November 29, 2009
First Sunday of Advent, Year C
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah. In those days, in that time, I will raise up for David a just shoot; he shall do what is right and just in the land. Jeremiah 33:14-15
May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen. 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13
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. Luke 21:27-28
Piety
Advent is a time of preparation. There are long term preparations. Schedules are filled with all we need to do now and months from now. How well we are prepared for things that are going to come is the source of peace today. Worries about things that cannot be prepared for are a fact of life. What does Advent prepare us for? The simple answer is the coming of Christ again. Prophets of doom are many. Our world has more than enough people who have a good reason to be terrified by the final coming of Christ. Hopefully we are not among the number that will die of fright at the signs of what is coming. We pray that we are among the prepared. We try to prepare our hearts and transform our lives that we will be among the ready for the Second Coming of Christ. His kingship will be all too obvious when he comes with all the power and the glory of his Saints and Angels. At that time the wrong choices of our lives will be disappointments. We will be grateful for having had a healthy piety.
Study
In the Spirit of the honesty the Second Coming can generate in the search of our souls for Christ, it will be worth going over our preparations for the Second Coming of Christ that our piety is an expression of and a statement. Christmas is a celebration of the first Coming. It is a remembrance as all birthday celebrations are. It is a special celebration because the Word of God is made flesh in the most touchable of ways. There is no mystery about the beauty of a child born into our world. The preparations for the birth are the special stories of the families that welcome their children. Easy birth and hard births are all the same before the beauty of the child that sees light for the first time. A healthy birth removes all the fears of what might have been in the joy of a reflection of each of the parents in the child born into the world. The coming of the Christ child reveals the so great love of the Father in human form that is so unthreatening that it is hard to believe the God has mixed with man. Mary brings into the world the child that will grow up to recognize the Fatherhood of God with the human motherhood of Mary. God creates the divine mix in the child that is truly God and man at the same time. The mystery of God’s so great love has an incredible human form. The first coming makes the second coming bearable.
Action
Paul’s’ admonition says it all. “We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, cheer the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient with all. See that no one returns evil for evil; rather always seek what is good (both) for each other and for all. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Be vigilant at all times.” We all face the truth of our days being counted. That there will be a final coming that announces the end of the world as we know it is not hard to believe. All of our actions should be a statement of our belief in Christ. We need to put Christ back into our Christmas preparation. Love is forever birthing Christ in our relationships with one another. Our Christmas preparations begin in this first Sunday of advent with statements of love that are Christmas cards that state importance of friendships and remind us again and again of how Christ comes to us many times with our family and friends. For those that honor their friends and live the good lives of friendship with all there will be no fear of Christ coming with power and glory because we will share in it in his call to come to his side for all we have done for one another.
