First Sunday of Advent

Today's Mass Readings

I remember sitting in sixth grade and calculating how long it would be until I graduated from high school. I was in grade six, and I needed to get to twelve, and that was still a really long time away. Our notion of time changes when we get older, but I think that most of us view our lives through an attitude that says, “I have more time.” It seems like many people in the world take for granted that they have more time and don’t always give careful attention to the values that are truly most important to them.

Yet this First Sunday of Advent intends to shake us, to wake us up, and to make us seriously reflect on the notion of time and, in particular, how we spend that time. Jesus tells us: “You do not know on which day your Lord will come.” We might think we know when, but we don’t really know.

Therefore, the only prudent choice for the faithful Christian is to live prepared to encounter Christ. “Stay awake!”—Jesus says. Obviously, it isn’t about refraining from sleep, since that’s both important and necessary, but it is a reminder to keep an interior vigilance, a sort of spiritual alertness where we receive the graces God wishes to give us.

I’m “awake” when I’m not drifting through life without meaning or purpose and when my eyes are fixed not on myself, but on Christ who gives direction. Pope Francis wrote: “If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light, and consolation born of friend¬ship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life.” Christ gives meaning to life, because He is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. Christ is life itself.

Yet how quickly we misplace our priorities! We grow spiritually drowsy and think that the project taking our attention is more important than the person in our midst. We prefer the works of darkness, we fail to forgive others, and we neglect or make excuses to avoid acts of charity. We get distracted, sidetracked, and careless, and soon we look more like we are in slumber than a human being fully alive.

The Good News is not just that Christ is coming but that He has already come. The Lenten Season is not the only time when we are called as a Church to repent and believe in the Gospel. Advent is a four-week preparation to dispose ourselves to the great mystery of the Incarnation. Use this time to do what St. Paul described as the time “for you to awake from sleep.” Prepare yourself to receive Christ not just at Christmas, but each and every day of your life. God has visited his people. He has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham and his descendants. He acted far beyond all expectation: God has sent his own ‘beloved Son’.

The mystery is right before us, our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
How is the Lord inviting you to prepare your heart, to live in the light of so great a mystery?

Reflection by Fr. Paul Sheller, OSB