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Today, as the days become shorter and shorter and the night
seems to
begin to conquer the light of our lives, the Church begins a new
year
as well as a new language, a language fit for a king, a king
whose
coming we await with joyful hope and expectation.
Over two-thousand years ago, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of
the
World, finally came to His people who awaited Him in a type
of
darkness, when he rent the heavens and came down in fulfillment
of
Isaiahs plea in our first reading.
522The coming of God's Son to earth is an event of such
immensity
that God willed to prepare for it over centuries. He makes
everything
converge on Christ: all the rituals and sacrifices, figures and
symbols
of the "First Covenant". He announces him through the mouths of
the
prophets who succeeded one another in Israel. Moreover, he
awakens
in the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of this
coming.
In Advent, we prepare our hearts as did the People of Israel,
making room in our lives
for the King of Kings to come and find a dwelling that pleases
Him. Instead of centuries
to prepare, we have four weeks, so the urgency is obviously much
greater.
But also, as the Church year has just ended, we remember that
Our King, the Shepherd
of Israel, will come in the future to establish his reign.
672Before his Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not
yet
come for the glorious establishment of the messianic kingdom
awaited
by Israel which, according to the prophets, was to bring all men
the
definitive order of justice, love and peace. According to the
Lord, the
present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also
a time
still marked by "distress" and the trial of evil which does not
spare the
Church and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a
time of
waiting and watching.
So we prepare for two comings at once: for Christmas and for the
end of all time. The
Church combines these two periods of waiting and watching
because of their
similarity and, ultimately, their unity. They are united because
Christ established his
kingdom in his first coming within His Church, which he will at
the end of time expand to
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be a universal and everlasting dominion. And in the Gospel
today, our Lord says,
watch!
The image of the nightfall is prominent in our Scriptures, and
has a pretty central focus
in Advent and Christmas. The imagery is used to describe our
life on earth, as a life of
darkness, a constant temptation to fall asleep in our faith.
Falling asleep is exactly
what Our Lord warns us against: Watch! means literally keep
vigil or stay awake
and be on the look-out!
So how can we stay awake as the darkness of the world seems to
enfold us? here are a
few examples to help this Advent:
1. Prayer Increase your time spent in prayer. Use the Magnificat
AdventCompanions that are available to help you increase your focus
on God this Season,
especially when the world tries to desparately to pull you to
focus on other things.
2. Silence Can you embrace the silence that the snow will bring
to nature?Consider turning away from some of the noise in your
life: television, radio, e-
mail after e-mail, excessive shopping or busybodying. In that
silence you will be
able to hear the voice of the King who will come to you when you
are ready for
Him.
3. Acts of Charity - This doesnt only mean helping in programs
such as Toys for Totsor our Advent Giving Tree. As we heard in last
weeks Gospel passage, the sheepand the goats were judged on their
practice of the corporal works of mercy. We
can also include the spiritual works of mercy in our preparation
for the coming of
our king. We can summarize it all in this: acts of charity mean
acts of love loving
God and loving othersas long as we dont let this truth keep us
from being
practical about how we are loving in concrete ways.
Our Lord has come into our world and established the firstfruits
of His Kingdom in the
Church. He will come again at the end of time as the King of
Kings to judge us with truth
and mercy. He comes to us today hidden under the appearances of
bread and wine in
the sacrament of the Eucharist. Have we stayed awake during the
night of our earthly
exile? Can we rouse ourselves to watch and wait for Him? Today
in this sacrament, we
beg of Him for the grace we need to do so.
