1st. Sunday of Advent (A)
(Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44)
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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, our Gospel reading is indeed
suited to an Advent time of anticipation and expectation, but it is apparently
in anticipation of something much more serious and solemn than our traditional
celebration of Christmas for which normal preparations are usually choosing
gifts, arranging festive gatherings of family and friends, and planning meals
of more ample and diverse character than those for normal daily sustenance and
modest pleasure.
During Advent, Catholics preparing to celebrate the birth of Our
Lord Jesus in Bethlehem, commonly try to put their minds back nearly 2000 years
while rejoicing whole-heartedly in their present awareness and experience of
the joys and blessings those 2000 years of Christian faith and fulfilment have
brought to the world throughout that history and in their own personal and family
lives. But today’s Gospel, given for our appropriate
blessing by Mother Church in her traditional wisdom, does not centre of the
past Nativity of the Infant Jesus but rather on another and second coming of
Jesus, ultimately as the Son of Man.
Modern disciples of Jesus -- up to date indeed but not up to
standard with the fullness of wisdom and beauty embraced by Mother Church’s
Liturgy for the right expression of authentic Christian worship of and love for
God – rightly want to teach their children about Jesus, and give God thanks for
the original coming of the Son of God as the Divine Infant born of the Virgin
Mary for our salvation, but they tend to overdo the going back to what they
have always loved.
It is a common fault to be found most frequently with indulgent
grand-parents: they love their grandchildren and want to make and to see them
happy, and so they often lower themselves down to a childish level of behaviour
for immediate companionship and joy, but rarely indeed do they want to raise
the children up -- even very gently -- towards more adult
appreciations. To try to lift up the
mind of a child is a risk they prefer not to take; it is so much easier to
behave as a child with the children, winning immediate and joyful laughter all
round and, as a very acceptable bonus, they themselves get praise from all who are
watching and admiring their easy rapport with their grandchildren!
Now that is what happens not only the home but also and too often,
with Catholic and Christian use of the Advent preparation for the Coming of
Christ: ‘just delight in the Infant Child, don’t spoil it by trying to somehow
think about and prepare for a Second Coming, especially one with judgement
somewhere to be involved. After all,
Advent is not Lent!
That of course is very true, Advent is not Lent. Nevertheless, Advent does bear a marked
likeness to Lent in so far as both are times of preparation for a more intimate
sharing with Jesus in our appreciation of and co-operation with His work of
salvation. And in Advent that involves
adults teaching and encouraging their children how rightly to express joy in, and learn gratitude for, the first coming of Jesus as a child of Mary, even as
they are also preparing themselves for another coming of Jesus, personal
and private in our time, but ultimately one with, and leading to, a Second most
public and universal Coming at the end
of time for the fulfilment and joy beyond all imagining of God’s faithful ones,
or one of reckoning and retribution for those who willingly rejected Him and
the Saviour He sent.
As it
was in the days of Noah so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be
taken and one will be left. Two women
will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. Therefore stay awake for you do not know on
which day your Lord will come. Be
sure of this: you must be prepared for at an hour you do not expect the Son
of Man will come.
Jesus used ‘Son of Man’ when speaking of Himself as endowed with a
most solemn and sublime mission, whereas ‘your Lord’ is much more personal and
intimate, and I think we can legitimately see there the motive for Catholic
adults’ adult celebration of Christmas harmonizing so well with the
celebrations they share with their children.
The children’s joyful welcoming of Jesus is, as it were, the first
flowering of their family’s Catholic faith; the parents’ peaceful awareness and
humble yet hopeful anticipation of their Lord’s coming into their own loving
hearts and watchful minds are more mature and more beautiful blossoms of true
faith; the Second and universally public Coming of the Son of Man, however,
will herald the ultimate fulfilment of all their hopes and aspirations arising
from Jesus’ saving Death, Resurrection and Ascension and evoke the utmost love
and glory for His Most Holy Name that saved mankind can offer.
Our second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans is most
apposite for adults in their con-celebration -- along with their children -- of
Christmas:
Brothers
and Sisters, our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed, the night
is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us
then put on the armour of light, and conduct ourselves properly as in the day; let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the
desires of the flesh.
And that teaching is expressed far more beautifully when the words
of Isaiah from our first reading are understood in line with it:
Come,
let us climb to the Lord’s mountain
(lift up our hearts to Jesus), that He may instruct us in His ways, and we
may walk in His paths. Come let us walk in the light of the Lord!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Advent comes to help us
prepare more fully (parents and children, not just children) for truly
Christian and Catholic Christmas joy!
Advent calls us to become more truly children of
God (both parents and children); let us, therefore, close our present considerations
by recalling today’s Alleluia antiphon:
Show us Lord Your love; and grant us Your salvation!
