Our Gospel from St. Luke today is a little unsettling. Not very Christmasy. Unseasonal thoughts about the end of the world. Yet, the word Advent from the Latin, adventus, means “coming.” The Church tells the Christmas Story backwards: the focus is to prepare for the coming of the Lord: at the end of the world, and when Christ comes for us at the end of our individual worlds, at death.
Listen to his words about the end of the world: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
That’s vivid imagery.
There was one priest who was describing this final day with great drama. “Thunder will boom,” he cried, “lightning will strike, rivers will overflow, the sky will be in flames! There will be mammoth storms, floods, and earthquakes!”
A little girl in the congregation looked up eagerly at her mother: “Mommy?” she whispered, “will I be let out of school that day?”
For Christ to be exalted in the world, the world must first be disrupted.1
However, it’s easy to say that doomsday is in the distant future; however, our eternity is today. Advent is our preparation to meet Jesus Christ immediately when we die. That can be unsettling and produce fear.
To illustrate: Stephen Montgomery said:
“I have a friend who remembers the days when his wife and two small children were able to drop him off at LaGuardia Airport in New York and go outside on the deck to watch the plane depart. They would see their father board the plane, watch while the
plane taxied down the runway, and then set their sights on the aircraft as it took off, growing smaller and smaller until it disappeared into the sky. When the oldest child was about four, it came time for the whole family to take a trip on an airplane. He was unusually anxious as the day approached, full of energy and apprehension. After they had boarded the plane and buckled their seatbelts, he tightened up and began to scrunch up in his seat as the plane taxied down the runway.
"What are you doing, son?" his mother asked.
'I’m waiting to shrink and disappear."2
Since Advent tells us that Jesus will come with power and great glory, what should my relationship with him be now?
Watch! “At any moment you must make an eternal choice,”3 by how you are living your live right now; in God’s grace or not.
St. Luke, in our Gospel today, says that God will make some choices between the righteous and the unrighteous, and that some will inherit heaven, and some will not.
We are warned against being overly stressed about work and life, called by Our Lord, “the anxieties of daily life,” and by any sinful habits that dull our awareness of God's presence and purpose for our lives, so that "that day" does not catch us like a trap. It’s a test of our dominant concerns.
Vigilance over self—
Not to do any carousing and drunkenness, especially as holiday parties are upon us, which promotes a Christmas that will leave one feeling empty and jeopardize our standing in confidence when the Lord comes for us if they become occasions of sin.
Vigilance also means continuing to work faithfully at the appointed tasks of our vocations, remembering to also volunteer during Advent to help those in need.
Prayer is alertness:
We must remember with St. Paul that as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26). At Mass we are in the actual present: the best way to prepare to meet the Lord.
Advent asks us to reflect:
What conversion of mind, heart, and life is the Lord asking of me?
What events and situations in the world create fear and concern in my heart?
What anxieties or circumstances in my daily life make my heart drowsy?
How can I wake my heart to love of God and neighbor?
When am I least attentive to God and neighbor?
Humans do not live by needs alone, but by hopes. Hope is an act. It resides in the will; its object is eternal happiness by God by growing daily in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Nothing necessary will be lacking if we have the will to watch, be vigilant, and pray.
1. Ronald F. Marshall, Christ as a sing of contradiction: Lectionary Texts from the Gospel of Luke for Advent through Lent, PRO ECCLESIA Vol VI, No 4. Pg. 482
2. Stephen R. Montgomery, Beyond Fear, Fundamentalism, and Fox News: The Active Hope of Advent, Journal for Preachers, January 1, 2005, pg. 8
3. Reginald H. Fuller, Advent Sunday Readings, Worship, January 1, 1971, pg. 557
