My dear brothers and sisters, greetings in the Lord on this very, very special day for this Sunday marks the beginning of Advent and a new liturgical calendar year. We thank God for the past year, the B – cycle, and now we go into the C – cycle of readings and liturgies.
Advent is a special period of grace in our personal lives, and as a community as we gather together at Church and ponder the good things God has done, is doing, and will continue to generously do for us in the future. But during Advent, we turn our gaze outwards, and focus our attention on what we can do for others, rather than what can be done for us. As we know, Advent is an opportunity to strengthen our resolve to mature in our relationship with God, through three principle pro-active disciplines: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
The word “advent” comes from the Latin word adventus which means “coming” and you will notice that the readings of Holy Mass always refer to some future coming of our Lord Jesus to fulfill his mission among us.
However, as we see during Holy Mass, he is already here with us in our tabernacles, in his Eucharistic and Resurrected forms, because while we speak of him coming on the last day, we also reflect on how he has already visited us two-thousand years ago and changed the course of history leading up to the great and wonderful day of his return—wonderful for those who will be prepared, that is. Hence our need to focus and for this reason prayer, fasting and almsgiving become important instruments through which we can respond to Jesus’ invitation to keep growing in our relationship with him, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. If we make the Trinity our priority, every other relationship, becomes well-ordered and finds its proper place in our hearts, minds and souls.
Through the prophet Jeremiah in the first reading, we hear the reassuring tenderness of God’s word, that he will keep his promise and that from David’s lineage, he, God himself, would be born into the world. Now of course, the prophecies were so profound that they were not and still are not always completely and clearly understood, however, in retrospect and seeing that hindsight is 20/20.. perfect vision—a more perfect understanding of what was intended by former promises and foreshadowings—we now understand that when God promised a Liberator, a Messiah, a Prince of Peace, a Just and Righteous One, he was talking about none other than he himself, the Second Person of the Divine Trinity, who in his humility would descend from heaven, step into human time, and continue his redemptive work and see it to its completion, so that before his last breath on the cross, he would have just enough life in him to utter his final cry of victory: “It… is… accomplished.”
Christmas therefore, towards which Advent leads us, is intimately bound up with our Lord’s passion, for as Venerable Bishop Sheen once noted; “You and I came into this world to live. He was the only one who came into this world to die.” His beginnings among us, even as a babe, would be marked with the signs of death, for the three wise men come bearing gifts, of gold befitting a king, of frankincense befitting a priest, but myrrh? Myrrh was often associated with burial and the afterlife and was used for the mumification of emperors, kings and pharaohs. Hence, Advent is indeed a time of joy, but from the onset we get a hint of its somber penitential character as well, and for this reason it is very fitting that we make a greater commitment to sacrifices like fasting, and the self-denial which almsgiving can and should entail. Yet, without prayer, none of these will make sense or leave enduring spiritual fruit in our lives and those around us.
Now, Saint Paul would remind us that everything I have indicated to you thus far, is of little or no avail, if it is lacking a spirit of love. Without love, even the miracles and the moving of mountains and speaking like the angels, is but the fleeting sound of a gong or clashing cymbals…. It’s just noise. So let us also commit to love. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving without love, are cold, tedious, and bitter. Love is what animates—gives life to—each of those all-important tools for our sanctification. Saint Paul encourages the Thessalonian community of believers to move forward with love, indicating a two-fold purpose; “so as to strengthen your hearts…” and “…to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones.” Love strengthens our hearts and keeps us innocent, or to use his precise word, “blameless”. Saint Peter also assured us that, “love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:7) and helps us combat sin.
So Jeremiah spoke of what happened at the Incarnation, Paul speaks to us of what the Lord’s presence does for us in the here and now, and in the gospel we now hear Jesus speaking of what is yet to come for all mankind, because he speaks of the “last days” leading up to his Second Coming to judge the living and the dead. There will be tribulation, but then a wonderful light at the end of the tunnel. The gospel is short so I can read a part of it to you here so that you get a better feel for it:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“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. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”
Therefore, a storm will come, but so will the peace and victory follow for those who have remained faithful to Christ.
This Advent, let us continue to examine our conscience and live closer to the Lord, for the more we do so, the more we draw near to the source of all our peace, strength, honour and joy. We ask our Blessed Mother to continue to accompany us throughout these days so that with her as our model, we can hold our Lord close to our hearts always. Amen.
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