FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

“Be Watchful! Be Alert! You do not know when the time will come”

Mc.1,33-37

Rev. Alexander Diaz

This Sunday we begin the Advent time.  Advent from the “latin” word “adventus” which means “the coming”.  In the Christian language it refers to the coming of Jesus Christ.  The Church’s liturgy gives the name  “Advent” to the four weeks preceding Christmas, giving us the opportunity to prepare ourselves in hope and repentance for the coming of the Lord.  This time invites us to be watchful, to be alert, before the arrival of the Lord.   To wait is to be in constant and responsible vigilance. 

There are people who await certain definite events in their lives.  They wait in a global manner for a lucky event, for example: win the lottery or wait for a situation to happen after a considerable effort and that is all fine and good, for someone who does not know the Gospel.  But for a Christian, the waiting is different, because our expectation moves thru the present and the future.   We should wait, not from our prospects but in the rhythm marked by God, one step at a time, slowly.  Our waiting is free, but above all, secure.  Our waiting supersedes all human knowledge.   

To wait for Jesus is something completely different, is to accept what we already know,  we await for Jesus, the love of all loves, the love that destroys every occasion of darkness and sin.  Something interesting about this Sunday’s liturgy is that the Lord does not tell us when His definite coming will be. 

To me, it have always been somewhat disrespectful, when many groups have been daring enough to affirm in various occasion the end of the world with concrete dates. They have filled with fear and doubt so many individuals who are so naïve to believe these charlatans.   The Word of God does not tell us anything about this ending. 

The Word of God only invites us to be alert and watchful.  We have to be alert in order to discover the passing of the Lord thru our lives.  Be alert to discover His invitation to change and to convert.  This Word invites us to accept three commitments:  To be alert, to be watchful and to pray without ceasing, constantly.

Alert to ensure that nothing distracts us from watching out for the coming of the Lord. There are lots of things that can distract us from discovering the Lord.  It is relatively easy to distant ourselves from God and even hide from Him.   It is very difficult to stay with God, because the reality of the world does not help us at all.  To be watchful, to be awake, to be able to discover in the night of life, in the shadows of our “self” and see the light of Christ that comes. 

To watch means to allow Jesus to illuminate our lives.   Pray, wait alert,  watching in prayer. It is not to wait in any which way; but with a prayerful attitude, the attitude of a helpless child, of someone who is in reality and truth awaiting the Lord.  To wait prayerfully without getting desperate or losing our cool, await calmly.   When you pray, the waiting is not tiring, it acquires a sense of value and transforms our hearts.  Whoever does not know how to wait confident in the Lord, gets desperate.     

Today’s world is not prone to advise you to wait.  Everything has to be quickly, fast, eat, clean, repair, photos, communication, etc, etc. Today’s world have been thought of to deal with what the human being has created.  To wait for the Gospel, instead, adds to the most intimate part of the human being: a person does not change in one day or in a quick manner. A person does not automatically have a change of heart or interior. 

Hence, the necessity to wait for the Lord.    The Christian therefore, must live as a sentinel of hope in the night of the world.  Something that should be characteristic of a Christian is, his joyful hope in the triumph of Christ over evil and over sin.  In truth, there are many motives of suffering and of darkness for men.

The deep moral pains, illnesses, the personal misfortune, the “boredom of life”, the huge catastrophes that destroy whole cities and towns.  It seems that everything around us invites us to feel downhearted.  Yet, Christ appears in the path of our lives and reminds us that the darkness have been defeated and that we must live as children of the light.  Christ invites us to be “sentinels of the morning”, sentinels of hope, to be preachers of the Good News of salvation. 

In this sense we should nurture the capacity of wonder in front of all this created world.  Blessed John Paul II (second) affirmed: “It is necessary to open our eyes to admire God, who hides from us and at the same shows Himself on all things and introduces us to the spaces of mystery”.

The technological culture and our excessive immersion on the material realities, frequently prevent us from perceiving the hidden face of things.  In reality, for someone who knows how to read in depth, each thing, each event, brings a message that in the last analysis, takes us to God. 

The signs that reveal the presence of God are therefore, multiples. 

But in order not to let them get away from us, we have to be pure and humble like children (Mt.18,3-4).  We should be able to be amazed, surprised, astonished, delighted, in wonder by the divine gestures of love and closeness He has for all of us.

AMEN!!