FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2022

I SUNDAY ADVENT, 27 NOV 2022: ISAIAH 2. 1-5; ROMANS 13. 11-14a; MATTHEW 24. 37-44 Thrust: He comes! Indicative: Advent indicates that the Lord comes to us so that we go to him, go with him, go for him so that one day we can go to be with him forever 1. We begin again this year the holy season of Advent. At the outset itself, let us remind ourselves once again of what is advent. What is its purpose? How should we do it? For many, it is a commemoration of a bygone event, and nothing more than that. For some, it is one of the few most important feasts of the Christians. It is a feast of decorating the churches and houses with stars, cribs, Christmas trees, and singing carols. Of course, get-togethers, celebrations, and shopping go without saying. But it is not just these. We must go beyond them. 2. Advent indicates the coming of the Incarnate Lord, our Saviour in history. Subsequently, we wait for him who is coming. So, essentially advent is a time of waiting. It raises and answers two fundamental questions. What do we wait for? Who do we wait for? 3. We wait for redemption and salvation. And we wait for the Redeemer and Saviour. Why should we wait for them? It is because we need them. We need them if we want to be re-graced, and regain our lost grace. Sin robs us of grace. Sin throws us into a situation of misery. Sin knocks off our dignity and freedom. 4. Sin makes us bound in fetters of bondage. So we need to be released. Sin soils us and so we need to be cleaned. Sin breaks us and so we need to be mended. Sin shakes us and so we need to be made firm. Sin weakens us and so we need to be strengthened. Sin confuses us and so we need to gain clarity. Sin misguides us and so we need to be rightly guided. 5. It is only the grace of salvation and redemption through the Saviour and Redeemer that reinstates us in the state of grace. Therefore, we need to wait for such a glorious change in our life, such a gracing. God does this not simply by some miracles as in the past, however mighty they may be. But God does this restoration by the very incarnation of His own Son himself. 6. Such waiting certainly implies and demands a fitting preparation. What kind of preparation would this be? All three readings make this amply clear. Let us pick up some highlights. “Know the time, the hour to wake from sleep”. “Stay awake” to receive the Saviour who may come at any time unexpectedly. 7. “Cast off the works of darkness”. “Put on the armour of light”. “Walk properly as in the daytime”. “Walk in the light of the Lord”. “Walk in his paths”. “Live in peace and harmony.” It is a way of living where there is no enmity or violence or destruction, when “swords would be turned into ploughshares, spears into pruning-hooks,” and when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor learn war any more.” 8. Further, “get rid of all drunkenness, sensuality and sexual immorality, quarelling, and jealousy.” And “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, it is to “Re-live” the mystery of the Incarnation. That is, Christ should be born again in us. His birth must become a “living” reality. It should not be merely a celebration of the past. Rather our waiting and celebration must be a thing of the present, built on the past and looking and moving toward the future. Imperative: Let us check and see whether our advents have become insipid, heavily leaning toward the past. It shall not be merely the commemoration of a past event. Rather, let us celebrate our Lord’s coming, his love, and our salvation (REFLECTION 2 FROM 2021, 28 NOVEMBER) Focus: We step again into the holy season of Advent. Let us remind ourselves of the very purpose of advent, its significance, and live and fulfill its purpose 1. It is once again the season of advent. What immediately comes to our mind is the holy Christmas. For many, advent is nothing more than some days that come before the birthday of the Lord. It is the duration for preparing the cribs, installing the stars, singing around the carols, practicing the Christmas choir, decorating and illuminating the churches, planning some programs and organizing some get-togethers, inviting or visiting friends and relatives, for doing some special shopping for special festive dresses or articles, et cetera. 2. We do not intend to undervalue the importance of all the above-listed. Our only concern is that the holy advent is reduced only to these items. Certainly, advent is a time of preparation preceding the holy Christmas. All these preparations form part of this preparation. But it is a preparation much more than these. It is a preparation for a deeper and higher realm. It is a time of preparation of hearts, of families, of lives both collectively and personally. It is a time of preparing to go to meet the Lord who is coming. It is preparing a fitting birthplace for the one who will be born among us. It is preparing enough of and clean space for him to enter. It is preparing the whole earth itself to receive the Lord who will encounter us. 3. In the first place, advent is a commemoration and celebration of a past bygone event. As such, it must serve as a special occasion to draw inspiration for our imitation. It must make us recall the event of the incarnation of the loving God amidst our sinful condition. It must inspire us to be deeply impressed by the selfless love of God that empties itself of the heavenly glory and embraces our human misery and struggle. It must make us imitate the same spirit of the incarnate Savior. It must make us live up to the very purpose of his birth, that is, to allow him to be with us and to transform us. 4. Thus, our preparation and celebration will be meaningful, only they blend together all the three dimensions of time, that is, the past, present, and future. We remember gratefully and joyfully the past, so that we can meaningfully and committedly live the present, and thereby become worthy of the eternal presence of God. Our celebration will be very inadequate if it is limited only to recalling the past, if it does not affect and change our present, and does not charge and orient us toward the future. 5. In this sense, advent is a threefold appropriate present preparation. Firstly, for the celebration of the past events; second, for the celebration of the present joy of the present birth of the Lord because he is with us; thirdly, for orientation for the future joy of the eternal communion with God. We celebrate his past birth, his present life within and amidst us, and our eternity with him. Our advent preparation must look behind, look and walk onward and forward, and look and rise upward. That is why, Jesus says, “when these (adverse) things happen, “raise your heads and look up because your redemption is near.” 6. It is in this sense of future orientation the gospel speaks of the end times in the future. Future and end need not be exclusively in time sense, as something that lies in the far distance at the end of completion of all time and space. It is not a fixed, definite time. Rather it is the appointed time. It is the time of judgment. Thereby, advent becomes really significant when it is not only backward-looking but forward-looking and marching. 7. We commemorate and celebrate the past because it affects our present and leads us to the future. Advent should prepare us fittingly for a worthy immediate celebration, for a worthy ongoing living, and for a worthy eternity. Jesus points to three areas of this fitting preparation: dissipation, drunkenness, and cares of the world. All these three hinder our fitting preparation and making a productive blend of the past, present, and future. 8. Dissipation makes us tied down to the regrets and negative impacts of the past. Drunkenness creates an illusory world, and dissociates us from the present reality and responsibility to it. It can be understood more as a pleasure and comfort-seeking life, and not just something to do with drinking alone. Cares and preoccupations of the world do not allow us to rise higher, to the lofty future. All these three fail in the productive use of the past, commitment to the present, and orientation to the future. Direction: Advent is not just a time of pre-Christmas external preparations. It is a commemoration of the past, contribution to the present, and further construction for the future (REFLECTION 3 FROM 2020, 29 NOVEMBER) Focus: We are called by a worthy God to live a worthy life. Let us then neither belittle ourselves nor God who wants to elevate us. 1. Once again, we step into the holy season of Advent. It is the time for the advent of the Saviour amidst us. It is the advent of the incarnate Son of God as one of us. It is a time of the coming of God's own grace in flesh and blood, in the person of Jesus Christ. Down through the centuries, God has spoken and acted through many prophets and leaders. But this is the appointed time when God speaks, interacts, and acts with humans through His own Son. 2. Advent is not merely a series of days that precede the birth of Jesus, the Saviour. It is first of all a recalling and reassuring of the ceaseless love and mercy of God for the erring and sinning humanity. It is a reawakening of our hope that the Saviour is born among us. It is a reinstilling of our trust that God comes to live with us and will never abandon us. It is a reinstalling of the broken bond and covenant between God and us. It is the season of the greatest comfort that "God is ever benevolent and merciful to us". 3. Our sin, our evil, our wrongdoings, our weaknesses, and imperfections - nothing of these can mar or deter the love of God that never fails us. The holy Advent encourages us that ultimately it is God who takes control of the whole course of our life and no forces, however powerful and dominant they are, can really overpower it. 4. The holy Advent immerses us in the unfathomable depths of God's saving love. It encourages and revives us with new hope to continue to confide in him even when we are beset with adverse situations. It urges us to "wait on him" who comes to visit us and change our life. This would concretely mean that we do not get "engrossed and entangled" with needless affairs and excessive worldly activities, as in the times of Noah. 5. To the one who comes to us in love, mercy, and solidarity, we must go in eagerness, readiness, and preparation. The one who comes to us to be with us, should not find us in indifference, tepidity, and unpreparedness. We must "Wake up from our sleep" of sin and mediocrity. We must solidify our steps, so that we do not stumble and falter in darkness, but walk steadily in the light. 6. How then do we prepare ourselves to meet him who is coming? There can be different attitudes and responses toward his coming: He is coming - so what? Let Him come! This is an attitude of indifference, carelessness, and lethargy He is coming - oh my God! An attitude of fear and unhappiness He is coming - why should he come? An attitude of unwelcome, stubbornness, resistance, and rejection He is coming - very good! Please come. An attitude of welcome, openness, receptivity, prompt acceptance, and personal experience What is our response? What is our preparation? Direction: Let us wait for the Lord attentively and lovingly, so that he will not find and catch us unawares. Let us be fully awake and focused on him and not lose sight of him.