THE ADVENT OF THE LORD

SUNDAY, FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

Isa 2:1-5; Ps 122:1-2,4-5,6-9; Rom 13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44

The Unexpected Time of the Son of Man

The Church begins another cycle (A) of Sunday readings. The idea of the cycle fits perfectly well here, for we start the liturgical year of the Church on the same note of the coming of the Son of Man we ended with. This describes the concept of a cycle, wherein we end where we started and start where we ended. The end note of the Church’s year was that we should be eager, prayerful, vigilant for the coming of the Son of Man, so that his coming will not spring on us like a snare. We elevate our eagerness to see and be with the Lord by preparing in a special way, the celebration of his first coming in human flesh. This is what the season of Advent is all about. It is a time we prayerfully read, meditate, and contemplate the prophecies of the first coming of the Son of Man; we especially note the fact that God promised us redemption from sin and evil. He fulfilled what he promised in the birth of the Eternal Word of God in our flesh and blood. The liturgy of the Advent season is therefore meant to consolidate our faith in God and in the hope of the fulfilment of the promise of the everlasting kingdom that God made through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Advent helps us prepare to celebrate the joy of the first coming of the Son of God in our human flesh to reawaken our hope and fire our desire for his second and glorious coming at the end of time.

With this in mind, the Church prays for God’s grace for us to resolve to run forth to meet Jesus Christ with righteous deeds at his coming. The prophet Amos foretold the eagerness of the nations to come to Jerusalem in the days of Jesus Christ. The desire to come was born of the clarity of the revelation of God in Jerusalem during the days of the Son of Man. “In the days to come the mountain of the Temple of the Lord shall tower above the mountains and be lifted higher than the hills. All the nations will stream to it, peoples without number will come to it; and they will say: ‘Come, let us go up the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways so that we may walk in his path.’” When the Eternal Word pitched his tent among us, the divine light began to shine more than ever before. His manifestation in our nature will draw all peoples of every nation by the force of the truth he teaches. The coming of the Son of God in our flesh and blood is the special revelation of the divine Law and the Oracle of the prophets in our midst. The attractiveness of the spiritual light will draw all people. They will invite each other to the light, for all men are naturally attracted to the light of truth by our share in the rationality of God’s nature. The Psalmist, therefore, expresses the natural joy that we have when we yield to the impulse of his spiritual light. “I rejoiced when I heard them say: ‘Let us go to God’s house.’ And now our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.”

The joy described here is the working or effect of his presence on us, whom he made to be his holy temple. God made our nature to contain his word, which makes us rejoice in anticipation of his coming. The divine truth rules all natures, but the rational natures especially by enlightening them. This is the principle of his authority over the nations as foretold by Amos. “He will wield authority over the nations and adjudicate between many peoples; these will hammer their swords into ploughshares, their spears into sickles.” He will effectively rule over all those who still maintain their propensity for the truth. We lose the natural propensity for the truth through sin. As a rusted iron cannot be drawn by a magnet, we must keep ourselves from contamination of sins in the world to be drawn to the manifestation of the Eternal Word of God.

His first appearance was to rescue us from the corruption of sin that kept us away from God. He achieved this through the costly sacrifice he made of himself to the Father for our salvation. To prevent us from falling into the same sinful condition that would make his appearance unattractive to us, Saint Paul admonishes us to be prayerfully awake. “You know ‘the time’ has come: you must wake up now: our salvation is even nearer than it was when we were converted. The night is almost over; it will be daylight soon—let us give up all the things we prefer to do under cover of the dark; let us arm ourselves and appear in the light.” Jesus’ second coming is not to wash our sins, but to reward our steadfastness to the truth. Hence, we must make use of the fountain of grace he left in his Church to deal with our sins, to prepare for his appearing in glory. As we mentioned previously, the knowledge of the time of his second coming is not important, for it is a spiritual event. The awareness of the grace of his presence is of grave importance. Our faithful and prayerful vigilance keeps the Lord always before us. His words are: “So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming.”

Subsequently, the advent devotion is the devotion of the brides, for the bridegroom is always present to the brides through their desire and longing. The love for the bridegroom keeps the brides awake and expectant. So, it is easy to heed the words of our Lord if we have been transformed into brides through love for him. “Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” If we expect him every hour, like brides expecting the groom, then his coming will not take us by surprise. The Advent hymn of the Church goes: The Spirit and the bride say: Come! Let him who hears their voices say: Come! Maranatha: Come, O Christ the Lord.

Let us pray: Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that, gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.