First Sunday of Advent
Be Watchful and Vigilant
Happy New Year, everyone!
That’s the cliché Catholic joke you might hear this First Sunday of Advent because Advent marks the beginning of the new liturgical year for the Church. We move from what is called Year B where we focused on the Gospel of Mark to Year C with Luke’s Gospel.
Out of all our liturgical seasons, Advent is probably my favorite. We mark the passing of each week by lighting another candle on the Advent wreath, illustrating how the coming of Jesus, the light of the world, is growing nearer. We celebrate with fun, memorable traditions, such as opening Advent calendars with gifts each day, adding a new ornament to the Jesse Tree symbolizing a Biblical story about an ancestor of Jesus, leaving out shoes for St. Nicholas, or following Mary and Joseph on their journey to Bethlehem during Las Posadas.
The first two weeks of Advent call our attention to the second coming of Christ, while the last two weeks recall his first coming.
The Gospel for this First Sunday of Advent feels like Luke could have written it today. Roaring seas, dying of fright, the anxieties of daily life, and imminent tribulations. I’m sure we have all experienced some of those things during the pandemic.
Personally, I can speak to the “roaring of the sea and the waves” of the Gospel. My hometown, Lake Charles, Louisiana, was battered by back-to-back hurricanes in 2020. Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 hurricane and one of the strongest to hit the state, came first. Then Hurricane Delta hit just a little over one month later. I went home to help my parents survey the damage shortly after Hurricane Laura, and it looked like a warzone where several bombs had gone off. Large trees were snapped like toothpicks, electrical lines were dangling across roads, and people’s homes and businesses were demolished.
If you live in Southwest Louisiana during hurricane season, you must, as the Gospel instructs, “be vigilant at all times.” It could be the difference between life and death. The past several months have been difficult for the people of Southwest Louisiana. They also suffered through the winter storm in February, and just when a lot of residents had finally completed repairs from the hurricanes, a historic flood once again destroyed property, followed up by a destructive tornado in October.
You couldn’t blame the people there for losing hope after going through all of this. But the people of Southwest Louisiana are resilient in spirit. We, too, are called to be resilient in spirit, for Advent is a season of hope and expectation!
While the Gospel might worry us with talk of the powers of the heavens being shaken, the Prophet Jeremiah assures us in the First Reading of God’s kindness and care for us, describing his intent to fulfill his promise to his people. “In those days Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem shall dwell secure.”
Pope Francis said in 2018, “Advent invites us to a commitment to vigilance, looking beyond ourselves, expanding our mind and heart in order to open ourselves up to the needs of people, of brothers and sisters, and to the desire for a new world. It is the desire of many people tormented by hunger, by injustice, and by war. It is the desire of the poor, the weak, the abandoned. This is a favorable time to open our hearts, to ask ourselves concrete questions about how and for whom we expend our lives.”
Amid the terrible devastation of the hurricanes in Louisiana, I witnessed incredible generosity. I saw it in the out-of-town volunteers who brought supplies. I saw it in the chefs who cooked hot meals like jambalaya and refused payment. I saw it in the neighbor who brought bottled water to the overheated family next door as the whole region tried to survive the brutal summer heat of August without air conditioning. These were people looking beyond themselves, expanding their mind and heart in order to open themselves up to the needs of people, of brothers and sisters. They were, as St. Paul writes in the Second Reading, increasing and abounding in love for one another and for all.
Advent reminds us that our life is in waiting. Pope Francis said last year, “God always answers: maybe today, tomorrow, but he always answers, in one way or another. He always answers. The Bible repeats it countless times: God listens to the cry of those who invoke Him. Even our reluctant questions, those that remain in the depths of our heart, that we are ashamed to express: the Father listens to them and wishes to give us the Holy Spirit, which inspires every prayer and transforms everything. Brothers and sisters, in prayer there is always a question of patience, always, of supporting the wait. Now we are in the time of Advent, a time that is typically of expectation; of expectation of Christmas. We are in waiting. This is clear to see. But all our life is also in waiting. And prayer is always in expectation, because we know that the Lord will answer.”
Let us go forth into this Advent season in prayer and expectation. Let us practice waiting instead of falling into the rapid, hectic rush of the holiday season. And let us reflect on ways that we may bring the hope of Advent to people we encounter.
Jesus.
You came into our world with all its sorrows.
Keep us watchful for your presence
in the midst of our struggles.
Tell us again that your
love will triumph.
Make us vigilant. Put our hearts on alert.
Let us be aware of all the places
in our world where
you are.
In all beauty.
Anywhere there is love.
In helping hands reaching out.
Come,
Lord Jesus, to all the dwellings
in our lives where
you are not
yet.