1st Sunday of Advent

Be watchful gatekeeper!

Fr. James McTavish, FMVD

Isa 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7 Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19 1 Cor 1:3-9 Mark 13:33-37

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a time of waiting. Waiting for what? It is not easy to wait in our fast moving world of today. The publicity announces “Take the strain out of waiting.” Even the mince pies, a traditional Christmas food in England, have a best before date of November 22! Or as the children sing “Why are waiting, we are suffocating.” In Advent we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Perhaps the wait is not for our downfall but for our salvation. It gives us time to put our house in order. God’s patience is our salvation. The Master is returning to his house. Blessed the servant who he finds doing what he should when he returns.

In the first reading from Isaiah we see the humility of the people. They realize they are nothing without God and they ask for him to return. They ask, “Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?” before pleading for God to visit them: “Return for the sake of your servants.” The people recognize that they need God. The Psalmist has the same cry “Let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.” In our lives do we see the same need for God? Sometimes when we look at our society on the one hand it boldly pronounces that it does not need God. In London there is a campaign to have atheistic slogans put on all the buses: “God probably doesn’t exist so get on and enjoy your life.” It is as if the God of Life is opposed to us enjoying life. What a mindless contradiction. It is also a sign of a society that is falling asleep. If a society does not react to God and tries to ignore him, it does not mean that all is well. A lack of interest in God and not listening to him does not mean that he does not exist. Where God is excluded so is life. If God is not in our lives then quickly we become confused. We need his Word to make sense of our lives. It is like receiving a gift at Christmas. My dad’s favourite advice was “Always read the instructions!” When my mum got a new electrical gadget and did not know how to work it he would ask “Have you read the instructions?” It is obvious that the best way to know how something works is to consult the one who made it. How many times we can apply this good advice to the most exquisite, delicate and complicated “machine” of all – the human being. If we want to know how to function, how to love, how to live difficulties we can consult the instruction manual of the Sacred Scriptures! If in doubt, we can ask God who is our Father and Maker. As Isaiah announces “we are the clay you are the potter.”

To fall asleep is a strong image in the gospel of today. Three times Jesus exhorts the disciples “Stay awake!” ^“Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man travelling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. 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. What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'" Are we able to see where we are falling asleep? It is not easy to see where we are falling asleep. We need to help each other to be watchful. In the gospel the Lord comes “in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning” so during the 4 watches of the night. It is important not to be arrogant and presume that we will notice his coming.

Two thousand years ago the scribes of Herod knew that Jesus was coming from reading the Scriptures but they did not see his birth. Just knowing the Scriptures is not enough. The Word needs to be put into practice. The shepherds listened to the Word announced by the angels and they put it into practice. If we want to encounter Christ this Christmas we are led to him by the star of the Word of God. It lights up the way to his encounter. Christ is a word that is spoken often only in the darkness, in silence. Jesus once said “What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light” (Matthew 10:27). Certainly we can understand the call to stay awake as a call to prayer. The Master will certainly come in the time of prayer in his Word. He is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:8) and asks us to be faithful to what is entrusted to us. Each servant is called to be faithful to his work so that many in the society must get on with their work. But the gatekeeper is especially called to vigilance. The gatekeeper is to be on watch. The gatekeeper is the symbol of all who are called to pray, of all who are called to have a prophetic voice in the society. It is the symbol of every Christian. Prayer is the antidote to falling asleep. Often a person can be made to fall asleep breathing in an anaesthetic. Sometimes the air of the society can anaesthetize us. Let Christ be the air we breathe. Let his Word keep us vigilant. Help us Lord to be awake for our coming. Do not let us fall asleep. Help our hearts be vigilant for our coming, especially to recognize you coming in your Word.

Help us to be good gatekeepers waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ.