Homily for the First Sunday of Advent (Year C)
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For all its beauty, the Season of Advent has a peculiar quality about it. While living our Faith in the present moment, we are constantly looking back in time to the historic events of Salvation History surrounding our Lord’s First Coming, as well as looking forward to the Great Unknown of the Lord’s Second Coming.But notice how the words of God the Father, predicting the Lord’s First Coming, differ greatly in tone from the words of Our Lord Himself, predicting His own Second coming:Father : “I will fulfill promises…”“I will raise up a just shoot…”“Jerusalem shall dwell secure…”Son: “Beware…”“Be vigilant…”“Pray that you have the strength to escape tribulation.”This difference is presented to us because the Lord’s First Coming is all about Redemption, and His Second Coming is all about Judgment. But Redemption and Judgment are the work of the same Jesus Christ, so we look forward to the Second Coming not so much in fear, but in confidence, because He who comes to judge is the same One who first came, in love, to redeem.Confidence is not the same as presumption because presumption is based in ourselves in a self-centered sense of entitlement, while confidence is based in the word of the Lord in a Christ-centered hope for mercy.So, while secular society has turned Christmas into a months-long Birthday Bash in which the participants receive gifts rather than the Guest of Honor, we observe Advent, primarily as a remembrance of the beginnings of Redemption.We can lose focus of the meaning of both the Season now begun, and the Feast day which lies ahead, because the anxieties of daily life, and of holiday preparations can, in some ways, anesthetize us in our spiritual awareness, thus the need for the vigilance and prayer of which Our Lord speaks.Although thought of the coming Judgment could strike terror in even the holiest of hearts, we need not sink into fear or dread, because, aware of His Eucharistic Presence, we rise toward Christ who has promised to be with usuntil the end of time. This awareness, this human presence alongside the Divine Presence, in the vigilance to which Our Lord calls us, is the milieu of Divine Redemption as lived in our humanity.Therefore, thought of the Coming Judgement shouldn’t frighten us; it should strengthen us because we grow not in presumption of what we might have merited for better or for worse, but in confidence of the Divine Love of Him who has redeemed us with justice and mercy that are nothing less than benign.So, Advent retains a certain penitential character:+ the Celebrant at Mass wears violet:the liturgical color of penitence…+ we light violet candles on our wreathwith the lighter shade of roseon Gaudete Sunday…+ we place a greater emphasis on the Penitential Rite,reciting the Confiteor and chanting the Kyrie…+ the hymns we sing in Adventare mostly written in a Minor Key,full of bridled hope and expectation —and —+ the Scripture Readings we hearare future-oriented… full of promise.Advent, well-lived, suspends us in a certain timelessness that reveals to us a hint of God’s eternal Being, simultaneously looking backward and forward, entering more deeply into a graced present moment that allows Redemption to grab hold of us so that faith becomes a way of life, lived in love for God in the present, and in hope for heaven in the future.So, we look to the past with faith, not nostalgia, and we look to the future with hope, not fear… or worse: with indifference. This makes of our life a perpetual Advent — that is — an ongoing making-self-ready to welcome the Lord into our lives.Live this Advent well, then, this season of peace and strength amid the headlong rush to Christmas. Go to Confession when you can, so as not to fear God’s judgment, but to celebrate Christmas in the State of Grace, meaning:a participation in the very State of Redemption.