A NEW ADVENT FOR A NEW COMING.

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November 28, 2021
First Sunday of Advent – C.

READINGS: Jer 33:14-16; Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14; 1 Thes3:12—4:2; Lk 21:25-28, 34-36.

A Traditional proverb says: “The wood will renew the foliage it sheds.” And an English proverb adds: “Every day is a new beginning.”

The Apostolic Constitution, Sacrosanctum Concilium of the Second Vatican Council about the Sacred Liturgy, in its article 102 states that “Over the course of the year the Church celebrates the whole mystery of Christ, from the Incarnation to Pentecost Day and the days of waiting for the Advent the of Lord.” It refers here to the second and glorious Advent.

Advent, in that sense, is par excellence, a time of preparation and expectation. Advent is a season of great hope, the meaning of the 1st Advent Candle. Our Advent journey is a two-fold journey. Firstly, it is a time of preparation to revive and rememorate the first coming of the Lord in our humanity with the Solemnity of Christmas. And then, Advent, secondly, is a time when, by remembering the first coming of the Lord, we wait and look forward to his second and glorious coming at the end of times, at the Parousia. For this second reason, Advent is yearly lived as a time of a 'New Coming'.

As people preparing for that adventure with the Lord, our first and greatest attitude is that of interior repentance and a radical reorientation of life. Advent, therefore, is a season of conversion, a moment to return, heart and mind made clean, to God. Every Advent rings the end of sin, a turning away from evil, and a resolution to walk in righteousness. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, speaking of interior repentance and a radical reorientation of one’s whole life, says: “it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart).” CCC. 1431.

In today's first reading, the first Sunday of Advent, through the Prophet Jeremiah, the Lord announces the coming of the days, the rising of a new dawn. He promises that he will raise up for his servant David a righteous shoot who will aim at righteousness, and bring about security, justice, and peace in the land.

The Lord Jesus, in the Gospel, promises something similar to his disciples. He speaks of the time of redemption and announces the signs that will foretell it. “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves...” But all these signs are not aimed to scare the believers and make them lose hope because of the imminence of the end of times, but rather to exhort them to stand firm, righteous, and to convert.

The Advent message is not a creepy message. Advent is not a time of fear but rather of repentance and conversion. A time to make oneself ready to welcome the one who is to come. Because our liberation is near, we need to do away with all kinds of debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life and worldliness. Here is the time for us to stay awake, praying at all times, as says the Lord, for the strength to survive. Christians are survivors of all evil. Though we are sinners, the Lord always offers us new opportunities to make a decision and come back to him.

Then resounds also in our heart this exhortation of St. Paul. He appeals that we should make more and more efforts to live according to God's will and commands, to live blameless and irreproachable in the sight of God. Here then is the time. Our new Advent of conversion, amendment of life, and repentance. May we not miss this divine opportunity. For, the Lord is at hand. Not only his first coming will be soon remembered, but his second coming is imminent and we do already have its signs. The Lord is coming soon. It will be soon enough for us to live this time as an opportunity of a new beginning opening to a new coming. And let us close with this Ashanti proverb that says: “If you understand the beginning well, the end will not trouble you.”


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