Homily for 1st Sunday of Advent Year C 2015
Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-28,34-36
Introduction
None of us likes waiting. We
don't like waiting in line at the Post-Office, the Doctor's Office or the Motor
Vehicle Office. We don't like waiting in
traffic, at the Black Friday sales, or getting on a plane. When Children travelling on
a long family trip keep asking "are we there yet," "are we there
yet," they are speaking for us all.
We want things to happen by yesterday and not in the future.
And yet
today we begin the season of Advent, which is basically a four weeks of
waiting. What
are we waiting for and how we should wait?
Scripture and Theology
You know that you are in Advent when the first
reading says: "The days are coming,"
says the Lord. And the rest of the
reading is in the future tense:
. . . I will fulfill the promise . . . .
I will
raise up for David a just shoot ;
he shall
do what is right and just . . . .
. . . Judah shall be safe
and Jerusalem shall dwell secure;
this is what they shall call her:
Jeremiah wrote these promises, these things
about the future, for the Jews of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, a nation that
had lost hope.
·
Their neighbour, the northern
kingdom of Israel had already been destroyed by the Assyrian empire. The people were taken into exile, scattered
all over the empire, assimilated into the pagan populations, and to this day,
have never returned; these are the ten lost tribes of Israel.
·
The southern Kingdom of Judah,
have now also been conquered by the Babylonians and their capital Jerusalem has
been overrun. The people have all been
taken into exile to become slaves, men, women and children. They have lost their identity and their
nation. But most of all, they have lost
hope that the Lord would come to rescue them, as he had promised. Their punishment was taking too long. Like the child in the car, they were tired of
waiting and were asking: “are we there yet?”
Today's first reading is Jeremiah's answer
to them. That but soon and very soon, the
Messiah would come and fulfil the promises of the Lord.
If Jeremiah wrote to the Jews waiting for
the First Coming of the Messiah, Luke writes the gospel passage of today to
Christians, who are tired of waiting for the Second Coming. In the years following the resurrection and
ascension of Jesus, the disciples believed that he would return within their
lifetime. But now it was about 50 years,
but Jesus had not yet returned. The
waiting is too long and they are losing patience. The Christians are also asking: “Are we there
yet?”
Like Jeremiah did for the Jews, Luke also
renews the hope of the Christian community by recalling what Jesus had said
about his return. Jesus had warned
Christians to be vigilant and prepared, so that his return would not catch them
unawares. In particular he warned them
against becoming "drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties
of daily life," conditions that would lead them to be caught unawares.
Basically Luke tells Christians to focus not so much on the "when" of
his return and but rather on being prepared.
When I go to my doctor's office, the
average wait-time is about an hour or two. And so I go prepared with a book to
read or some work on the laptop.
Sometimes, I spend the time chatting with my fellow patients in the
waiting room. When they see I am a
priest, they often have lots of questions, lots of ideas to share. And eventually when the doctor sees me, he
treats me like I am his only concern in the world. The treatment is really worth the wait.
Christian Life
For us too, the waiting of Advent, will perhaps
be bearable if keep our eye on the goal, what awaits us at the end. Let me suggest three goals for this season of
Advent: an immediate goal, an intermediate goal and a long-term goal.
Advent prepares us to celebrate the First Coming of the Jesus into this
world at Christmas. During these four
weeks of the Advent season, we have many tools to help us focus our minds on
celebrating what Jesus did when he first came.
·
There is the Advent wreath, the
empty manger and the Jesse tree, all preparing us for the birth of the Lord at
Christmas.
·
We also have some customs for
the feast of St. Nicholas on December 6, the feast of St. Lucy on December 13th
and of course the feasts of Our Lady on December 8 and on December 12.
·
Even at Mass, you will notice a
few Advent things: the vestments are of penitential colour of purple, we don’t
sing the Gloria – the song sung by the Angels when they announced the Lord's
birth to the shepherds, and the wreath has five candles which we keep lighting
one by one until Christmas Day when we light the big white candle in the
middle.
It is unfortunate that today, even some Catholics
completely skip over Advent. We move from
Thanksgiving straight on to Christmas, without the preparation of Advent. Is it any wonder then, that sometimes
Christmas feels empty? As we try to keep Christ in
Christmas, can we first try to keep Advent in Advent?
But Advent also has a long-term purpose,
preparing us for the Second Coming
of the Lord. Luke and all the other New
Testament writers were not writing about preparing for Christmas; it is the
Second Coming they were writing about.
If you think about it, our focus for Advent
should be the Second Coming, because at that time, our eternal fate will be
determined. Like Jeremiah encouraged the
Jews to wait for the first coming of the Messiah, his words should encourage us
to wait in hope and expectation for the Second Coming. Unlike the first Christians, we seem to have
given up on waiting at all, perhaps because it has been two thousand years.
Our waiting must be like that of the child
who just can't wait to get to their destination. I am sure that most parents would rather have
their child repeatedly asking “are we there yet,” rather than sitting in back
with the ipod or DVD earphones in their ears, oblivious to what else is going
on during the trip, much less where they are going, or even sulking for going
on this journey. That is why our waiting
must be filled with actions of love for God and for our neighbour, as St. Paul
told us in today's second reading. In
that way, when the Lord comes, he will find us at work.
Conclusion
The third purpose of Advent is intermediate
and is the fruit of preparing for the First and Second Comings of the
Lord. In a world that is always in a
hurry, that lacks patience, celebrating Advent well allows us to develop the
virtue of patience.
Have
you observed how at the airport, people just cannot wait to get onto the
plane? And then as soon as the plane
lands, everybody jumps and wants to get off, even the person in row 35 way at
the back? Even here in Church,
sometimes we just can't wait to leave even before Mass ends.
If we can learn to wait patiently for
Christmas and if we can learn to think about the end times in a healthy manner,
perhaps we can live the present life with patience and make living life itself
meaningful.
May
this Advent, by teaching us to wait for the Lord at the end of time, make us
more patient to one another.
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