First Sunday of Advent, Year C, 28th of November 2021

 May we in this Eucharistic celebration pray the good Lord to give us the grace to always be ready to welcome His coming in our daily lives.

Happy Sunday!

 DOCTRINE AND FAITH 

Jeremia 33, 14-16;Thessalonica 3, 12-4, 2; Luke 21, 25-28.34-36)

 First Sunday of Advent, Year C, 28th of November 2021)

 Advent begins today, the time of preparation for the coming of the Lord. It is a time for Christmas preparation, and also a time for preparation for the last coming of the Lord. In fact, the readings of this Sunday speak more of the second coming of the Lord than of the first.

In the first reading you can see an announcement of the Lord’s coming at Christmas. In fact, in an oracle of the prophet Jeremiah it is communicated that God will fulfill the promises of good that he made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, and that he will make a sprout of justice sprout from David. The term to sprout suggests the preparation of a birth: the birth of the Messiah, who comes to save. But he also comes to put justice everywhere, because without justice there is no salvation. Therefore, this Messiah will exercise judgment and righteousness on earth. And in those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in peace. Jerusalem will be transformed; it will be called Lord-our-justice. We have a wonderful prospect here, God’s gift of justice. God’s kingdom is nearby.

 The other readings deal with the second coming of the Lord. Speaking to the Thessalonians, Paul invites us to prepare ourselves for our Lord Jesus coming with all his saints; and in the Gospel Jesus makes predictions about the end times and gives advice on how to prepare for them. Even if the last day is not about to come immediately, we must always be prepared every day for the coming of Christ into our lives, and especially at the time of our death.

 In the Gospel Jesus announces terrible signs, a time of anguish: “There will be signs in the sun, in the moon and in the stars […] and men will die for fear and for the expectation of what will happen on earth. That is, there will be a time of tremendous upheaval: The powers of the heavens will be upset. In these circumstances, Jesus asks us not to be frightened, but be confident and full of hope. He says, when these things begin to happen, lift up your head, for your deliverance is near. It is, therefore a question of events that accompany liberation. We are not made to always live attached to the goods of the earth: we must be freed, to live in the freedom of love, and generous life. We Christians have every reason to be optimistic, even if things are bad. We know that in all circumstances Christ intervenes, in a mysterious but an effective way, for our salvation and liberation. Jesus then adds some important warnings: Be very careful that your hearts do not become heavy in dissipations, drunkenness and worries of life and that day does not fall upon you suddenly. It is necessary to be vigilant in order to be prepared.

 In today’s world there are many occasions for distractions, as well as excesses. There is the uncontrolled quest for materialism. There is also the pursuit of power, especially, political power where people think they can do whatever they want. The distraction of corruption stares one in the face in our society. There are other evils, which come from other excesses: for example, alcoholism, an evil that spreads throughout the world: the pursuit of sexual pleasure, which causes disorder in many lives and families. So, we have to be careful, avoid following wrong paths, which lead to perdition. We are loved by the Lord. For this we must respond to his love with gratitude and faithfulness. We must not have any reason for mistrust, or anxiety; on the contrary, we are certain of being able to escape every evil that could happen to us, because, united with Christ, we have the strength to overcome all the difficulties.

In the second reading, Paul presents us with a very positive perspective, based on God’s grace: the perspective of growth in love, of abounding in love.

 He addresses this wish to the Thessalonians, who have recently become Christians: May the Lord make you grow and abound in love for one another and for all, as is our love for you. This is the fundamental orientation of our life, to which we must always return. God’s commandment and the commandment of mutual love (Love one another as I have loved you), and grace impels us to grow in love, and abound in it. We must have the ambition to make love overflow. When we encounter difficulties, instead of retreating, we must go on and find ways to overcome them. We must also overcome hostilities by means of generous love, based on the grace of God. Love is above all mutual between children of God who became such in baptism and live from the Eucharist, which brings divine life into them. But, as Paul tells us, love must be directed to everyone, even to non-Christians, non-believers, and even to those who harm us. We must try to contribute to the salvation of all.

The time of Advent is a time of growth in universal and missionary love. Therefore, at this time it is good to pray for missions, because Christ must be born in mission countries, to fill the hearts of those who do not yet know him. So many people need Christ and they don’t know him yet. We must pray for them, and in so doing we thus manifest, our universal love. Love is universal. In fact, it comes from God, who has universal love. To imitate the universal love of God we will have to make our hearts steadfast and attuned to imitate the holiness of God and aim at his universal love. This is a very high ideal. We cannot be satisfied with a level of mediocre spiritual life, but we must try to reach perfection in holiness, which is a holiness of love. This means that our love is to be inspired and guided by God himself, in the way that pleases him, that is, in the way of selfless, generous, pure love. Then we will not have to be afraid, but will be calm in the moment of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul continues, asking the Thessalonians to progress on this stays away: We pray and beg in the Lord Jesus: you have partaken from us how to behave in a way that pleases God, and so on you already behave. Paul is not unaware that the Thessalonians are fervent Christians, behaving well, according to the instructions given to them by the apostles, but he says: Be sure to always act like this; distinguish yourself even more. There is always a movement towards being better. Moreover, Paul uses here, in Greek, the verb to abound: it is necessary to abound, to do better and better, with the grace of God.

We begin Advent with these very dynamic perspectives. The Lord comes, he comes to save; and will also come one day come with judgement, and we must always be ready, to get salvation from him rather than condemnation. We must be careful to truly live the Christian life, avoiding living a materialistic, consumerist life in which hearts are burdened in dissipation, and drunkenness. Instead, we must live, generously, in the love of the king, docile to the grace of God, which prompts us to abandon ourselves in mutual love (in the family, in the parish etc.) and in the love of the universal king. This will be possible, if we are united to Jesus heart, which is filled with universal love. Thus, we prepare very well for Christmas, which will bring us all great joy. +John I. Okoye.

(graphics  by Charles O Chukwubike)