FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT - Cycle A

Today we begin the liturgical year, on the first Sunday of Advent.

These words of saint Paul, in the second reading, still resound in our ears: It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep (Rm 13:11). The Church reminds us of these words of saint Paul because we are often asleep with respect to things of God. It is an attention call. Come on, wake up, do not sleep any more! Sometimes it gives the impression that most Christians are, or we are asleep, or that we do things in a routine way, without showing the joy, or happiness of working in the Lord’s vineyard.

Our communities are half asleep, it is already time for them to wake up.

The other invitation in this time of Advent is: Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. (Mt 24, 42) So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. (Mt 24, 44) They are words of Jesus. Later he makes this comparison: If the head of the house knew the hour that the thief is going to come, he would not fall asleep, and he ends up by saying to us that we are to be ready, because the Son of Man will come at the hour we less expect Him to come.

Key words for this time of Advent: It is already enough sleep, wake up and be always ready.

This Sunday of Advent has an eschatological sense. While preparing the coming of Jesus in the cave of Bethlehem, the Church wants us to also prepare and remember the last coming of Jesus at the end of time, when Christ will come with full majesty and glory to judge the living and the dead. Then, there will be a separation of the good from the bad. And while the good will hear these words from Christ: Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, (Mt 25, 34) the bad: will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. (Mt 25, 46)

We cannot lose sight of this end. It is like a boat heading for the port of a city; it cannot lose the direction; instead, all its movements have to be directed towards the port of the city where it wants to arrive.

Also it can be compared with a man who wishes to scale a mountain, he cannot miss the way, otherwise he will not arrive at the top.

We are pilgrims going towards the Father’s house. We cannot lose the direction nor miss the way.

In order not to miss the way, saint Paul tells us: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rm 13:14). What a beautiful metaphor!

This Christ is always with us, and we experience Him in a special way in prayer. When we do a good prayer, we feel the presence of Jesus who speaks to us like a good friend.

Christ is the one who accompanies us, in the Eucharist, in our walk towards eternity, when we receive Him with faith and devotion.

Christ is the one we see humble and poor in the cave of Bethlehem, in this time of Christmas.

With Christ we meet when we do a good confession.

It is Christ we must find, or find again, in this time of Advent, if we want to celebrate, as God wants us to, the great celebration of Christmas already approaching.

Time of Advent, time of renovation, time to wake up. Time of not living like the pagans: In (those) days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. (Mt 24:38-39) Men and the women lived without having any spiritual sense.

Many people live the present moment without any desire to establish a minimally coherent life project, of humanitarian or Christian type. Perhaps for this reason, the letter to the Romans, in parallel with the gospel, says energetically: Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy. (Rm 13:13) And, in positive, it exhorts us to be aware of the moment we are living.

We should not leave this temple without making the firm resolution to prepare the coming of Christ, being men and women of prayer; to put on Jesus Christ; and to give ourselves to our brothers and sisters, bringing peace and joy to the family, to our work place and to the public life.

Final recommendation: Make a beautiful Christmas crèche in your homes.