The Universal Church celebrates December 03, 2023 as the first Sunday of Advent in the liturgical year B. The first Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of a new Church's year.
The season of Advent is a four-week period before Christmas during which the Church concentrates her attention on our Lord’s coming, a central theme in the Church’s worship. Advent (from the Latin adventus, meaning “coming”) looks back to the first coming of Christ, when he was born that first Christmas in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago, and it looks forward to his second coming at the end of time, when we will meet him and his Father face-to-face in the glory of the heavenly kingdom.
During this liturgical year B, the Gospel readings will come mostly from the Gospel of Mark. Those of liturgical year A, the year that has just ended, came from the Gospel of Matthew and those of liturgical year C will come from the Gospel of Luke. These three Gospels are so similar that they can be placed side-by-side and viewed as it were at a glance: for this reason they are called ‘synoptic’, meaning viewed at a glance. The Gospel of John is the latest-written of the four biographies of Jesus that have been preserved in the New Testament. Unlike the synoptics, whose gospels are heard throughout the liturgical year, John’s gospel is mainly heard at Lent and Eastertide. The purpose of this gospel, as stated by John himself, is to show that Jesus of Nazareth was Christ, the Son of God, and that believers in him might have eternal life.
A number of prominent figures appear in the Advent liturgy. Isaiah’s prophecy is the traditional book for the Advent Season. During this year B, Isaiah monopolises the first readings with some of his most beautiful messianic pronouncements ever. Today, he looks forward to the era of the Saviour that will end suffering and bring joy to his people. In his first letter to the Corinthians, in the second reading, Saint Paul urges his converts to remain faithful to the Lord until he comes again in glory. The Gospel passage from Saint Mark urges us to be on our guard, stay awake and be ready because we know neither the hour nor the day the Master of the house will be coming. Let us pray for the grace of a strong faith so that we can remain awake as we look forward to the Second Coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
First Reading: Isaiah 63:16-17; 64: 1. 3-8.
You, Lord, are our father, our redeemer you are named forever. Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil-- to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence. When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hands.
Comment
Of all the Old Testament Books, pride of place in the liturgy belongs to the Book of Isaiah. Its sublime doctrine on the Messiah and the Suffering Servant of God makes it a natural choice for the Advent preparation of Christmas and the Lenten prelude to Holy Week. As Saint Jerome once remarked, Isaiah is more a Gospel than a prophecy. It leads the collection of Old Testament prophets more for its religious importance and beauty than for its age and size.
A prophet is not specially inspired to foresee the future. He is God’s appointed mouthpiece to his people. To interpret Isaiah, or indeed any of the prophets, it is crucial to grasp the historical backcloth of his work. The struggles and the politics of his day seep into his work.
Isaiah, often considered the greatest of the prophets, was born in about 765 BC of a Jerusalem aristocratic family. He received his prophetic vocation in 740 BC and his long ministry spanned a period of over forty years.
The Book of Isaiah covers three distinct periods of Israel’s history. The first part, chapters 1-39, was written by the prophet himself; the second and third parts were written by other prophets when the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon and after their return from exile.
In today’s reading, Isaiah calls on God to come down to his people and rescue them from the life in exile. God is praised for his past benefits. His greatest benefit to them happened when he formed them as his people at the Exodus from Egypt. Though he heaped untold blessings on them, they still deserted him. So their enemies attacked and crushed them and their lives without God became dry and withered. The prophet begs for forgiveness and reconciliation – “Lord, you are our Father”, he says twice. He prays that God will again bring his presence to his people. His coming will bring great joy to his people, for he is their redeemer and father and they are the work of his hands. As the prophet prays for his people exiled from their home, so we too should pray for our own people, many of whom have been exiled from their homes by this senseless war in the northwest, southwest and northern regions of our land.
Let us pray. Almighty God, grant peace to our people and to our country, so that we may be able to greet the coming of our Saviour with joy in our hearts and the song of your praise on our lips. We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1: 3-9.
Brothers and sisters: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind-- just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you--so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Comment
Saint Paul begins most of his letters with a Thanksgiving section, in which he thanks God for the great blessings he has showered on his converts and prays for their final perseverance in the Christian life – expressed by such phrases as ‘until our Lord Jesus Christ appears.’
A passage taken from the introduction to the First Letter to the Corinthians is more than suitable for the Advent liturgy. Isaiah prophesies great blessings in the messianic times. The Corinthians, more than any other of Paul’s converts, receive the gifts of the Spirit, a proof, says Paul, of the tremendous effect the preaching of the Gospel had among them, and also pledge that their faith in his message will continue until the Lord comes in his great day.
“The day of the Lord,” in Saint Paul’s writings, and in the New Testament, generally refers to the day of the general judgment when Christ will appear as Judge, clothed in glory. Christians actively hope that this day will find them worthy of a place in God’s kingdom. This forms the basis of our faith. Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to give us the courage to forgive one another so that when the Lord comes, he may find us worthy of being forgiven, in turn, and taken into his glorious presence. We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, the Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. Show us, Lord, your love; and grant us your salvation. Alleluia.”
Gospel: Mark 13: 33-37.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore; you do not know when the master of the house will come, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: Keep awake."
Comment
Christian tradition has always attributed the Second Gospel to Saint Mark, who was a disciple of Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas. Although there is evidence that Mark knew Jesus personally, he was not one of the Twelve Apostles. From the Acts of the Apostles, we know that Mark was a cousin of Barnabas, one of the great evangelizers of the early days. Mark is said to have founded the Church of Alexandria, one of the most important Episcopal Sees of early Christianity. He is named in Acts of the Apostles as John Mark, an assistant accompanying Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journeys. His feast day is celebrated on April 25.
From his early youth, Mark shared the vibrant, intimate life of the first Christians of Jerusalem, close to the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles: Mark’s mother and family were among the first to help Jesus and the Twelve. That is that for history.
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. As soon as we hear the word Advent, says Cameroonian Jesuit Priest, Father Kizito Forbi, in his beautiful book, Harden Not Your Hearts, our minds go to preparation for Christmas. We, parents, start to think of what we are going to buy for our children; how much we are going to spend and where we are going to get the money from.
But should we really spend the four weeks that make up the Advent season worrying about material things? Advent is about preparing for the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It is about his coming to judge the living and the dead, as we profess in our Creed. Advent is therefore not preparation in terms of material acquisition; but rather preparation in spiritual terms as we await the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
The Gospel exhorts us to stay awake and staying awake in Christian terms, Father Kizito tells us, means to pray. Pray to be loved by God. Stay awake is a call to communicate with God. Advent is a challenge to compare the amount of time we spend on activities that do not prepare our souls to welcome Christ, and the amount of time we spend on what really matters.
Be on your guard is another call of Advent. It is a call for us not to put off for tomorrow what we should be doing today. It is a call for us to clean our hearts before our guest arrives. How can this done? Through a good confession. We must search in our lives and find those obstacles that hinder us from welcoming Christ into our souls. Are we not ready for Christ because we haven’t blessed our marriage in Church? Are we not ready for him because we haven’t been to confession for the past ten years? And what is stopping us from going to confession?
Advent is a time to find those obstacles to our Christian faith and remove them. Advent is a time for Christians to correct what is wrong in their lives, to be sorry for their wrong doings and confess them.
At Christmas, the world will know we are Christians, continues Father Kizito, not by the number of new clothes and shoes we will be wearing, but rather by how much we have improved in our prayer life during Advent. They will know we are Christians not by the number of people we invite to our homes and drink and make merry with them, but rather by how much effort we have made to attend Mass more frequently and not only on Sundays. They will know we are Christians not by how extensively we shopped during Advent, but rather by how much we have learnt to love one another and forgive one another’s trespasses, difficult though this may sound.
When we go to visit the Lord in the crib at Christmas, we should be able to tell him, “Lord, I saw so many of my brothers and sisters hungry and gave them something to eat, thirsty and gave them a drink, naked and clothed them, in prison and on their sick beds and went to visit them. And the Baby Jesus shall smile at us and say since you have done this to the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. Come into the joy of my kingdom.”
Our charity should be concrete actions and not just mere prayers for, as Pope Francis tells us, “Prayer to God and solidarity with the poor and suffering are inseparable.” The poor are persons; they have faces, stories, hearts and souls. They are our brothers and sisters who have fled this senseless war in the northwest and southwest regions and are now living under very difficult conditions in our city of Douala. As we prepare to welcome our Lord, let us not forget these our unfortunate brothers and sisters who, through no fault of their own, have not been able to celebrate the coming of the Messiah in peace for several years now.
In the words of Pope Francis, let us pray for peace: “Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or our sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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