First Sunday of Advent, Cycle A

Isaiah 2:1-5; Rom 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44

Fr. Antony Akkanath

This Sunday, we begin the holy season of Advent; a time of grace, a precious time that the Lord gives us every year, to prepare ourselves worthily for the annual liturgical feast of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The theme presented in the readings of this first Sunday of Advent is that of hope and vigilant waiting

an attentive which in the words of Saint Pope John XXIII helps us to grasp "the signs of our times", which is a also a time for our conversion, i.e. our change of our heart and mentality.

In the Advent, in this time of grace, each of us is called to make a choice and ask ourselves a fundamental question; who is the one whom I am waiting so eagerly to receive? Our answer to this question depends not only on the quality of our wait but also the benefits such a waiting can bring in to our spiritual life. The quality of our waiting for someone depends on whom we are waiting for. For example, a child does not wait for his teacher in his school in the same way as he waits for his father to return home from abroad. The father’s return is awaited with joy, great preparedness and expectation. Where as the teacher in the school is waited with an evident sense of disinterest. In this season of Advent, all of us have someone special and precious to wait for; our wait and preparation is for the coming of Jesus, the Messiah whom the Jews had been waiting for centuries! He needs to be waited with quality preparation and interest. “ Let us go joyfully to meet the Lord "is the refrain of the responsorial psalm that we recited today. Advent is therefore a time to renew again and again this joyful encounter with the savior in our lives, with the renewal of a hope for a future oriented towards the fulfillment of an encounter with God who is Love.

In the first reading, we heard Isaiah, the prophet of Advent, prophesying about an ideal world. The coming of the Lord is seen as coming of a radical change in persons and institutions in the world. Prophet Isaiah forsees a world where everyone would transform their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. That means to transform their weapons of war into instruments of peace and labour and there would be brotherhood all over the world. It is an expectation charged with the most beautiful things we can imagine for ourselves, for others and for all of humanity. It is a world that God had always in mind where all nations would transform their instruments of war and violence into instruments of peace and collaboration. Such a transformation would take place only by the change of hearts. As Mahatma Gandhi, the prophet of Non-Violence used to say that the change that we want see in the world must begin within our own hearts.

In the second reading, St. Paul invites us to behave as the ones having the presence of Christ. As Jesus is a light in our lives and in our history, we should leave aside all the works of darkness (all that is negative and being away from all that is obstructing the goodness in us). Paul exhorts us to to walk in the light of the Lord who himself is goodness, mercy, justice and peace. We could say that the true light enters the world through the immaculate womb of Mary but it does not stay there. On the contrary, this light flows out into our dark, obscure, sinful lives to illuminate them, so that we can become the light that illuminates the world.

Matthew in his Gospel today narrates about a dialogue between Jesus and the disciples that his followers need to live in the expectation of an important, special event! The Evangelist brings together three parabolic examples that were probably given in different situations and times, put together to give an answer to everyone’s concern for the future. That time the messianic expectation was very strong and with it there was also the anxiety to know what and when it will happen in future. The comparison used by Jesus helps his listeners to better understand his message, and is that of a man who is alert about his home, his family, and his possessions. Jesus does not tell us about the future, but invites us to read the signs of the present times in the light of history. The present is the time to be attentive and be prepared for any eventuality. Uncertainty is the absolute certainty of our history. The Lord warns us to always be prepared and to do our duties well because we do not know when would be the time when we would be asked back what was given to us, and when we would be judged. Every conscience will have to present itself before God to be judged in every work of good and evil, accomplished while on earth. In life, as in faith, one must always be ready because those who behave well always will have no surprises, but those who behave badly will be taken aback by surprise. If there were no judgment, there would be no need for any preparation. There is no need to prepare for one’s death.

The death is universal truth. so is the final judgement. The hour and the way of our death do not belong to us. If a person combines all the power of modern electronic computing to establish with their help the exact time of his death, under no circumstances he would be able to succeed. Since every moment could be our time, we must always be prepared. Preparing oneself means watching over ourselves and our conduct that cannot be marked by perennial sadness and suffering, but by the joy that comes from the Lord. Waiting and preparing to meet Jesus make our hearts jump with joy, especially in this time of Advent. This 2019 Advent is a time for all of us Christians to live in joy, and for this we prepare ourselves spiritually for the birthday of Jesus. Pope Francis who in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium directs us towards a new way of living as Christians in our times: joy of the gospel must be the joy of the whole world, of all the men and women of this earth who love life and love to live in the joy that comes from God.

It is during these days that we should dedicate more care and time to build our relationships and in particular, our relation with the Lord. Come, Lord Jesus", this is the invocation that must always accompany every believer, and especially in this time of waiting, an invocation to which the Son of God would always respond with his presence of grace.