First Sunday of Advent

Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Lk 21:34-36
November 27, 2022 | Sunday

Today’s Gospel

At the coming of the Son of Man, it will be just as it was in the time of Noah. In those days before the Flood, people were eating and drinking, and marrying, until that day when Noah went into the ark. Yet, they did not know what would happen, until the flood came and swept them away. So will it be, at the coming of the Son of Man: of two men in the field, one will be taken and the other left; of two women grinding wheat together at the mill, one will be taken and the other left.

Stay awake then, for you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Obviously, if the owner of the house knew at what time the thief was coming, he would certainly stay up and not allow his house to be broken into. So be alert, for the Son of Man will come at the hour you least expect.

Today’s Reflection:

Jesus ironically speaks of an end of the age every first Sunday of Advent on which the Church begins a liturgical year. He tells us specifically about an unexpected time at which he shall return and make us account for our life.

More often than not, we tend to overlook that this time is known only to the Father, that it is limited, and that it gets shorter day by day. The evangelists call this tendency “falling asleep” (e.g. Mt 26:40) against which Jesus in the Gospel Reading and Paul in the Second Reading warn us. As an antidote to this tendency, Jesus, as well as Paul, exhorts us to be awake and prepare for the Lord’s return. How?

Let me attempt an answer by clarifying first what Jesus and Paul mean by falling asleep. Both of them use this expression not in the literal sense of drowsiness but in the metaphorical sense of indifference to the Lord’s call to conversion. Jesus recalls how the indifference of those whom Noah called to repent from their sinful ways were caught unprepared for the devastating flood. He then warns us that we too may be swept away unprepared anytime soon, that we may be caught off guard when our earthly life comes to its definitive end.

We must thus repent or change our life for the better not later on but at this very moment. This is easier said than done though. Even Saint Paul admits that he found himself almost always failing to do what he would like to do and doing the very thing he hated (Rom 7:15). Similarly, Saint Augustine prays that the Lord would make him chaste, but not at that very moment, for he still enjoyed being in the state of sin.

Helpful in leading us to actual repentance is a critical awareness of our mortality. We come to terms with the hard truth that death is the only thing that is certain in life when a loved one or a family member suddenly dies. Another stark reminder of the precariousness of life that can help us value every moment of it is a personal experience of escaping death at a split second and a new lease on life after surviving a critical illness.

Truth be told, no matter how healthy and secure we may be, we can never be absolutely sure that we shall still be breathing on the following day. As the philosopher Martin Heidegger says: “As soon as a man comes to life, he is at once old enough to die.” The right moment to change our life for the better, therefore, is now. Turning away from destructive addictions and other forms of death-dealing habits is perhaps the best manner to commemorate the first coming of the Lord on Christmas. It is somehow the best way to prepare ourselves for the unexpected second coming of the Lord. (Fr. Lazaro N. Ervite, OSA) /Vulnerasti, 2022

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