FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:37-44

 

 Today we begin the season of Advent and with this we begin the new liturgical year. On this day the church invites us to be ready and prepared to receive the Lord. Advent means waiting and we wait eagerly for someone we love, we care and we are ready to invest our time on him.

 In the liturgical calendar, the season of Advent means a joyful waiting, a waiting for Jesus prayerfully, with affection and love. There is the eagerness within us to receive him and we look forward to this great event when God becomes man. However, it is a special kind of waiting for a God who has come already, who is coming regularly into our life and who will come again at the end of time.

 We know that Jesus came into the world already two thousand years ago and we remember this event with devotion. We know that he will come again at the end of time as a judge and unite the whole universe to himself.

 Today’s First Reading from the Book of Isaiah is a prophecy of the incarnation of the Lord God who chooses to come and stay with his people. The prophet speaks of the Lord’s mountain which should be recognized as the highest mountain in the land. He says that in the days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall move towards it. Mount Zion, the hill upon which Jerusalem is built, is seen as a holy mountain, the center of the earth and the focal point of the whole world.

 The idea is contained that Israel is a light to the nations and the Israelites are not told to go out and convert the nations but rather to attract them by their worship on Zion. In the world of this vision, all nations will come together to the central city of Jerusalem and thus will acknowledge the ultimate kingship of Yahweh.

 The Second Reading taken from the Letter of Paul to the Romans reminds us that salvation is nearer to us now. No matter how we look at it, each day is a day closer to the day when we will come face to face with the Lord Jesus. He calls on the Christians to wake up from their slumber because the day salvation is closer than they realize. Paul tells them to stir up and be ready for the coming of the Lord as Christ will come to judge the world and to gather his elect for their final reward.

 Today’s Gospel Reading tells us to keep awake because we do not know on what day and at what time the Lord is coming. At the same time the Gospel tells us of the certainty of his coming into the world. The passage gives the warning of division, separation and sorrow. Those who are prepared for his coming will be able to enter into his kingdom. Two people might be doing exactly the same thing, but the one who is prepared will be taken up while the other who is not prepared will be left behind.

 During this season of Advent we prepare ourselves to receive the God man, Jesus. Advent is marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world, first expressed by Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression. It is the cry of those who have experienced the tyranny of injustice in a world under the curse of sin, and yet who have hope of deliverance by a God who has heard the cries of oppressed slaves and brought deliverance.

 It is that hope, however faint at times, and that God, however distant He sometimes seems, brings to the world the anticipation of a King who will rule with truth and justice and righteousness over His people and his creation. Our expectation also anticipates a judgment on sin and a calling of the world to accountability before God.

- @Avinash Bitra OFM Cap.