1^st Sunday of Advent (B); December 3, 2017

Is 63:16-17,19; Ps 80; 1 Cor 1:3-9; Mk 13:33-37

Deacon Jim McFadden

         Advent marks the beginning of a new liturgical year. We await the return of Jesus as he is born within us at a deeper level of intimacy and we prepare for that arrival by revisiting his first coming in the little town of Bethlehem. In so doing we remind ourselves as to what our ultimate destination and what our purpose in life are. As we reflect upon the meaning of life, we are challenged to be alert (!)—to recognize the signs of the God who is with us in the here and now.

Advent is not a time of waiting for the coming of the Christ child—that already happened 2017 years ago. It’s rather a time in which we break our normal routine and move into a heightened state of alertness—to be watchful!—to perceive more intensely the ways of Emmanuel, “God is with us.” The watchfulness about which Jesus speaks to us in Mark’s gospel is not waiting in dread for some inevitable outcome, nor is the appearance of a stranger. Rather, it is the attentive listening for the familiar footstep of the returning Beloved who has been loving us from the very moment of our conception and even before that. Jesus is our Good Shepherd: we know him and he knows us. We are awaiting a deeper level communion with him, a deeper sharing of Trinitarian love through Jesus.

For that to happen, the Gospel stresses the Need for Watchfulness because Emmanuel is coming towards us; we need to be watchful, to be alert, to be awake to see with the Eye of the Soul as to how that is happening. If we do and when we walk out of church, we should see people differently because, after all, the Church is the Body of Christ, which means that the Risen Christ permeates each and every member. Your spouse or the person sitting next to you in this gathering could be the master returning; same with your kids.

Farfetched? What do you think it was for Mary when she looked at the child or adolescent Jesus, when he was acting like everyone else. She may have looked at him and thought, “What did I get myself into?” We need to look at our spouses, our children, our neighbor, the people on the street, the refugee, the immigrant, the imprisoned, and the poor differently and ask, “Is that God coming toward me?”

The Mystery of the Incarnation is that God first became human in the historical Jesus. And, when Christ rose from the dead, his divinity is now shared throughout his glorified Body, the Church, who is the People of God. As baptized members of the Body of Christ, we have intentionally been initiated into this shared life of Trinitarian love. At the same time, the Risen Christ is present to all people in all cultures drawing them into communion, which is why we see holiness in many non-Christians. So, the Incarnation really changes everything; we have to be very careful how we deal with all human beings, especially the most vulnerable, because we never know how God is going to visit us.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus will say “stay awake” four times. Scripture is tying to give us listening and seeing skills: listen and see reality and understand as God does. Conform your mind and heart to Christ Jesus, who shows us the Way. Our Lord is not trying to make us afraid, but to make us vigilant. He is encouraging us to see with the Eye of the Soul, with sacred awareness, and not be content with yesterday’s answers and conclusions. He wants us to keep being perceptive because we don’t know when the master of the house is coming.

It’s not easy to stay awake: how do we stay awake?

            To stay awake we need to be people of prayer, who regularly go into the Quiet to be with God in the interiority of our soul. We need to go deeper into Scripture, in which we daily allow God to speak to us directly. As Samuel once said, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening. “ We need to “fully, consciously, and actively” participate in the Sacraments, especially in the Eucharist, because we are the Body of Christ which is continually being replenished by grace. And, we need to serve the poor because Jesus teaches us that he is present among them in a unique way (cf. Matthew 25:31-45).

That’s why we need each other, why we need Church. If we’re not companioning each other on the journey in and through Christ, we probably won’t be able to do it alone. We need brothers and sisters of faith to challenge us, to call us to a higher level of awareness. We need to “STAY AWAKE”!