Homily: First Sunday in Advent

December 1, 2024

My dear brothers and sisters, we are celebrating the Mass of the first Sunday of Advent. Advent season in the Catholic Church is a special season set aside to prepare for Christmas-the holy season we reenact and celebrate the first coming of our Lord Jesus to us as; our God who took human nature to save us. Some usually tend to ask, hasn’t Jesus come already? Why are we preparing as if He is still yet to come? The fact is that Jesus came, Jesus came in history, His coming was a historical fact, but it did not stop there. Jesus continues to come in mystery, our relationship with God is mystical. Jesus is mysteriously present in every event of our life.

This mystery in God is beyond our human mind’s finite calculation of space and time. In the mind of God there is no difference in time when Jesus first came in Bethlehem and our own time. It is only our own small human mind that creates those differences. We remember 2 Peter 3:8; “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.” Psalm 90:4. “For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.”

So, the same abundance of spiritual blessings and heavenly package which Jesus unleashed to those who prepared and welcomed Him the first time He came to the earth, He would pour the same blessings to us when we prepare well for His coming in this Holy season of Advent. People like the Blessed Virgin Mary prepared and welcomed Jesus with faith and she became blessed forever. People like Joseph, John de Baptist, Elizabeth, the three Kings from the East, His apostles, all welcomed Him with faith and their testimonies of Him endured forever. Our testimony will be the same as theirs when we prepare and welcome Jesus like them in this holy season.

This holy season of Advent is also a season when our minds are directed to the second coming of Jesus at the end of time. Jesus will come again in glory. Shall we be ready to meet Him? Shall we be included in that great multitude of Revelation 7: 9 that would be taken from every nation, tribe, people and language who would be standing before the Lamb, robbed in white?

All the readings of today together inform us that Jesus is coming; these readings invite us to be prepared to meet him. The first reading from the prophet Jeremiah tells us of the righteous branch, the righteous one that will spring from the house of David who would execute justice and righteousness. The gospel reading urges us to be on guard that our hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and worries of this life, and the coming of the Lord catch us unexpectedly like a trap. In the Second reading too, St Paul writing to the Thessalonians invites us to a life of love and holiness so that we may be found blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

I remember this story told by Thomas Pazhayampallil in one of his reflections, an engineer once visited a bungalow constructed near a stream. He examined everything and told the owner of the house that the bungalow was in danger because there was an undercurrent. It had been eating away the foundation of the building and the building would collapse any day. The owner of the house did not pay heed to the warning. That night as usual he and the family members ate and drank and went to sleep. That same night the house collapsed, and they all died. We may say the owner of the house is careless and foolish for paying deaf ears to the warning of the engineer, but we behave the same way when neglect all these prophetic alarms that Christ is coming and still live our lives as enemies of Christ. Jesus came, Jesus continues to come in our life and Jesus will come in again in glory. May we prepare ourselves always to meet Him.