First Sunday of Advent - Mark 13:33-37

First Sunday of Advent
Be Watchful! Be Alert!

“But of the day or hour, no one knows,
neither the angels in heaven,
nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32)

Our new liturgical year is Year B with most of our Sunday Gospel readings taken from Mark’s Gospel. Today’s Gospel from Mark 13:33-37, gives us a message and a reflection for the first week of Advent. “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” In this Gospel, Jesus uses the parable of the traveling land owner to drive home the point that we must live our life in a state of constant watchfulness for none of us know the time when we will be called to meet our Creator and give an accounting of our life.


“It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.” Here Jesus represents the man traveling abroad. We are the servants, who have each been given gifts (talents) and a charge (task) that we are to perform while we live and wait for the land owner (Jesus) to return.


“Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.” We do not know when Jesus will return so we must not be complacent, but persevere with the task the land owner (Jesus) has given us until His return. Be Watchful! Be Alert!

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First Sunday of Advent - Gospel Matthew 24:37-44

First Sunday of Advent 

December 1, 2013
November 27, 2016
December 1, 2019

The start of Advent falls on the Sunday closest to the Feast of Saint Andrew, November 30.  This is also the beginning of the Church’s liturgical year, her “New Year’s Day,” a time when the Church asks us to prayerfully reassess where we are spiritually. Are we ready to meet our Lord at the end times or the end of our life?

Each year the Advent readings focus on two events, the anniversary of Our Lord’s First Coming in Bethlehem on Christmas, and his Second Coming, Judgment Day.  This Sunday all three readings point to the end of the world.  They remind us to wake up, be ready, and maintain our relationship with God so that we might be ready to meet him when he comes.

“Be sure of this:  if the master of the house had known the hour or night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.  So you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”  (Matthew 24:41-44)

Whether or not the world ends during our own lifetime, is not for us to know, yet our lives will come to an end at some point. Advent is a time to reflect on how prepared we are for our own personal Judgment Day, the day when we will meet our Creator and have to account for every moment of our lives.

At times I have been guilty of thinking that I am in control of my life, I know what is best for me, etc. - the Holy Spirit reminds me constantly that I am not.  That God is in control, I belong to Him, and He knows far better than I what is best for me. We all belong to God. He gave us this life and He gives us a purpose. 

Advent is a good time to reflect on the past year. Have I used the gifts God graciously bestowed on me for His glory, for His purpose?    I try to make a morning offering daily to God - of all my thoughts, words, and deeds to be for God's glory and for His purpose.  I still fall far short.  Yet I have faith (God is so merciful) that this will make me more prepared (hopefully) to meet Him at the end of my life, or the end of time.    

Tonight light the first candle
 in your Advent Wreath.

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First Sunday of Advent

December 2, 2012
November 29, 2015 

First Sunday of Advent

"God knows the human heart...
and so he never ceases to knock
at our door like a humble pilgrim."

The Church year begins with the First Sunday of Advent, the closest Sunday to the Feast of Saint Andrew, November 30.   Last year, Liturgical Year B, we read mostly from the Gospel of Mark, this year, Liturgical Year C, our Gospel readings will come from Luke. 

  

The readings from Advent, the spritual season of hope, focus on two events, the anniversary of Our Lord’s First Coming in Bethlehem on Christmas, and his Second Coming on the Day of Judgment.

Today’s Gospel from Luke 21:25-36, points to the end of the world, the Day of Judgment. “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory….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."

Advent is a time when the Church asks us to prayerfully reassess where we are on our spiritual journey, where we are in our own personal preparations for our day of judgment, the day when each of us will ultimately stand before our Creator and account for our life’s actions? If he came back today, would he catch us by surprise caught up in the "anxieties of daily life," or would we be ready to meet him? Today's Gospel is my subtle reminder to stay awake and be ready, to re-examine my journey, my relationship with God lest I be caught by surprise.

"At stake is the relationship between existence here and now and what we call the hereafter...Man is the one creature free to say 'yes' or 'no' to eternity, that is, to God. The human being is able to extinguish hope within him eliminating God from his life.  God knows the human heart...and so he never ceases to knock at our door like a humble pilgrim...This is why the Lord grants humanity new time:  so that everyone may manage to know him!  This is also the meaning of a new liturgical year which is beginning: it is a gift of God, who once again wishes to reveal himself to us in the mystery of Christ, through the Word and the Sacraments."  Pope Benedict XVI

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First Sunday of Advent

November 29, 2009

First Sunday of Advent

Advent, (Latin ad-venio, to come to, arrival or coming) begins the Church’s liturgical year, therefore it can be called our “New Year’s Day,” it also begins the Christmas cycle, where we prepare for the arrival of Our Lord. Advent starts on the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Andrew, November 30. With “the earliest evidence of this season coming from the end of the fourth century, when Gaul and Spain observed a period of preparation for the newly inaugurated Feast of Christmas.”[1]

The Advent season gives us an opportunity to look back to the first coming of Christ at Bethlehem, and look forward to the future when Christ will come again. It is between these two events we now find ourselves, striving to live out the purpose of our existence; God’s reason for giving us life, our reason for being. This is a time to prepare not only for Christmas, but also for the Second Coming of Christ. “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing….and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.” (Luke 21:34) We must be awake and watchful, lest He find us asleep.

First Reading Jeremiah 33:14-16

Responsorial Psalm 25
Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Light the first candle in your Advent Wreath

_______

[1] Encyclopedia of Catholic Devotions and Practices, Ball, page 29