1st
Sunday, Advent, Year
A •• Isaiah 2:1-5 •• Psalm
122 •• Romans
13:11-14 •• Matthew
24:37-44 ••
[__01__] Waking up early – being awake and alert
-- is an advantage to us in terms of
mobility, productivity. This is true whether we speak of honest or dishonest
objectives, honest or dishonest goals.
[__02__] In the
Gospel, Jesus emphasizes ALERTNESS.
In the Gospel,
Jesus our Lord speaks of the thief’s arrival at midnight, later, or
sometime around ZeroDarkThirty.
The thief moves more rapidly at night. The thief may be
alone on the street
[__03__] During our Advent season, starting today, we
are reminded to stay awake, to remain alert.
The possibility of a thief trying to access our
house-door or hard-drive is presented to us.
And, of course, if you and I had
known the hour when the hacker would gain illegal access, then we would never
have opened that email or clicked on that attachment.
INTERNET-SCAM EXAMPLES
-- “You have just won a million dollars…” OR … “You will inherit a large sum of
money if you follow these instructions…”
[__04__] Jesus also wants to protect us, his
disciples, speaking about the anti-theft device or firewall which is
represented – in the Gospel – by a…
·
Guard
·
Soldier
·
Member of the household
But, he is not simply trying to protect them from harm.
Jesus also wants to prepare us to receive the Holy Spirit, to be awake and
alert to God’s will in our lives..
“Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your
Lord will come.” (Matthew 24:42)
[__05_] Are we not willing to wake up early or earlier to avoid
difficulty or to gain material rewards, a financial bonus, deal,
We will go out in the dark…just to be in the black…
To go from SLUMDOG to MILLIONAIRE. Early birds get
worms. But it’s not always easy to be early, to be alert.
Doing so, we struggle against –
·
TEMPERATURE .. especially the early morning
cold of December and winter
·
MOBILITY – it may be difficult to move at
an early hour, due to our fatigue, exhaustion.
·
VISIBILITY – it is difficult to see before
dawn, before sunrise.
To live as Jesus taught, to love God and love our
neighbor, to pray for those who persecute us, to pray for those who cause us
difficulty, this is dying to self.
We come to prayer, to Sunday Mass, for help for
alertness ..under these conditions and circumstances of…
·
Temperature
·
Mobility
·
visibility
[__06__] TEMPERATURE/COLD
This is not only a thermometer reading but also an
encounter with rejection, by another person or persons or group, at times.
We face the cold of another person’s selfishness, sin.
There is a temptation to avoid this cold or to turn
away from the Good-News ALERT to stay awake, by not trying, or by not
stretching ourselves, by hitting the SNOOZE…by not giving.
[__07__] MOBILITY
In the dark, early morning, it may be hard to move
around or start moving.
And, do we not experience times of decreased motivation
or discipline in our lives?
We may simply surrender to the inertia of
disappointment. We don’t move
[__08_] DARKNESS
We come to Jesus, to church and to his sacraments in
times of personal darkness, for
forgiveness.
This forgiveness enables us to put aside – as St. Paul
writes – to throw off the deeds of darkness.
Telling our sins in confession, at Advent, is an
opportunity for all of us to start anew.
It is also an opportunity for us to move with greater
confidence even if it is still dark outside.
With forgiveness of our sins, with a clean heart, we
gain God’s light and wisdom.
In this regard, at every hour of night and day, we stay
awake with our Lord and for our Lord.
This is the action of death and of resurrection to new
life. This dying and rising life began with Jesus and continues with you and
me.
As St. Paul writes to the
Thessalonians, “he died for us, that all of us, whether awake or asleep, together might
live with him.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:9-10) [__fin__]
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