FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

The gospel for the first Sunday of advent urges us to do two things: to stay awake and to be prepared.

Stay awake! The season of advent invites us to stay awake as we commemorate the birth anniversary of our Lord Jesus Christ who was born over 2000 years ago. Being awake here means celebrating with hope the coming of Jesus in our hearts amidst the experience of loneliness, disappointments, and frustrations of life. It is so easy to sulk in despair. But Jesus who comes to us brings not only consolation to our hearts but also healing so that we can once again experience fullness of life.

We are also called to stay awake for the future coming of Christ because we do not know the day or the hour. Being awake here means anticipating the time when God will judge all of us. When this time comes, we will either receive the gift of eternal life or the punishment of eternal damnation. It can be so convenient to think and feel that we have a lot of time to “sleep” and take it easy in life. In so doing, the many sinful pleasures of the world can lure us and destroy our lives. But when we are always alert and aware of the Lord’s second coming, that the parousia is just around the corner, we know that life has to be lived to the full according to God’s holy will, and we have to help and influence others to live their lives to the full.

Be prepared! Advent is also a season of waiting. Waiting for Christ entails preparation. We can either wait passively or actively. But since it is the Lord who comes to us, we are called to wait actively. How? Like preparing for any important event, we are urged to do our best in everything to lovingly welcome Christ in our hearts.

There are three practical ways to prepare. The first is personal prayer. To be a Christian means to always be connected to the God. Personal prayer is that Christian activity that disposes us to make our lives always in touch with God. When we prayer constantly, we condition our hearts to an experience of communion with the divine, with Jesus Christ himself the source of all life and love. The second is the Eucharist. The Eucharist as the source and summit of Christian life challenges us to become bread broken and shared with others. Every celebration of the Eucharist is a blessed opportunity to commune not only with Jesus but also with the Christian community, the Body of Christ. The third is reconciliation. We should make every effort to reconcile with persons whom we have hurt or those who have hurt us. This means asking forgiveness and offering it too. The road to reconciliation is the road to deeper communion with God and others. These three practical ways become avenues to prepare us to achieve fullness of Christian life.

Let us then stay awake and be prepared for the coming of Jesus Christ in our lives. In the words of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta: “Let us pray that we shall be able to welcome Jesus at Christmas not in the cold manger of our heart but in a heart full of love and humility, a heart warm with love for one another.”



Rev. Msgr. Mylo Hubert Vergara
Pastor
Parish of the Holy Sacrifice,
UP Diliman Campus, Quezon City