First Sunday of Advent

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 24:37-44.

Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 
In (those) days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark.
They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be (also) at the coming of the Son of Man. 
Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.
Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. 
Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. 
So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
   

Reflection

We still find people lining outside Apple stores just to be one of the privileged ones to get their hands on an iPhone ahead of all creation. New technologies give us the craze these days. New features make us itch for the newest iteration of our gadgets. That Christmas is coming means many of us will be making our Christmas lists and fattening our wallets for the ultimate holiday shopping.

New things excite us because anything new brings with it hope. We want to be hopeful in this life. We want our lives to become a little better, a little bit lighter, a little bit easier. Sometimes we think that new technologies gives the solution to today's problems. But most of the time they bring with them their own new problems! But even so, we hope, we dream, and we strive.

The new liturgical season brings with it a new hope. This Sunday, the Church renews her cycle of worship synced with the life of Christ. It is the first Sunday of Advent and we are four weeks away from Christmas. Excitement is in the air. Rightly so, because Christmas is an event that brings with it great Hope. Advent prepares us to receive this Hope.

It is with a sense of mystery that the Gospel today speaks of the coming of the Son of Man. The title "Son of Man" is often used in the Old Testament, mostly in Daniel, to refer to the longed for savior of Israel, the Messiah. St. Matthew uses the title for Jesus. Here, Jesus speaks of his future coming at an hour we do not expect.

When we speak of hour we mean a time divinely set to fulfill something. Several hours have been set by God: our conception, our birth, and our death in the same way Jesus' hour of conception, birth, and death have been thought of by the Father before all the ages. The Church reminds us today of the threefold meaning of the hour of Jesus' coming.

The first hour was Jesus' birth which inaugurated His entrance into human history and with it the inauguration of our salvation won at the Cross. It has happened two thousand years ago and what we remember every Christmas. Yet it happened silently and peacefully without much fanfare. The second hour happens throughout our lives, when Jesus chooses to break through our lives. God surprises us with His Grace through events and people that lift us up and restores in us hope. Jesus lamented the fact that Jerusalem failed to recognize the hour of her visitation and He wept. The third hour is in an indeterminate future, in the final and definitive coming of Christ. No one really knows when despite the many claims of end-of-the-world that people have made.

The Gospel, however, does not speculate when these hours do happen. What it teaches us is to prepare because we do not know when the hour will come. We prepare for Christmas with the Advent season, preparing our hearts to receive Christ through repentance, going to Confession, and acts of charity. We prepare for Christ everyday by opening our lives to Jesus through a life of prayer and personal relationship with Him. And we prepare ourselves for our death and the future coming of Christ by living our lives well and holy.

This Advent season and Christmas shouldn't be something that happens every year in the same way it happened last year. Let us see our Christian lives in an ever closing spiral with Jesus at the center. As we go through His life throughout the year, from His birth, through ordinary life, together with His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, may we find ourselves getting closer and closer to Him every year.