1st Sun of Advent: Year B....Isaiah 63,16b-17.19b; 64,2-7; 1Cor 1,3-9; Mark 13,33-37

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Isaiah 63,16b-17.19b; 64,2-7; 1Cor 1,3-9; Mark 13,33-37: 1st Sun of Advent: Year B)

The Season of Advent commences this Sunday and the liturgy of this period shows immediate and future perspectives. The immediate one is to dispose us to celebrate worthily and solemnly the feast of Christmas that commemorates the historical coming of Christ, the incarnate Son of God into the world. The future perspective looks forward to the time when Christ will come again in his glory at the end of time. The Church may be considered as a community of believers marching towards God, a community in expectation. The Christian can be described as one who is living in time between. He can be described as one who is anxiously waiting for the return of the Lord. We exclaim after Consecration: We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.  Indeed, Jesus wishes to return to us at any given moment, today, now. He wishes to come to me in order to remove from me what remains as attachment to sin and things that do not conform to the desires of his heart. He wishes to come to the Church to make her his spouse, ever beautiful and without stain or wrinkles. He wishes to make his presence felt in the fabric of society through the purifying effect of his Gospel.  

It is, perhaps, because Jesus is the Lord who comes and who is to come that the gospel reading of today insistently calls up the theme of vigilance, thereby implying that we should be vigilant. Vigilance is to be seen as an interior attitude of attention, waiting and desire for the coming of the Lord and meeting with him, because no one knows the precise time the Lord will come, when the master of the house will return, vigilance means also constant solicitude to welcome the Lord. Even though, the future perspective of the coming of Christ looks into the future when Christ will be manifested in his glory, and we with him, vigilance does not mean that the Christian should show disinterest in the affairs of the world and present realities; it is not evasion of our daily duties. On the contrary, it means showing a high sense of responsibility in the duties assigned to each of us as Christians in our various states and vocations of life, just as the master of the house assigned specific duties to the servants according to their capabilities. It also means developing, enhancing and bringing to fruition the talents God has allotted to us and for which we must render account. Vigilance in the evangelical sense, implies struggle against the insinuations and ramified temptations of Satan. Vigilance in relation to Christ’s coming into our souls and our lives indicates attention and promptness in welcoming him as we encounter him in His Words (the Scriptures), the Sacraments, the teaching voice of the Church, his ministers and the good inspirations that come to us. Evangelical vigilance also include welcoming Jesus in the poor that needs help, the sick, the marginalized and the downtrodden. It also means seeing Jesus in my wife, husband, children, parents in the family. As a member of the society I am supposed to serve as civil servant or as politician. Vigilance means teaching Jesus well as the pupil or student in the school; not cheating Jesus who comes to buy from me or sell to me in the market. In short, vigilance include seeing Jesus in every human being we encounter and heartily loving him by making sacrifices on his/her behalf as if we were doing it directly to Christ himself (Recall the reading of last Sunday: the scene of the last judgment, Matt 25,31-46).

    This invitation to vigilance is not to be postponed. It is rather urgent, for the time is short and the Christian do not know at what time Christ will come. The Christian does not know when the opportune time, kairos, would break in upon him/her. The time of Advent helps us to prepare for this most important time. Advent period in itself also kairotic, being a period fraught with special and abundance graces. It is therefore, a period of prayer, charity, reconciliation with one another, purification of our souls through the Sacrament of Confession and by frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist. All these will make us march together with the Church in confidence towards the great feast of the birth of Christ at Christmas and also towards his definitive second coming. May we pray to the good Lord that He may  grant us the graces of spiritual vigilance, pour his abundant blessings on all of us in this Liturgical Year and grant us a grace-full Advent. 

Happy Advent Season! Happy Sunday! 

+John I. Okoye.