The prophet Isaiah asks some touching questions of God. The prophet questions the Lord, “Why do you harden our hearts, so that we stray from your ways?” Why do you hide yourself, so that we take the wrong path? These are questions that are as valid today as they were thousands of years ago. After all, we have among us people who say, “if I could see God’s presence more clearly in the world, then I would believe.” Others say, “I’m a believer, but if I would see God’s power more clearly, then I would trust Him more.” The first reading makes this plea of God: O Lord, soften our hearts; do not harden our conscience, do not allow us to be overcome by sin. Rend the heavens and come down – show us your presence.
The reading from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians speaks to us of waiting for the “revealing” of Jesus Christ. We are called to wait, we are called to be watchful for the coming of Our Lord. This is one of the purposes of Advent: it is a time when, as the Catechism states, “the faithful renew their ardent desire for [the Lord’s] second coming” (CCC 524). Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, writing on Advent and its purpose, had this to say: “Truly was it then towards the evening, and the day now far spent; the sun of justice was low, and its splendour and warmth had almost vanished from the earth. And the light of the knowledge of the divine things was low, and, iniquity abounding, the fervour of charity had grown cold.” As the days grow shorter; as the temperatures drop; as the snow and the freezing rain begin again, we need to watch for that light, which is above all lights – the Sun of Justice. The candles on the Advent Wreath are small reminders of that glorious Light which we await. Saint Bernard continues, “For the fulness and abundance of things temporal had induced forgetfulness and scarcity of things eternal (Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, M.F. Toal ed., vol. 1, pg. 25, 1957). By this, Saint Bernard is saying that we need to tear ourselves away from the enticing things of the earth – those shiny, nice, and beautiful – and direct our attention to those things which do not pass away.
In the Gospel, our Lord Jesus is asking us to “beware and keep alert” or be ready for His second return in glory. We are to be ready as we patiently wait. There is an art to waiting, to letting things develop, to letting things slowly materialize as we await, for example, someone’s arrival. A mother and father wait for the birth of their unborn child; an artist waits for inspiration for a carving or a painting; a poet or writer waits for an idea for a new poem or story; a gardener waits for the seed to rise; and we, as Christians, wait for the Lord Jesus to come back. As yesterday’s Gospel reading reminded us, we are not to be distracted with dissipation, drunkenness, the worries and anxieties of life. Also, we are not to seek to know the time of the Lord’s return. Says Saint Jerome: “If we men were to know the day of judgement…and that the day of judgement is to come after two thousand years, knowing that it is so far in the future, we would only become more negligent” (The Faith of the Early Fathers, William A. Jurgens, vol. 2, pg. 213-214, 1979). In other words, if we knew the exact date of the Lord’s second coming, we would become careless and figure that “we always have time.” Instead, the Lord Jesus says keep awake, in the here, and the now. As St. Gregory says, in the here and the now “all are required to watch the doors of their hearts, lest the evil suggestions of the devil enter into them, and lest our Lord find us sleeping” (Catena aurea, vol. 2, pg. 217, 2014). So, we need to be mindful of the disposition of soul: our heart and our mind.
I would like to end with some words on Advent from Pope Benedict XVI. He wrote, “The liturgical season of Advent celebrates the coming of God in its two moments: it first invites us to reawaken our expectation of Christ's glorious return, then, as Christmas approaches, it calls us to welcome the Word made man for our salvation…each one, at a time known to God alone, will be called to account for his life.” How do we prepare for this accounting? Pope Benedict continues, “This involves a proper detachment from earthly goods, sincere repentance for one's errors, active charity to one's neighbour and above all a humble and confident entrustment to the hands of God, our tender and merciful Father” (Benedict XVI, Angelus, 30 November 2008).
Let us ask Mother Mary to live well these days of Advent, as we wait and watch for the arrival of the Lord.
(Fr. Paweł Ratajczak, OMI, Dec. 3, 2023)