"So too, you also must be prepared"
Matthew 24: 37 - 44
At this time of year shortly after our national day of
Thanksgiving and the famed “Black Friday” retail rush towards Christmas we find
ourselves presented with the relatively short Advent season. It may seem to put
a temporary damper on the growing Christmas spirit. Colored lights are shining,
Christmas carols are heard over car radios and in stores, trees are decorated
in public places, people are sending electronic Christmas e-cards over the
internet or still doing it the old fashioned way by actually buying Christmas
cards and writing in them and lines are noticeably longer outside the post offices. The annual
month long season of Christmas is upon us.
Let’s face it this extended nearly two months of pre-Christmas
talk has nothing to do with the spiritual side of the holiday. It’s all about the economy and how willing
Americans and others are to keep the money flowing, especially at the highest
and most profitable retail season of the year.
While it’s wonderful to buy gifts generously for others it is sad to
think that the size of the prize is the most important thing. Our faith must be the gatekeeper in order to
face us in the right direction.
So in our Churches we see the more subdued color of purple and
a wreath with four candles that are only lit gradually over nearly four
weeks. No nativity scenes and the signs
of Christmas out there in the market place are yet to appear in all their
beauty in our worship space. To make
matters even more challenging our Sunday scripture readings take on a more “not
yet” theme.
If we listen carefully we hear a tone of longing and waiting
rather than here it is
celebrating. So, we find a tension
between our faith and the secular world.
It’s Advent in our Christian faith but do we simply leave that at Church
and get on with everything else that is Christmas when the Mass is over? If we
do, we haven’t yet captured this time. Advent provides us that reminder and
opportunity to spiritually prepare for the coming of Christ.
With the beginning of this new liturgical year, we have another
opportunity for personal change. The mystery of God made human, the
Incarnation, is truly an astounding belief. What scripture implies pretty
obviously is that God deliberately of his own divine will chose a time in human
history to insert himself among us. He
left the freedom of the spiritual world and accepted the limitations of his own
creation. He chose to reach down, to walk the same earth we do, to get his
hands and feet dirty and pierced by nails on the cross, to embrace human
suffering and bring the good news of God’s desire to reorder all things and
bring his kingdom will on earth in our midst.
In other words, To say Jesus is our Savior is to look back
thousands of years to a time when the ancient Jewish people heard the words of
Isaiah in this Sunday’s first reading: “In
days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the
highest mountain . . . all nations shall stream toward it . .”
In rich imagery Isaiah, the prophet of the Messiah, hundreds of
years before the coming of Jesus, offers a divine promise that God will set all
things right; that a broken world will be healed, that, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise their sword against another, nor
shall they train for war again.” God will intervene and bring about a
profound change in human history or so it sounds.
But, we wonder if and when that time will be because the world
around us has not yet become that “highest mountain” of light. For the ancient
Jews they held on that God will eventually flesh out his promise. Now, four
weeks before Christmas 2019 Advent once again reminds us both to get ready and
to reflect on what has happened but also to hope for what hasn’t yet – for that
same Christ to come again.
So, the Gospel from Matthew this Sunday is rich with “be
prepared” images. We hear of Noah, aware
of God's warning yet those around him who were simply complacent and imagined a
never ending life of satisfaction and pleasure.
While Noah was tuned in to the signs of his time, the voice of God in
their midst, the general population was asleep.
Jesus states, “Therefore, stay
awake!” Be ready and watchful for
the coming of the “Son of Man.”
What God has done to humankind when he sent his Son, our
Savior, has offered us the power to make the image of Isaiah a reality. As
Isaiah speaks today of a city where “the Lord’s house” is established as the
“highest mountain.” Jesus referred to
his followers as a city on a hill where “your light” should shine for all to
see. He called himself the “light of the
world” and that we should not hide our light “under a bushel basket” but the
good works we do in his name become an inspiration to others and that by doing
so we draw others to that mountain.
He said that we must “forgive our enemies” and be “peacemakers.” Isaiah speaks of a time of peace and
reconciliation between waring forces that will lay down their arms for the
cause of peace and will “walk in the light of the Lord.” Jesus told his followers to find non-violent
ways to respond to violence rather than add fuel to the fires of hatred,
division and fear. To imagine such a transformation in human history is to
realize that we alone do not have that power so we invite God to work in and
through us.
The point of all this is that God is constantly at work in our
midst and that in Christ Jesus he has visited his people and invited us to a
new way of life. Therefore, the warning against indifference and laziness in
the Gospel is forever timely.
So, this time we have called Advent is the moment to wake up
and reflect on the mission Jesus has given to all of us and to slow down a bit
rather than be frenetic about all the stuff of Christmas. To be missionary
disciples in the world is our invitation so when he comes among us again we are
ready to welcome him.
While we transform our homes we can shine the light of good
works to bring joy, the ornaments of prayer should be hung on our days this
December and the tinsel of patience can shimmer as we slow down a bit and take
time to reflect on who has fulfilled the hope of Isaiah and how we can play a
role in making that seen in our world.
Christ is among us in our celebration of the Eucharist. Grab this season of longing and hope. May we
transform ourselves in his light so that the coming celebration of God’s
personal intervention in human history will be different than last year.
"Let us then throw off the works of darkness
For he assumed at his first coming
the lowliness of human flesh,
and so fulfilled the design your formed long ago,
and opened for us the way to eternal salvation . . .
(From Preface I Advent)
No comments:
Post a Comment