Word to the Wise
Sunday, December 3, 2023 - 1st Sunday of Advent - B
[Isa 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7; 1 Cor 1:3-9; Mark 13:33-37]"Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come....Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all; "Watch!" [Mark]
The first Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of the liturgical year. The story of the anticipation of the birth of Christ [his first coming, as it were] and the anticipation of his second coming are found in the scriptures presented for today. Isaiah expresses the hope for a messianic deliverance to exiles returning from Babylonia. St. Paul and the Gospel According to Mark challenge us to live in the meantime after Jesus has come and gone. I've heard it said that we live between the "tick and the tock" of God's salvation history.
Advent summons us to an immediate anticipation and participation in the drama of that history. The celebration of Jesus' birth is more immediate. The culture around us starts speaking of the "holiday season" even before Halloween and Thanksgiving have come and gone. It's hard NOT to be "alert" to the celebration of Christmas - the first coming of Christ. The second coming, which Paul and Mark are speaking to, is another matter, yet we have to live with both "comings" on a day to day basis. Although the second coming speaks to the end of time as we know it, there is a way in this season in which it occurs on a daily basis in the lives and situations of our neighbors. These can become magnified in the way that the "holiday season" causes losses to be felt more acutely. Can we be "alert" to these? Can Christ be "born" IN us FOR others and "come again" in our actions during Advent? Compassion is a gift that does not require any other wrapping than flesh and blood.
If the first Sunday of Advent is "New Year's Day" in our Catholic spiritual tradition, perhaps our "resolutions" are handed to us in the form of our neighbors. "Happy Advent! Happy "New Year!" AMEN