We have come to Advent at last, to a new day in a new year of the Church and to a time of expectation. We could not know a year ago what we would have to suffer, individually, as members of the Church, as families and as a world family. Imagine that you could go back to this time last year and speak to yourself on the first day of Advent 2019, would you have believed all the things that would occur before the first day of Advent 2020? In light of our experiences between that day and this, what can we know about what may be coming and how to prepare for it? What should we look out for? How shall we wait?
In the first reading the prophet Isaiah gives us the key to our waiting. We are not looking out to see what is coming but rather Who is coming. In this reading the prophet begins our new year with a prayer of praise, affirming that God is our Father, our Lord and redeemer, and that He has always been who He is:
‘You, LORD, yourself are our father, Our Redeemer is your ancient name’
At times we lose our first devotion and wander away. In this situation Isaiah’s prayer is a prayer of penitence as he shows us what happens to us when we turn from God. At times our hearts grow cold and hard so that we lose even the instinct to call out to God, or the desire to seek Him, or to stand with the prophet, lifting our hands in prayer, trembling before God’s righteousness, remembering all His blessings, longing for His mercy and seeking His hidden face.
The one who Isaiah longs for, the long awaited Messiah, is coming and he will reveal the face of God. He is Jesus who is the ‘image of the unseen God,’ the Son of God who came first in humility as an infant and who will come again ‘in glory.’
In Mark 13, which today’s Gospel reading is taken from, Jesus teaches his disciples that we may not know the time of this second coming. He has just told them about the coming destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and later Peter and Andrew, James and John ask Him questions about the future and the signs they are to look for in order to know when the time for this event has come. He speaks of a time of suffering and persecution, of the ‘birth pangs’ which will come before the joy of his return in ‘great power and glory.’
The sufferings and persecution he speaks about are daunting but Jesus reassures His hearers that afterwards his faithful people will see him coming to gather them from all parts of the world. We do not need to be afraid of the pains, we may look forward like a pregnant woman who waits for her labour to begin, feeling anxious and yet looking forward to the arrival of the child she longs to see and hold at last.
So Jesus tells us to be ready at all times, to ‘Be on your guard, stay awake’ for the day when He comes to us.
We pray that Jesus will give us the grace to be vigilant. We do not know what may come but we do know Who will come, and so we want to be caught burning with love for God (not sleeping!) and so infused with His Holy Spirit that we never cease longing for Our Lord Jesus Christ.
[Readings: Is 63:16B-17, 19B; 64:2-7; I Cor 1:3:3-9; Mk 13:33-37]
