Today we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent. We begin the new liturgical year. During this year we hear the Gospel as told to us by St Mark. But do not think that we hear it the same way as we did three years ago. This is a new year; we are older and hopefully wiser.
We begin our new year with the Season of Advent. It is a season in which we prepare for the celebration of the anniversary of the coming of Christ into our world. It is a season which looks back to that most central of all events; the one which was the effective beginning of our redemption.
But it is also a season which looks forward. It looks forward to the second coming of Christ at the end of time. We already heard last Sunday about the final judgement; in this season of Advent we learn how to prepare ourselves and in the liturgy we express our longing for the Kingdom to come. It is a season in which those words in the Our Father, “Thy kingdom come,” are especially significant
In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” In the Gospel selected for today Jesus tells us to be on our guard and to be ready for that day because we cannot know when it will come. All we do know is that the Master will certainly come and that we must prepare ourselves to be ready to greet him.
So, during the next four weeks as Catholics we should not only prepare for Christ Birthday, but for our final day here on earth as well. We have to prepare ourselves For God’s Love. Because out of Love, God gave us a wonderful gift – His only Son to save us. God has revealed his face to us in the person of Jesus Christ. He is in our lives constantly guiding and protecting us. He invites us to trust in him and place ourselves in his hands just like clay in the hands of an expert potter.
If we place our trust in him he will surely shape our life and make it a thing of beauty and lasting joy.
How we will respond to Gods Love in our preparation it is up to us. Either we will rush into Christmas and not be prepared for That Big event, or we will change our hearts, and when the time comes we will be ready. We will be ready with our childlike Love, which is so precious because is not faked, or we will want to sleep through Christmas, not wanting to do anything, because our energy was spent on something that was less important than love for our Lord Jesus Christ.