Introduction: The readings in the early Sundays of Advent always carry forward the "end of the world" theme from the last Sundays of the previous year, the 33rd and Christ the King, thus linking each ending year with the one following it. Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the ‘Sunday of Hope’ in God and His Son Jesus Christ through whom God has promised to save and redeem His people. Today we begin our yearly re-enactment of the drama of our salvation, starting with the mystery of the Incarnation (Christmas) and culminating in the celebration of Christ’s ultimate victory (Christ the King). It is our yearly pilgrimage through the scenes and events of our history of salvation. Advent is a time for looking both backward and forward. We look backward as we prepare to celebrate the historical birth of Jesus. At the same time, we look forward to his ‘Second Coming’ as we prepare ourselves to welcome him into all areas of our lives during the advent season. In the Eucharistic Acclamations we profess our faith in Jesus’ Second Coming: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again;" and in the Creed we proclaim our belief that “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” One Bible scholar has estimated that there are 1,845 references to Christ’s second coming in the Old Testament and 318 references in the New Testament. We see the traditional signs of Advent in our church: violet vestments and hangings, dried flowers on the altar, and the Advent wreath. We light a candle on this wreath each Sunday until all four are lit. These signs remind us that we are waiting for the rebirth of Jesus in our hearts and lives in love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness.

Exegesis: The context: Matthew’s audience was mostly made up of Jewish converts to Christianity. These Christians were ridiculed and ostracized by their Jewish friends who had not accepted Christ as the Messiah, and they wondered why some Jews were selected to become Christians and others not. To clear their doubts Mathew quotes Jesus in today’s gospel suggesting the apparently arbitrary nature of the election on the last day. Just as at the time of the Deluge, Noah and his small family were spared while others perished, so shall it be at "the end." This emphasis on the unpredictability of election may have helped Matthew's Jewish Christian audience deal with the fact that many of their fellow Christians were recently despised Gentiles. This apocalyptic section of Matthew’s gospel begins with Jesus' prediction of the destruction of the Temple, and goes on to Christ's Second Coming, and the signs preceding both. Jesus answers the disciples by giving them signs of the end of the age (24:3-8), foretelling persecutions (24:9-14), and recalling of the sacrilege prophesied by Daniel (24:15-28). Jesus also tells the Parable of the Fig Tree (24:32-35) in which he warns his disciples to be alert and prepared.

The need for preparedness: The consistent warning in today’s gospel text is that we should be prepared for the coming of the master. Our text indicates that the end will seem to be a peaceful and normal time, with people eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and working in their homes or businesses. In this routine normal life, it might be easy to forget the "coming of the Son of Man." In a reference to the story of Noah, Jesus says that the sin of the people was placing too much emphasis on the normal cares and necessities of life. They were too concerned with eating and drinking – just as we are during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's holidays. Jesus reminds us that there is something more important than feasts or weddings: the Son of Man could come to us either in the form of our death or at the end of the world at any time. Since God may show up without an appointment, we must be prepared at all times.


Be alert even while you work: The man working in the field and the woman working at the mill will be “left", because they won’t leave their work. True enough – work is important. We need to provide food and shelter for ourselves and our families. But there is something more important than our work: the coming of the Son of Man. God may arrive unexpectedly. We don't know when a thief might break into our house, so we are prepared for him at all times. We lock our doors and windows. We leave a light on when we're gone. We insure our possessions. We do things now because a thief could come at some unknown time. Hence, even during this busy Christmas season we must keep our daily life centered on Christ.

How do we prepare for the unexpected coming of the Son of Man? In this parable of Jesus we have an example of the proper and improper methods of waiting. The faithful slave who, with sincerity and good management, has faithfully carried out his master's instructions to ensure the welfare of his fellow slaves (20:26-27 is always ready for his master's coming. In contrast, the wicked servant is primarily concerned with power, food and drink. The master is the image for Jesus. To be prepared for his coming (Mat. 24:3, 36-43) we must be obedient to the divine will, which means that our actions must serve the community. The question we might ask is: "Am I being faithful and wise in caring for others while waiting for Christ's return?" The text reminds us that our preparation for the Incarnation of our Lord is only one aspect of our Advent preparation, and not necessarily the most important. Let us remind ourselves of the need to be prepared for our Lord’s return in judgment without "doomsday paranoia" on the one hand or complacency on the other.

Messages: 1) An Advent project to be alert and watchful in the spirit of today’s gospel. Every morning when we get up, let us pray, “Lord, show me someone today with whom I may share your love, mercy and forgiveness.” Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, "Whatever you do in your family, for your children, for your husband, for your wife, you do for Jesus." Every night when we go to bed, let us ask ourselves, “Where have I found Christ today?” The answer will be God’s Advent gift to us that day. By being alert and watchful we’ll be getting an extra gift: Christ himself. There is a saying which goes s back to St. Thomas Aquinas: "Without God, I can't. Without me, he won't."

2) Be wakeful and watchful: We are so future-oriented that we frequently forget the present entirely. We spend too much time trying to protect ourselves against future misfortunes. We save for a rainy day, to get married, to buy a home, to send the children to college, to retire in comfort and to protect ourselves against future misfortunes with varieties of insurance. But we need to be more spiritually wakeful and prepare for our eternal life. Let us make this advent season the time of such preparation.

Stay Awake!
Gospel Commentary for 1st Sunday of Advent

By Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap

ROME, NOV. 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The first year of the three year liturgical cycle, year A, begins Sunday. Matthew's Gospel accompanies us through this year.

This Gospel is characterized by its ample reporting of Jesus' teachings -- the famous sermons, such as the Sermon on the Mount -- and its attention to the relationship between the Law and Gospel (the Gospel is the "New Law"). It is also considered the most "ecclesiastical" Gospel because of its account of the primacy of Peter and because of its use of the term "Church," which is not encountered in the other Gospels.

The statement that stands out among all others in this Gospel of the First Sunday of Advent is "Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. […] So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." We ask ourselves why God would keep hidden something so important as the hour of his coming, which, for each of us, coincides with the hour of death.

The traditional answer is: "So that we will be vigilant, each one of us supposing that it will happen in his days" (St. Ephrem the Syrian). But the principal reason is that God knows us; he knows what terrible anxiety it would be for us to know beforehand the exact hour and to await its slow, inexorable coming. It is that which causes the most fear in regard to certain illnesses.

Today there are more people that die of unforeseen heart problems than those who die of incurable illnesses. But the latter cause more fear because they seem to take away the uncertainty that allows us to hope.

The uncertainty of the hour should not cause us to be careless but to be vigilant. If the liturgical year is at its start, the civil year is at its end. This is an optimal occasion for a sapiential reflection on the meaning of our existence. In autumn, nature itself invites us to reflect on time that passes. That which the poet Giuseppe Ungaretti said of the soldiers in the trenches on the Carso front in the First World War holds for all men: "They are on the trees as leaves in autumn." They are ready to fall at any moment. "Time passes," said our Dante Alighieri, "and man pays no attention."

An ancient philosopher expressed this fundamental experience with a celebrated phrase: "Everything is in flux." Life is like a television screen. The screen is a kind of palimpsest, one program follows and erases the previous one. The screen is the same but the images change. This is how it is with us: The world remains, but we come and go, one after the other. Of all the names, the faces, the news that fills the papers and television today -- of me, of you, of all of us -- what will remain in a few years or a decade? Nothing of nothing. Man is nothing but "a design created by a wave on the sand, which the next wave will wash away."

Let us see what faith has to tell us about this fact that everything passes. "Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever" (1 John 2:17). There is someone who does not pass, God, and there is also a way for us not to completely disappear: Do God's will, that is, believe and follow God. In this life we are like a raft carried along by the current of a roaring river headed for the open sea, from which there is no return.

At a certain point the raft comes near to the bank. It is now or never and you leap onto the shore. What a relief when you feel the rock under your feet! This is the sensation often felt by those who come to the faith. We might recall at the end of this reflection the words left by St. Teresa of Avila as a kind of spiritual testament: "Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you. All things are passing. God alone remains."

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

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Father Raniero Cantalamessa is the Pontifical Household preacher. The readings for this Sunday are Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44.