On the First Sunday of Advent, we begin a new liturgical year. The liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church has three cycles, A, B, and C. This year is Cycle C, and Sunday Gospel readings are primarily drawn from the Gospel of Luke.
The word, “advent”, comes from the Latin word, “adventus”, which means “arrival”. With this etymological background of the word, “advent” in mind, we prepare ourselves for the arrival of Christ. But, the arrival of Christ has a dual meaning for Advent.
First of all, Advent is the preparatory season in our liturgical calendar for the first coming of Christ, incarnated out of Mary’s immaculate human flesh in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35) and born of her (Luke 2:7). At the same time, this is the beginning of our year-long preparation for the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe, with our blessed hope (Titus 2:13) for the second coming of Christ (Revelation 19:11-16).
Secondly, besides hope, vigilance is required to prepare ourselves not only for the first coming of Christ but also for Christ’s second coming. And this is a main theme for the Gospel Reading of the First Sunday of Advent (Matthew 24:37-44 (A); Mark 13:33-37(B); Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 (C)).
It is with hope that we begin our Advent preparation for the coming of Christ – the first coming and the second coming. And we remain vigilant because we do not know exactly when and where he is found at his coming.
You may say that you already know where Christ was born because you have read the Bible. So you say that Christ first came in Bethlehem, to be more precise, in a stable of the outskirts of Bethlehem, placed in a manger, wrapped in a swaddling cloth, as described in Luke 2:1-7. And this is how the first coming of Christ happened and what we celebrate in commemoration.
However, as we spend Advent season, which is punctuated with four Advent Sundays, we are actually preparing ourselves for his coming as if it would happen soon – as if we were living in Israel at the time of Caesar Augustus’s census decree, when Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem to register themselves for the Roman census (Luke 2:1-5).
Imagine and place yourself in that time and place. And you have heard and read about the prophecies about the coming of the Messiah (Christ) and wonder when he would be coming, in commemoration. At the same time, you are actually preparing yourself to welcome Christ in your heart from the First Sunday of Advent on until the eve of the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, the first day of Christmas. This time, Christ is coming to the hearts of each one of us.
So how we can prepare ourselves to welcome Christ in our hearts?
We find an answer in John the Baptist’s words in the Gospel Reading of the Second Sunday of Advent (Matthew 3:1-12 (A); Mark 1:1-8 (B); Luke 3:1-6 (C)). It is to remove obstacles on the path of Christ’s coming and make sure it is smooth and straight. It means that we repent and let our sins be absorbed by Christ and let us be filled with his grace through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is why Advent is penitential.
As a matter of fact, the way we prepare ourselves as if Christ were coming for the first time, making ourselves ready to receive him in our hearts any time by repenting and changing ourselves to be in the state of grace, we also start preparing ourselves to meet Christ upon his return at the end of the liturgical year. For this, we take a lesson from a Gospel text on Jesus speaking of his return.
The first Advent candle represents our hope for Christ.
We live in the broken world, marred with injustice and conflicts, because of our sins. The creation that we are entrusted by God to care for as stewards (Genesis 1:26) has been disordered, because of our sins. To bring peace and justice to the world, to restore the order of the creation, we need Christ (Messiah), because we cannot fix these problems by human means alone. God the Father, the Creator, certainly understands this. Thus, He had decided to send His only begotten Son, the Christ, as soon as disorder entered the creation through the sin of Adam and Eve (i.e. Genesis 3:15). And the coming of the Son, the Christ, had been prophesized by Moses during Exodus (Deuteronomy 18:15-19) and later by various prophets, such as Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14; 9:1-6; 11:1-2; 28:16; 29:17-24; 40:3-5; 42:1-4; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12; 55:3; 61:1-3) and as Jeremiah (Jeremiah 3:14-17; 11:19; 23:5-6; 30:8-9; 31:31-34; 33:14-16 (First Reading of the First Sunday of Advent, C). And the last Old Testament prophet to prophesize the coming of Christ was Malachi. And he foretold that the coming of Christ at the appointed time would be heralded by John the Baptist’s preaching (Malachi 3:1-24, NABRE). Then, for about 400 years of no prophecy, John the Baptist began to prepare people for the public appearance of Christ, as prophesized by Malachi (Luke 3:1-20) and Christ in incarnation appeared to initiate his public ministry with baptism (Luke 3:21-22).
The incarnated Christ was at age 30 when he came to John the Baptist to be baptized and to initiate his public ministry (Luke 3:23). But Christ first came to the world 30 years prior, at the time of Archangel Gabriel’s annunciation of Mary’s virgin pregnancy (Luke 1:26-38) to fulfil these words of Isaiah:
The Lord himself will give you a sign; the young woman, pregnant and about to bear a son, shall name him Emmanuel. Curds and honey he will eat so that he may learn to reject evil and choose good; for before the child learns to reject evil and choose good, the land of those two kings whom you dread shall be deserted. The Lord shall bring upon you and your people and your father’s house such days as have not come since Ephraim seceded from Judah (Isaiah 7:14-17).
The incarnated Christ spent 9 months inside Mary’s womb. But when he was born of her, the world did not notice, except for the shepherd who kept vigilant night watch over their sheep, as he was born into abject poverty (Luke 2:1-20). Then, he was recognized by Simeon and Anna at the time of the presentation of the infant Christ in the Temple (Luke 2:22-38). Basically, the incarnated Christ grew in obscurity until he was 30 and came to be baptized by John the Baptist.
In the First Reading (Jeremiah 33:14-16), the coming of Christ as a Davidic royal descendent to bring peace, justice, and security to God’s domain. This is also to answer God’s promise to David (2 Samuel 7:12-17) and consistent with Isaiah’s prophecy of Christ to be Davidic (Isaiah 11:1-2). Also, Jeremiah prophesized that it is the Davidic Christ, through whom, God establishes the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34), and this was fulfilled during the Lord’s Supper on the night before his death (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).
While the First Reading (Jeremiah 33:14-16) points to Christ’s first coming, the Gospel Reading (Luke 21:25-28, 34-36) is certainly about his second coming at the eschaton. And it has a frightening connotation as cataclysmic cosmic events are to precede Christ’s second coming. It will not be a quiet one, like the first coming (Luke 2:1-7). The reason for his second coming to be in such a powerful and glorious yet trembling way is that Christ’s second coming is about the final judgement and redeem those who endure the tribulation because of their faith and destroy Satan to replace the old creation with the new creation, in which his Kingdom’s establishment is consummated (Revelation 19:1-22:5; cf. Revelation 7:13-14; cf. Matthew 24:29-31).
Because we cannot know when his second coming will be, Christ warns us to stay vigilant:
Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:34-36).
If we place ourselves at the time of Mary and Joseph heading to Bethlehem for the Roman census registration (Luke 2:1-5), we would not know when the incarnated Christ would come visible – when the prophesized Christ would come to the scene. Mary and Joseph certainly did not know exactly when the child in her womb would come out, as they did not prepare themselves for childbirth when they journeyed from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census registration.
For this reason, we read this Gospel Reading as we begin not only Advent Season but also a new liturgical year as Christ could come at any moment. So, we heed Christ’s call to stay vigilant to meet him at his coming – his first coming in commemoration and his second coming in anticipation. For Advent Season, in particular, we prepare ourselves with vigilance and hope to welcome Christ into our hearts – so that we will not become weary in waiting for his coming.
The Second Reading (1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2) gives a good suggestion for us to remain vigilant in our preparation for Christ’s coming. It calls us to pray to Christ for our growth in love and for the strength of our hearts to remain vigilant. It also calls us to pray to him for our purity and holiness – to strive to be saints – so that we can welcome Christ in our clean hearts and so that we will be worthy to be his elect to be redeemed at his second coming. For this, we lift up our souls, as we sing in the refrain (Psalm 25: 1b) of the responsorial Psalm (25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14).
Let us endure not only for Advent but for the entire liturgical year with vigilance while we strengthen our hearts and grow in love, purity, and holiness.
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