REFLECTION Sunday´s Gospel

1st Sunday Advent A

(28 Nov 2010)

Fr James McTavish, FMVD

Expect the unexpected!

So we start a new liturgical year with the first Sunday of Advent. We have a few weeks to get in shape, to get spiritually fit, to lose a few pounds of unwanted baggage and have the manger of our heart in tip top shape for the coming of the Lord. Are you excited? Sometimes not so much and that is why we have to pray and prepare. The Lord exhorts us in the gospel today “Stay awake! You must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” (See Matt 24, 37-44)

It is important to stay awake. This week I got a taxi from the airport to downtown Manila. Being sleepy I was dozing off until I seen the fare – triple what it should have been! It is important to stay awake. One German seminarian I know was told that the Bishop would come. When he told his fellow seminarians that he did not know what he looked like they told him to just keep an eye out for the guy with the mitre, the staff and a big Bishop’s cross. He was waiting at the main gate of the seminary and hardly noticed a man arriving in jeans and T-shirt. Imagine the seminarians surprise when he got a call 10 minutes later telling him that the Bishop was already in the seminary. Yes, the guy in the jeans and T shirt was the Bishop! Perhaps God will come in a way we will not expect and that is what we have to stay awake.

In the film called the Nativity, the 3 wise men arrive at the scene of the manger. One of them said “Look, the King of Kings in the most humble of places.” Many missed his coming 2000 years ago. Will it be any different today? This is why we need to prepare well our hearts for the coming of the Lord. In the military there is the adage of the 5 P’s – “Previous preparation prevents poor performance.” Let us prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord, flattening the hills and filling in the valleys to make straight his path.

When we talk of the coming of the Lord we can think of the first coming, his birth as a little infant over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem. There is also the second coming, at the end of time, when Christ will come again in all his glory, the cosmos will end, the dead will rise and there will be the universal judgment. When this will be Jesus said only the Father knew. Many sects have gained popularity by predicting the day and the hour of this second coming. Perhaps the coming that we have to stay awake for though is the coming in the here and now. Let us listen to the words of a twelfth century Saint, Bernard of Clairvaux – “We know that there are three comings of the Lord. The third lies between the other two. It is invisible, while the other two are visible... In case someone should think that what we say about this middle coming is sheer invention, listen to what our Lord himself ways: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him”... If you keep the word of God in this way, it will also keep you. The Son with the Father will come to you.”

An attitude of vigilance keeps us attentive and on our toes. Sometimes surprises come along. Many were surprised at the comments of Pope Benedict XVI on the use of condoms for HIV/AIDS prevention. How great that the Pope is not afraid to dirty his hands with contemporary moral issues. Fr Ronald Rolheiser once said that good theology is not meant to be a safe non-contact sport. Theology needs to get bruised by reality, especially by suffering.” The Catholic Church is in a good position to speak about the suffering of HIV/AIDS. After all which organization takes care of more than 25% of all cases of AIDS in the world? Yes, the Catholic church. Pope Benedict XVI said that if a HIV infected prostitute uses a condom then it is the first step towards in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility. It does not mean in any way that he is advocating condoms for artificial contraception. We will follow this debate with keen interest and give a big thumbs up to B16 (as Fr Stan the rapper affectionately calls him) for not being afraid to enter into this important debate. As the letter of Peter reminds us - to always be ready to give reasons for our faith.

This time of Advent is a time for our expectations to grow. How wonderful if our attitude could be like the novel of Charles Dickens – Great...expectations! Isaiah the prophet of the first reading today (Isaiah 2, 1-5) has great expectations for the coming of the Messiah – “He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”

How are our expectations for the coming of the Lord? When the Lord comes things change, things cannot remain the same. Imagine the power of the Word when we let it enter into our hearts. Today's second reading is from St Paul's letter to the Romans (Rom 13, 11-14). It was the passage that coverted Augustine! Let us listen to his conversion story "I felt that I was still enslaved by my sins, and in my misery I kept crying, ‘How long shall I go on saying “Tomorrow, tomorrow”? Why not now? Why not make an end of my ugly sins this moment?` I was asking myself these questions,weeping all the while with the most bitter sorrow in my heart, when all at once I heard the sing-song voice of a child in a nearby house. Whether it was the voice of a boy or a girl I cannot say, but again and again it repeated the chorus, ‘Take it and read, take it and read’. I stemmed my flood of tears and stood up, telling myself that this could only be God’s command to open my book of Scripture and read the first passage on which my eyes should fall …I seized it and opened it, and in silence I read the first passage on which my eyes fell: ‘No orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy. Take up the weapons of the Lord ]esus Christ; and stop giving attention to your sinful nature, to satisfy its desiresf I had no wish to read more and no need to do so. For in an instant, as I came to the end of the sentence, it was as though the light of faith flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled.”

May the coming of the Lord in his Word not leave us unchanged or indifferent. Let us prepare the way of the Lord! Jesus is coming! Let us prepare the manger of our hearts to receive him. Amen