Son of Man ‘coming on a cloud with great power and glory.’ God though, retains the initiatives in this decisive encounter. The future belongs to God; it is for this that we wait and must wait with confidence. We must glean every grace that God is offering to us in this holy season of Advent.
‘Stay awake …. Pray constantly…. Your redemption is at hand!’
