(Homily for the 1st Sunday of Advent Yr. B)
Today marks the
beginning of the liturgical period of Advent and the beginning of a new
liturgical year. The word advent is from the Latin word “Adventus”
which means “coming”, and it is a translation from the Greek word “parousia”.
Therefore, it connotes expectancy and hope and at the same time points to the
second coming of Christ. Hence, in our context, the time of advent is a time
of great expectation for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ amongst men,
unlike in the ancient Greece it meant the coming of their god. The coming of
Jesus can be understood in three senses: First, is His “coming” more than 2,000
years ago (that is, his Incarnation, that which inaugurated the messianic time
of Salvation). Second, is His final and glorious coming at the end of time (the
Parousia), and third, between His first coming and the final coming there is the intermediary Advent, His immanent and continuous coming into our
lives. The Christian life is an
ongoing advent, a constant personal encounter with Jesus who has come, who is
to come and who is already in our midst.
In
the Advent spirituality Christ is always the One who is to come, the One who is
always expected. Advent therefore, is not just a remembrance of a historical
figure linked to a particular time and geographical location. It is not even an
anticipated vision of the coming of the Just Judge. Rather the spirituality of
Advent draws our attention to the urgency for the Lord to come into our lives
with His grace and message of salvation. For Christ is the Living Lord, il
Veniente, the One who comes. Be that as it may, we may begin our
reflection with some fundamental questions: First, between the first and the
final coming what sense has this our Advent? Second, if Christ is the One who
always has to come, what then should be our attitude in view of His coming? In
that bid, the readings of today are furnished with some insights and responses.
The
first reading (Is. 63:16b-17; 64:1.3b-8)
from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah brings us face to face with a God who
is Father and with the reality of our own sinfulness before Him. Isaiah is one
of the Advent prophets, because he lived at a time of great longing for the
coming of the Messiah and the restoration of God’s People. He presents
a time when the exiles have returned from Babylon, and inspired by the
Deutro-Isaiah’s prophecies, they had high hopes. But concretely they discovered
that nothing seem to happen, they awaited restoration was not forthcoming. The people have begun to recognize that their exile
was a consequence of their failure to live with integrity and in the ways of
the Lord. Be
that as it may, they burst into a lament of their situation: “Yahweh, can you
restrain yourself at all this? Will you stay silent and afflict us beyond
endurance?” (Is.64:11). In the midst
of this reality that is still plunging them into despair, the prophet cried out
to God for divine intervention: “Oh that you would come down, in your presence
the mountains would quake” (Is. 64:2). As a matter of fact, at the heart of the
spirituality of Advent is the human cry for divine intervention and
manifestation. He acknowledges Israel's sinfulness
and their need for 'the
potter's hand' to
refashion them into a faithful people they were meant to be. He uses the
imagery of the potter and the clay, a significant reminder that we are in the
hands of a God who loves us, ‘our Father
and Redeemer’ (63:16b). We need this constant reminder that we are
like clay in the Divine Potter’s hand, which goes a long way to revealing
who and what we are before God (creatures,
pardoned and redeemed sinners). Truly, Advent reminds us and brings to our
consciousness the fatherhood of God.
The prophetic prayer of Isaiah in
verse 1 is powerful, praying for God in his might to tear the heaven and come
down, this prayerful call for divine manifestation alludes or is connected with
the Marcan account of the Baptism of Jesus (Mk.
1:10), when the heavens were opened, and God spoke. Indeed, the opening up
of heaven is a mark of great divine intervention and manifestation. And without
doubts, that was what Isaiah was asking for. In the spirituality of Advent, heaven is opened for the earth, God
opened heaven and sent His Beloved Son. Behold, it is indeed plausible to launch us into the period of Advent with this
divine invocation of “open heaven”, the Advent cry “Oh that thou should
rend the heaven and come down”. And too the invocation to God to ‘return’ (Is.63:17b) is typical of Advent
spirituality.
The Gospel passage (Mk.
13:33-37) recounts
the parable of the door keeper. Therein, Jesus announces to us the word at the
heart of Advent: “watch”, he says
take heed and watch, it is an attention of not only the mind, but the heart and
the whole life. There is a danger of being asleep, the problem for some of us is not
just to watch, but to wake up, because we are sleeping Christians. Little
wonder St. Paul warns, “brothers it is time to wake up from sleep” (Rm. 13:11). Mark’s account
of this parable has some particular features, especially in comparison with the
Lucan account (cf. Lk. 12:35-38). Some
of the particularities of Mark includes the phrase: “a man going on a journey”,
which was taken from the parable of the Talent. “Put his servants in charge,
each with his work”, taken from the parable of the faithful and unfaithful
servants (cf. Mt. 24:45; Lk. 12:42).
The parable then ends with an exhortation “watch then, for you do not know when
the master of the house is coming, whether in the first or the second or even
in the third watch”.
The passage begins with the
imperative “Be on your guard” (v.33),
“stay awake” (v.35), and “stay
awake” (v.37). No one can calculate
the precise kairotical moment (kairos) of the coming of the Lord,
as such, from here springs the necessity for all to be awake for the
eschatological moment that will mark the end of the world and the parousia of the glorious Christ. In that
case, the “time” that is to come determines
the reality of the present moment.
In the context of the parable, the
similitude therein is referred to the eschatological event of the parousia, which represents the full
realization of the Kingdom. The servants that were given power, designate the
disciples of Jesus. Here, while Mark speaks of the departure of the master who
travelled abroad, Luke speaks of a nuptial banquet. In Mark’s account one
discovers that verse (35) is replete
with significance, for the master of the house is the Glorious Christ, the four
chronological indications (evening, midnight, cockcrow or dawn) indicate the
four broad division of the night in the Roman counting (from 6. pm to 6. am).
In the last verse (37) we see how the teaching of Jesus
Christ that was addressed to the four disciples, is now addressed to all the
Christian community and to us today: “What I say to you, I say to all: stay
awake”. In this passage, therefore, the
imperative reminder: “stay awake” is very much expressive, for it condenses
the essential meaning of the Marcan eschatological discourse. Existentially, all our Christian life
consists and is geared towards a vigilant wait for the coming of the Lord,
which is certain because it is founded on the unwavering words of the Lord, faith
on the resurrection and on the different apparitions of Christ.
In the second reading (1
Cor. 1:3-9) we see the opening blessing and thanksgiving of the
letter, but from all indications it does appear that this is not the first
letter of St. Paul to this community, for he writes in 1Cor. 5:9: “In my letter I wrote to you that you should have
nothing to do with people living immoral lives”, thus, indicating a previous
letter. However, that is not our interest! The thanksgiving that opens the letter
is of a captatio benevolentiae. Therein, Paul thanks God for the
various gifts that were made visible in the Corinthian community; he talked of
their speech and knowledge. But one
thing fascinating in the passage is Paul’s attempt to set the charismatic gifts
in an eschatological context. He reminded them that irrespective of their
gifts, they are still awaiting for the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Indeed, St. Paul calls their attention for what lies ahead, for them not to be
carried away by the gifts they had received. This reminder of St. Paul makes
the second reading to dovetail into the message of Advent.
Above
all, we are called to be sentries,
in view of the return of the Son of Man. Most importantly, let us hearken to
appropriate the threefold guidelines of Jesus to us: Take heed! Watch! Pray! We need to activate the Advent mood and attitude. As we
await the Savior who comes, it behooves us to reaffirm that our expectation is
not like that of the people of Old Testament, because it is not only an expectation, but it is also memorial and
presence. It is a memorial because the One we are awaiting has already come
(this we remember at Christmas). It is presence because he is with us. His word
we have heard is Himself with us, the Eucharist we celebrate is Himself with
us. Interestingly, the most beautiful
image of the Christian Advent is that of walking with joy to meet the One who
is walking with us, who walks at our side. As suggestive of the theme of
our reflection today, the time of Advent
is not a time to wallow in idleness or to wait in inertia, rather the itinerary
is waiting and walking. It comports a good dose of preparedness for the
Coming and the Presence of the Lord. In Advent the search for God changes into
the expectation of God, we live in anticipation of Him. And as we expect His
coming into our lives, may we put our voices together to that of John in
saying: “The one who attests these things says I am coming soon. Amen. Come
Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20). Come for we are in need of YOU! Come and dissipate the darkness
shrouding our World!!! Happy Advent Season Friends!!!
(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)
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