TIME OF A NEW COMING.

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November 27, 2022.
First Sunday of Advent – A.

Readings: Is 2:1-5; Ps 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Rom13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44. 

“Brothers and sisters: You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep…” Rom 13:11

A Spanish proverb says: “Everything in its season and turnips in Advent.” And an Ashanti proverb adds: “When a man is coming toward you, you need not say, "Come here." Just get ready for him.”

The Advent season has one main message: be ready, and make time for the Lord for he is coming. It is a call that applies not only for a season of the year but for one's whole life. For, the coming of the Lord is something we should set in our everyday agenda and timetable. It is something sure, that will happen. The only hic is that no one knows when that will take place. Thus, the Church year after year reminds us of the need to be alert through the special time of Advent.

The word itself, from Latin Adventus, means “coming” or "arrival". Not only is the Christian called to prepare and celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ, his birth at Christmas, but also to celebrate the new life when someone accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior, and lastly, it is the anticipation of Jesus returning again in glory. Advent, therefore, has two main scoops. An immediate and a gradual or farthest. The immediate is the preparation for Christmas. Every Advent prepares us to relive the mystery of the Lord's Incarnation. Then the gradual, the preparation for the Parousia, the second and glorious coming of the Lord. About this second Advent, we know neither the day nor the time nor the how-about. We only know the Lord will come and at his proper time. Therefore, the secret to not being surprised is to be always ready. Thus, the meaning of Advent as a time of preparation.

In its teaching, the Catechism says, “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor's birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: "He must increase, but I must decrease".” CCC 524

The coming of the Son of God to earth is an event of such immensity. For that event, no effort is ever enough to prepare for it. Entering this time of grace, the word of God leads our steps to the beauty and richness of this season. It is a time when the Lord God will gather all nations into the eternal peace of his kingdom. For this to be effective, our required human attitude is vigilance. It is a time in which we feel the imminence and the proximity of our salvation. And so, vigilance should be our attitude. And lastly, it is the time in which the master of all lives and all things will come. So, vigilance should be our armor.

Paul in the second reading speaks insistently of the imminence of salvation and invites us to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh. We should not purely work for worldly or fleshly motives only. Our aim should be heavenly realities and life in God. For, those whose focus is only on earthly matters will be surprised when will come the heavenly ones. St. Paul's words are a call to open our eyes and hearts to discern the current signs, and the signs of the time and read through them an annunciation of a new dawn.

Raising high the need to be vigilant and always prepared, the Lord Jesus, in the Gospel, urges his followers on the way to live, in order to welcome him at his second and glorious Advent. One sentence says it all: “stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” What happened in the time of Noah, the way the people were living must sound like a warning to us. To live insensitive to the signs of the time exposes us to great consequences and our own damnation. Conversion is a keyword in Advent. It is a continual call to which we should not be deaf. The coming of the Lord will take us by surprise. But for those who are always ready, there is never a surprise. Watch therefore, and be ready is an Advent message, but also a message of life.

On this first Sunday of our Advent journey, may the candle of Hope we have lightened, the prophetic candle announcing the new coming, illuminate our steps and leads us to be always awake in the bright light of the Lord who has already come and is to come again in glory. Something practical we could do in this Advent season is to consider the Sacrament of Reconciliation. If Advent is all about preparing, there is no better way to prepare your heart and spirit than to go for confession. Do not miss this great opportunity for a sincere and heartfelt reconciliation with God and your neighbor.

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