2.12.2007 - 1st Sunday of Advent
- Year A
First Reading Is 2,1-5 from Psalms 121 Second Reading Rm 13,11-14 from the Gospels
Mt 24,37-44
The topic for the new liturgical year is "the Creed"
"When the Son of man comes will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke
18,8) Jesus' question effects me strongly. Did Jesus foresee the weakening of
faith? Over the centuries and in various nations Christianity has spread but
in some regions it has diminished and even disappeared. What will the faith
of our nation be like in the coming years? Will there still be people who live
the love of the Lord Jesus? The only reply we can give is a renewed commitment
to base our lives and all our choices on the faith which was given to us, the
faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God! When I believe, I help those around me
to see their lives in the light of the Lord's words. If I decide according to
the faith, clearly, I help others to do the same! I would like to answer to
Jesus' question; "Yes, Lord, you will find faith on the earth! You will
find my faith and that which I have helped spread: come, Lord Jesus!"
The term "faith" renders concrete our attitude when we believe. Believe
is the verb for faith. Faith is something you have, or that you would like to
have, and to believe is what we do to express our faith. It is significant that
John in his gospel, never uses the term faith, only - and very often - the word
"believe". Perhaps he wants us to understand that we should not elude
ourselves that one has faith once and for all, for it is a relationship of trust
in God which exists only when you put it into action. When I say "I believe"
it means that I know that I am not alone, but that I live in a relationship
with God, that I give him my trust and, therefore, am serene because he carries
me in his arms. Trust is absolute and therefore, to say "I believe"
means that I consider true what God has revealed of himself or communicated
through his Word, his Son Jesus Christ.
"Come, let us climb the mount of the Lord, to the temple of the God of
Jacob, that he may show us his ways and that we may walk along his paths".
To begin the Liturgical Year is like setting off to climb the mount of the Lord,
that mountain where it is possible to meet God, that God who has made himself
known in the lives of mankind. He has established with them alliances to make
himself known as Father and friend, protector and educator as he was with Jacob.
We are setting out to meet him and to receive his teachings. We are setting
out to walk on those paths on which we are sure to find him, that is, on those
paths that he himself has show us through the words of the prophets and, in
particular, of Jesus. We are sure that the paths of God are the best, those
where our humanity can be fulfilled both as individuals and as nations. On this
path, which begins every year, we will have various moments of waiting, of recognition,
of listening, of identification and of immersion in his love in order to receive
it and to give it! These moments are Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost
and all the time we receive as a gift to be able to fulfil our mission. We will
live these moments, these stages in a new manner, enriched by the new experiences
that have marked our lives. God has put us in the world to transform it. It
is immersed in war and fighting which makes it a place of fear and suffering
and death. That was not God's intention when he created the world and hence
our task to transform "swords into ploughs, lances into scythes",
so that peace may reign on earth. Let us make the effort to walk the ways of
the Lord not just to achieve peace for ourselves, but to immerse the whole world
in the Father's love and the Son's obedience. We will not live under the illusion
of thinking we can change all the world in a short or even a very long time.
But with our love for God and our faith we might help someone to be illumined
by that same light and love.
People are very distracted by their jobs and material needs and seldom think
that one day they will leave this world. This forgetfulness renders them superficial
and weak and worse, incapable of discerning the times, like that ninety year
old man who told me only yesterday of his hate for a person who had cheated
him of a meter of land. He didn't realize that that hate was stopping him from
enjoying the meters he had and, above all, that it was stopping him attaining
the beatitude of God's servants when all is over! St Paul tells us to awaken
from our sleep; it is to be asleep not to be able to see things and deeds, both
beautiful and ugly in God's light and on the path which should bring us to him.
The apostle exhorts us not to be found "in the middle of debauchery and
drunkenness, in law cases and full of jealousy"! Jesus is the clothing
inside of which we can place our lives; his word and his love are a greater
life than the pleasures of the world. They only create arguments and fights;
the Word of the Lord, on the other hand, brings harmony, order and brotherly
communion.