FIRST SUNDAY OF THE ADVENT - C

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT – C (Jer 33:14-16; Tess 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-28, 34-36) Theme: We are invited to attend and embrace the Lord who comes Reflection: Advent is a time to renew our walk of faith - Advent reminds us that we have one more year of God’s merciful providence: From today we enter into the season of Advent. It is the first season with which we begin the Liturgical Year C. It is a period of reflection and preparation for the coming of Jesus. Advent means “coming”. What we are called to do in this time is: to wait and await the advent of the fulfillment of the promises in our life. God has promised man an eternal life and glory. This promise is realized and brought into ultimate fulfillment through the mystery of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our Master and Savior and He is the final goal of our Hope of this earthly life. Every day is the day that is donated to us by the abundant mercy of God. We need to utilize time provided for renewing our mind, our heart, our soul and our spirit, in a word, our entire life. We need to better it by the listening to the word of God, and by pondering over it, as Mary, the Icon for the Incarnation mystery. We have completed one year of walk of faith. We have learned little more about the life of Jesus. We have come little more closer to Jesus after a year of meditation on the life and works of Jesus. We have been following him with the testimony of our word and our deed. The liturgical year of B is over. One year of our intimacy with Jesus we have finished. Now, God provides us another year of liturgical celebrations. God gives us one more opportunity to introspect and see if everything has gone well in our spiritual growth. We are exactly entering into that gifted time: a possibility to examine our life and seek for the further growth in the Spirit of Christ. God himself encourages and empowers us by giving us His Only Son Jesus Christ in the form of the Word and the Sacrament. - Reflection on the Two Advents: We are here today to meditate on the Lord who comes. We believe and we recognize the truth that the Lord has already come. Lord Jesus Christ has come into the world in the past history. He has lived for thirty three years. He has revealed God’s love to the humanity. He has give the testimony to the God’s Kingdom and His redemptive design. He himself is the fulfillment of God’s promise. He brought into realization this promise of salvation of the world in His Paschal Mystery: His Passion, Death and Resurrection. This is the first Advent: the first coming of the Lord in humility and obedience. The ultimate fruit of His First Coming is this: he has opened the doors of heaven closed by the human sin and he has prepared a passage into the eternal life. Every human being is offered such a possibility of entering into the kingdom of heaven. This possibility is always there for the one who places himself in the way prepared by Him. Yet, there is another Advent: the second coming of the Lord in glory and in power. This coming is beyond human expectation. No one knows about it. No one can predict about its arrival. There is only a secure promise that the Lord will come. Biblical revelation throws a special attention to this. In all the gospels there is direct predication of Jesus himself about the Son of Man who will come in Glory (for immediate reference we have today’s gospel). This coming will be very powerful. Every human being and every creature in the world has to face this second coming of the Lord. Everyone will be made present in front of the Lord: they will wait for the reward worthy of their earthly testimony of life. The ultimate consequence of this second advent of Christ is this: he will judge every creature with justice and will reward according to their merit. - Advent reminds us that We are in the Journey to Meet Our Lord: Our present life on earth falls between these two advents. We are here making our journey to meet the Lord. Our journey is enforced by the faith we have in the first coming of Jesus and is enriched by the hope we have in the second coming of Jesus. Therefore, our entire journey is based on the triple virtues: faith, hope and charity. For, in our present journey, faith is point of our departure, hope is the point of our arrival and charity is point of nourishment. In fact, we have initiated our walk through the baptism, where we have professed our faith in the mystery of Jesus Christ. We are still walking, trying hard not to miss the way, along the passage that Jesus himself has trodden for us with hope that one day we will reach our destiny. We sustain our journey with the food: food of charitable works. Our being present to the situation of the community and to the needs of our brethren is the highest degree of Charity we can demonstrate. And Advent is the period in which the Church makes us to reflect on the possibility of meeting the Lord. Advent reminds us that we have not yet completed our race but still continuing it and will continue it until that great day of joy. The readings inspire us and throw a torch on our way and they make easy and available the passage our pilgrimage. Readings Raise the Head and Look High with Joy - Promise of a Sprout of Justice (first reading): God is faithful in his promises. He accomplishes all that He wills in the due and appointed time. People of Israel, whom He has chosen for Himself, are in the land of slavery. They suffer a lot for the infidelity they showed to their God. In this desperate condition, God makes a promise to them through the prophet Jeremiah. The principle essence of His promise is clear: He will make sprout the Messiah who will bring these people back into true life, life of joy and freedom. The one who come will be named as the “The Lord – Our Justice”. People who receive these promises can once again look up with the hope. They need not sit in the pit of discouragement and abandonment. The moment will arrive soon. The moment which will remove the veil of fear and frustration in the people who are struggling in the foreign land. The moment which will cover them with the cloth of justice and joy. This moment is the advent of the Jesus Christ, the Word of God assuming human nature. Through and in His Coming, the Lord has accomplished his act of justice. - Raise up your head and heart in courage and hope (Gospel): Jesus is speaking about the end of times. He already predicates how the day will be. Indeed, for last two to three weeks we have been reflecting on the last happenings. Today’s gospel is crystal clear in revealing the truth of the day of judgment. Jesus makes evident two characteristics of the Last Day: first, something that will happen to frighten those who are not ready; and second, something that will in any way affect those who are ready. First happening consists in the signs that will take place both in the sky and on the earth. In the skies: The sun will not rise anymore, the moon will not shine any longer, the stars disappear completely and there will take place utter darkness. On the earth: there will appear misery and anguish among people, they will face fear and frustration and there will be only death everywhere. This takes place in the lives of those who never expected and prepared themselves for the day. It falls on them as the powerful and sudden attack. In the second happening, something quite different take place. It takes place in the life of those who have followed the way of the Lord. They are the disciples of Jesus. They will not be affected or overtaken by these happenings. Jesus promises and exhorts his disciples: you do not worry or get upset when these things take place, instead, be joyful and raise up your head on high because it is the time of your salvation (gospel). The disciples are those who have already prepared for this hour. They have been attentively waiting for this moment with the life of kind words and charitable deeds. They have been eager expecting it. Finally, when the Day of the Lord has arrived (Advent) they are found ready and worthy. The darkness of the sky will not be to bite them. The fear of earth will not be able to swallow them. They have fought well and become victorious. They are in the grade of meeting the Lord in glory and in power. We are those disciples and we will be firm in our fight against the darkness of doubts and the clutches of perdition. We have nothing to fear. We have nothing to lose. We are ready to meet our Master. We will look high with joy and with hope. To reach such a stage of life we are invited to do two things: attend and embrace the day. Conclusion An invitation to attend and to embrace the Lord who is coming - Attending means “to open the eyes”: we are invited to attend the day of the Lord. Attending is not a mere word. It call for a careful observation. We need to observe the things that are happening around us. Where is my personal life heading to? How is my attitude in the family atmosphere and parental relationships? What am I doing for the society I am living in? what is the contribution that I am making to the world finally with the life I am living in this world? These questions provoke our attention. Each moment we need to examine well the reality in which we find ourselves. We are not blind and we should not be indifferent. We need to open wide our eyes to research well what is taking place in and through us. We are indeed capable of doing this. We are human beings not only with instinct behavior but with the gift of intelligence. We need to be wise in order to be true human beings. As wise and free beings we are given the capacity to distinguish what is good and what is bad. We have to arrive to the level of identifying the good and opting for it because it constructs the life. We need to also learn to throw aside what is bad and not useful because it only destroys the life. Attending, in profundity, means this: becoming capable of looking for what is good and edifying. - Embracing means “to open the heart”: knowing what is good and what is bad is not enough. There is a need for further step. To embrace what is good at any cost. True and authentic wise man does this. We know many things. We analyze number of situations. We observe and distinguish that which is valuable and useful. But when it comes to the matter of holding on to what we have known we step back. Because it is little challenging. It demands concrete action. Our problem lies here. We know well but we do not accept it. The true embrace calls for opening up of the heart. What does it mean? When the heart is open, there exists only one thing: love. Love endures. Love confronts. Love comprehends. Love empowers us with the concrete action. We are invited to do exactly this. We need to attend our life of faith as the first step. And we need to make it part and parcel of our life as the immediate step. - Attend and embrace the Lord who comes: Today, in this first Sunday of the Advent, we are called to be attentive to the coming of the Lord and to be ready to receive him wholeheartedly when he arrives. The truth of faith is this: even prior to our attending and embracing, Jesus himself attends us and embraces us. He is waiting for us with the wide open arms. He is speaking to us with the word proclaimed. He is donating his Body and Blood as our daily spiritual nourishment. Therefore, Jesus himself is the Master from whom we can learn the meaning of attending and embracing. If we close our eyes we cannot attend the coming of the Lord. If we close our hearts we cannot receive him. If we are indifferent to his presence we will be trapped into the obscurity of life: desperation, frustration, fear of even small disturbances. What is ultimately required of us in this season of Advent, therefore, is: to create little space for Jesus in our life. Creating space for Jesus means allowing him to act in us and through us. Then only, we become an advent of grace for others.