FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
30 NOVEMBER 2014
The prophet
Isaiah gives voice to the frustrations of his people. Living some 600 years before Christ, They had
seen the Babylonians destroy Jerusalem, demolish their sacred temple, and
murder their king. Worse, they had been
in exile in Babylon for almost fifty years.
They had come to realize that the prophet Jeremiah had been correct in
telling them to turn back to their Covenant with God and had seen their exile
as God's punishment for not listening.
Now, completely dispirited, they beg God to rend the heavens and come
down and save them.
As we begin
this new Liturgical Year, we enter into the Season of Advent to consider how
God saves us. God answered the prayers
of the exiles in Babylon by rending the heavens with a pagan King, Cyrus of
Persia, who issued a decree allowing the refugees to return home. In a few weeks, we will celebrate the Christmas,
when the Father sent his only begotten Son to rend the heavens and come down to
save us as a tiny child born into poverty.
This Season of Advent has the potential to teach us valuable lessons
about how we can prepare for the ways that God rends the heavens to come down
to save us.
The first
lesson is countercultural. We live in a
culture of immediate results. In our world of instant communication, we can
be in touch with everyone at the tap of the "send" button. That means that we can send angry and hurtful
emotions without looking into the face of the one who receives our
messages. One of my nieces assumed that
we are all against her when she got married last summer and
"unfriended" all of us, even those of us who do not have a clue about
using Facebook. Our culture has been
observing the "Holiday Season" since the first of November, and the
voice of consumerism promises instant gratification to those who shop.
In
contrast, Advent invites us to wait.
Advent tells us that there is value in backing off from the glare of
lights and holiday gatherings to spend time in prayer and contemplation. In prayer and contemplation, we can hear the
ways in which we have not listened to the authentic prophets of our day and
have strayed from the Lord's Covenant of love.
The more contemplative style of our Advent liturgies sets the tone for
the season. Take one of the resources at
the doors of church to help in daily prayer
and contemplation at home. Come to the devotional
prayers on Tuesday nights during Advent, including the communal Penance Service
on the last Tuesday before Christmas. We
will offer many opportunities for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, allowing us
to look at the ways in which we have ignored the Lord's presence and to begin
again.
The second
lesson comes from today's Gospel. As we
prepare to celebrate the way the Lord has rent the heavens and come down to
save us a child, we are aware that he will rend the heavens at the end of time to
bring to completion his work of salvation.
None of us knows when the Lord will rend the heavens to come to us at
the moment of our death or at the end of the world. For that reason, we are to be watchful and
alert. Prayer and contemplation can help
us understand that being watchful and alert does not mean that we cower in
fear, worrying that we will be caught doing something wrong. It means that we are actively engaged in
living our Baptismal promises, being awake to the ways in which we connect with
other people to make our world a more welcoming place for the coming of the
Lord.
Finally,
when we combine prayer and contemplation with watching and being alert, we will
be much more conscious of the ways that the Lord rends the heavens and comes to
us now. To use Isaiah's image, we are
the clay, and the Lord is the potter who is forming us. The Lord does that in the sacramental life of
the Church. With our eyes, ears, hearts,
and minds opened by these real encounters, we become more aware of the ways in
which he is forming us now.
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