A blessed new Liturgical Year to all! Today we begin a new Year with the Season of Advent. New beginnings, especially in our journey of faith, offer something exciting and hopeful, a chance to renew and to start over.
We enter into Year A, so our Sunday Gospels will be taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew. Our excitement at beginning the new Year, however, is tempered by the Church’s choice of turning not to the beginning of the Gospel, but to a chapter near the end, chapter 24 out of 28. In fact, the theme of today’s Gospel is the end times. It seems that the Church is asking us to begin with the end. How do we do that?
The Word of God guides us by referring to the story of Noah, which comes from the beginning of the Bible (cf. Gen 6-9) but was an end of sorts as well. According to the ancient story, “When the Lord saw how great the wickedness of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their heart conceived was always nothing but evil… the Lord said: ‘I will wipe out from the earth the human beings I have created’” (Gen 6:5, 7). The Lord, Creator of all, deciding to wipe out humanity! What a frightening way to begin a new year!
Jesus’ point in recalling this incident, however, is not destruction but salvation. He is aware of the danger that we might live without concern for our spiritual survival, just as the people did in Noah’s time. They paid no attention to the loving warning of the Lord. Alas, they carried on with their worldly ways, “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage… until the flood came and carried them all away.” Only Noah listened and responded to the Lord.
St. Paul also is aware that we all face the danger of failing to heed God’s message. Therefore in today’s second reading he exhorts us to “awake from sleep,” to “throw off the works of darkness” – such as orgies and drunkenness, promiscuity and lust, rivalry and jealousy – and instead to “put on the armor of light.” This new Season is a new opportunity for us to “conduct ourselves properly as in the day.”
The Gospel makes it clear that different choices lead to different consequences: “one will be taken, and one will be left.” By alerting us to look to our end, the Church gives us an opportunity to make a new beginning, a new and better choice. An essential part of the choice that we are to make, as Jesus tells us, is always to be prepared.
This is what Advent is all about. Its Latin origin adventus means “coming”; it is a season of anticipation. While the festive Christmas Season looms on the horizon, with get-togethers and parties galore, we must remember that now is the time to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” The liturgical color of the Advent Season is violet, the same color as Lent, which reminds us that part of preparation is self-discipline and reparation.
Another choice that the Gospel tells us to make is to “enter the ark” like Noah did. What does this mean? The “ark” is symbolic of the Church, our refuge and our salvation (cf. CCC 845). The Church is also prefigured by the “house of the Lord,” mentioned today in both the first reading and the Psalm. Isaiah prophesies that many peoples shall come and say: “Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, / to the house of the God of Jacob, / that he may instruct us in his ways, / and we may walk in his paths.” And the Psalmist joyfully declares: “We will go up to the house of the LORD… Let us go rejoicing to the house of the LORD.”
As we start the new Liturgical Year, then, we are being invited to enter the ark, to climb the mountain, to go up to the house of the Lord. These are all ways of describing our preparation for the coming of our Savior. To make progress on the journey requires that we stay spiritually awake. It is time for us to open ourselves increasingly to the Lord and decreasingly to the world. At times this is difficult, like climbing a mountain, but it is the Lord’s mountain, so we begin with rejoicing as we wait for the Lord to show us his love and grant us his salvation (cf. Gospel Acclamation).
In what areas of my life do I need to “awake from sleep” so that I can better prepare for Christ’s coming? Am I living more for worldly advantages or for the fulfillment of heavenly promises? How can I “enter the ark” this Advent – entering more deeply into the life of the Church?
Excerpt from The Anawim Way, Volume 22, no. 1. More information about The Anawim Way may be found here.