First Sunday of Advent
Because our Church knows the human condition better than the secular world, and, as a loving Mother, is helping Her children to grow in virtue, especially the virtue of patience and watchfulness. She gives us this season of Advent to prepare. And we only prepare, if we are not ready right now. And we aren’t ready right now to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus. We need time to wait and to watch.
Because, after all, we are still waiting and watching for Jesus to return. The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word adveniens, which means coming, or coming to. Ever since Jesus ascended into heaven, we are waiting for Jesus to come back, to come to us again. These four weeks of Advent are a microcosm of the state of life for all Christians for their lives: waiting for Jesus, waiting to celebrate His coming.
And we wait and we watch because we “do not know when the Lord of the house is coming.” Waiting and watching for this long is hard. Perhaps we have become drowsy and fallen asleep, in the sense that we don’t really think that Christ is ever going to return. It has been 1,984 years since Jesus ascended, with angels promising to return in the same way that He left us. But it is not the right time yet, and so we can forget that Jesus will return. We can live in such a way that shows that we think we have months, or years, or decades, or maybe even centuries before Jesus returns. But in honest, we do not know the day, nor the hour.
And so in this season of Advent, we do in an intense way for four weeks what we should be doing in our lives always: waiting for Jesus. As a Church we don’t put up Christmas decorations until the last possible moment because we need to prepare our hearts. Our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah gives us a clue on how to do that: we need to acknowledge our sinfulness, and ask God to return. When we recognize that we have not lived like Jesus calls us to, we prepare a way for Jesus to come to us, because a heart that is repentant, that is contrite, is a heart that recognizes its need for Jesus. And Jesus will not force Himself upon us. If we do not feel we need Jesus (even though we, of course, always do), then He will not come to us. And when we call out to Jesus to “return for the sake of your servants,” He hears our prayer and comes to us in love and mercy. For what sibling would not come to the aid of His brother or sister, if that brother or sister pleaded for the presence of the brother. Our Divine Brother, Jesus, is waiting to hear us cry out to Him in our need so that He can come and save us, but He will wait for us to ask.
Certainly in our homes and maybe our places of work, we are starting to decorate and we are beginning to celebrate Christmas in a secular way. We have parties, we put up trees, we may even get together with family because of different schedules on Christmas day and after. But let’s not forget that we’re not there yet. There is virtue in waiting to celebrate because it helps us truly keep watch for Jesus’ second coming in glory. In this time Jesus comes to us in mercy. At the end of time Jesus will come to us in judgment. In this time, we wait to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus as a tiny, helpless baby in Bethlehem. At the end of time Jesus will come as a conquering King who will finally vanquish all the effects of sin and death. May we truly be watchful in our daily lives, especially during this Advent season, so that Jesus may not come suddenly and find us sleeping. “‘Be watchful! Be alert!’”
