30.11.2003 1st Sunday of Advent

First Reading: Jeremiah 33, 14-16

Psalm 24

Second Reading: I Thessalonians 3,12 – 4,2

Gospel Reading: Luke 21, 25-28,34-36

Let us start the liturgical year with a look at the future. Each of the readings and the Psalm will help us. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us of God’s promises which are about to be fulfilled. They spread joy and hope for they are promises of good things! They bring to us a “righteous branch”! God knows that egoism or selfishness reigns in the world and that it renders men, even those in positions of authority, unjust, greedy for money and popularity and always ready to look after their own interests without a thought for the poor and oppressed. He who is to come will transform the world, justice will begin to triumph so as to give serenity to everybody. We wait for him and in waiting, we begin to feel happier for he will surely bring a period of tranquillity.

So we wait… a time for waiting: this is the first attitude to cultivate this year. We know that it is he that Jeremiah speaks of. He has already come, he has already brought his righteousness, entering men’s hearts and transforming them. He has already changed that part of the world that has accepted him. But his work of transformation is not over yet, for those who are born these days still have need of him and there are peoples who still not have heard of his presence! Each generation awaits his righteousness, every epoch awaits him whom we call “the Lord our Righteousness”!

In the Gospel reading Jesus describes to his disciples the situation in the world. The forces of nature and all created things, albeit great and mysterious are a sign of precariousness and are unable to satisfy the deep needs of our hearts and fear and anxiety are on the increase among the populations of the earth. Many people also have difficulty in accepting the changes in the world and the consequent uncertainties, or illnesses with all the suffering involved, and fear of the future often brings with it a death wish or even suicide itself! We live in a world which cannot give man what he needs: what will Jesus’ disciples do? Will they take heed, be careful not to be dominated by those things which give momentary illusion only to drag them into the empty, deceitful satisfactions of alcohol, drugs, sex, luxury, fashion.

The disciples took heed and cultivated prayer in order to be ready and to be able to live the changes with serenity and to accept the end of what seemed to guarantee safety. They await not things or events, but the Son of man, because he gives life and he will judge and examine everyone and everything on the basis of his teaching. They wait with joy, because they know he loves them, and that he has promised them a place beside him. Even St Paul, writing to the Thessalonians recommends pleasing God by living according to the teaching they have received. The main teaching is that of love, that love which makes man similar to God. “And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all men”! That love should be oriented, above all, towards community so that it may shine for unity and communion . The Church does not only have the task of loving others, those who need food and clothes, but must , above all, try to be alive as a community, living charity within herself, being nourished by the Word of God in order to be a spiritually safe building, built in strength: and then the Church’s love for others can be real, true, generous and transmit the love of God the Father who wishes to give His Son Jesus, the Saviour to mankind!

Let us begin Advent heeding and watching as the Word of God exhorts us to do today. We can try to keep a healthy distance from worldly things and, above all to stay firmly by our Lord Jesus Christ! We await him, but he also waits for us and comes to meet us on the path of humility and poverty!