November 29^th 2015.  First Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; men dying of fear as they await what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.’

‘Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will be sprung on you suddenly, like a trap. For it will come down on every living man on the face of the earth. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.’

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the first reading we hear wonderful prophecies promising good things for God’s people in the future. But in the gospel, Jesus speaks of a future day of anguish and despair. What is going on here? Does God intend to bless us in the future, or bring about doom? Do these readings contradict each other? No! The fact is that God has wonderful graces and blessings in store for each of us, but these blessings will seem like a curse if we are not prepared to receive them. In fact, Jesus tells us how to prepare ourselves for the dramatic events of the future. We must stand up and renounce debauchery, drunkenness and the cares of this world. Debauchery refers to the way that we squander the good things the Lord has given us. Drunkenness refers to the way each one of us is addicted to the gratification of our senses and our egos. The cares of this world refers to the way we are attached to money, possessions, social status, the admiration of others. If we are living our lives in this self-obsessed manner, then the future coming of Jesus into our lives will be a day of anguish and despair for us! But if we are prepared for the coming of Jesus (by living simple and upright lives of abandonment to Christ), then our future encounter with the Lord will be experienced as a wonderful blessing. Advent is about the future coming of Christ. We must live every day in preparation for his coming. This means “travelling light”, not being weighed down with the cares of this world and with habits of self-indulgence. We must be like athletes focussed on a big event, eliminating everything that distracts us from our goal.

God promises that good things are going to happen to us. But how can we ensure that we are ready to welcome those things?

The first reading is taken from Chapter 33 of the prophet Jeremiah, a chapter that has many consoling and uplifting passages. Jeremiah is talking to a people in exile, a people who has lost everything and seems to be heading nowhere. But God will do something new, the prophet tells them. “In those days and at that time, I will make a virtuous Branch grow for David,
who shall practice honesty and integrity in the land. In those days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell in confidence. And this is the name the city will be called: the Lord-our-integrity”. How are these promises of good things to be realised? In this time of Advent, we too look forward to something good that is arriving. How can we prepare ourselves so that we will not miss the good that is on its way to us? God is always promising good things to us and it is essential that we know how to embrace them.

 The Gospel speaks of a terrible day when everything will be changed. This might seem like a day to be dreaded, but it is a day to be embraced, if we only have the right attitude in life

In the Gospel passage from Luke, we hear of people in great fear and anxiety before the terrible things that are about to happen. What attitude should a disciple of Jesus have in the face of promises such as these? There is an art in learning to be ready for a new beginning, instead of living in a state of fear that things are going to end. There is always goodness in that which comes. There is always grace on its way to us through the events that occur in our lives. How can we make sure that we do not lose this passing grace? Jesus gives us some direct advice. We must stand up straight and hold our heads high. These are symbolic gestures. The psychology of a person can be deduced in part from his posture. We can infer the interior state of a person from the position of his head. Jesus asks us to stand up and combat those negative sentiments that make our heads go down. The human being overcomes the forces of gravity with his upright posture and straight backbone, allowing him to proudly behold the horizon and gaze into the distance. Of course this is symbolic language that does not exclude in any way people who have difficulties standing upright, but the idea is that the grace that comes to us is destined for the most dignified part of us, and we must stand up and be ready to embrace it properly.

 To be ready for the day of the Lord, our hearts must not be weighed down by attachment to the things of this world and to our own titillation. The first thing Jesus warns against is the way we waste the good things we have been given, squandering them in evil or useless pleasures.

To embrace the coming grace, Jesus tells us that our hearts must not be weighed down. What are the things that weigh my heart down? What are the things that slow me down and make me sluggish in life? These weights prevent me from utilizing the good things that life puts in my way. My heart is leaden and slow to respond to the positive stimuli that I receive. Jesus tells us what it is that weighs down our hearts: coarseness, debauchery, drunkenness and the cares of life. Debauchery refers to the wasting of what is good and beautiful. It entails having possession of good things and allowing them to be wasted in evil ways, or exchanged for things that are much less worthy. Each of us should ask ourselves this question: What good things do I possess that deserve to be defended? We all have things in our life that are beautiful and important.

 The second thing that prevents our hearts being ready for the coming of the Lord is our addiction to gratification, the things that indulge our senses and our egos.

Jesus also speaks of drunkenness. This need not refer solely to excess alcohol but also to the way that each of us is addicted to things that titillate our senses and our egos. We waste our time on secondary things, frivolity, a myriad of useless pastimes. We are busy doing ten things at a time, text messages, phone calls, little treats that gratify our senses. When an athlete sets his mind on a great goal, he simplifies his life and cuts out the superfluous. There is an art in managing oneself and not falling in to the habit of trying to do too many things. There is an art in doing only the things that count and leaving everything else aside. But too often we are drunk with the things that titillate us.

The third thing that contaminates our hearts is our attachment to worldly goods. Is my goal in life some earthly good? Money, possessions, social position?

Jesus also speaks of being weighed down with the cares of the world. This can refer to the stress and care that comes with being weighed down by riches and possessions. In this situation of comfort and wellbeing, we are often filled with anxiety. There are three questions, then that we need to put before ourselves. What are the real goods in my life that I must be careful not to squander? What makes me “drunk” in the sense of being a focus of my drive towards gratification? And the third question is what ultimate goal do I strive to attain? Is this ultimate goal something transitory that will be taken from me? Jesus warns us to be careful that the things weighing down our hearts do not fall upon us suddenly. How can I ensure that, on the day of the Lord, I will not have these things fall upon me out of the blue? The answer is simple: just as an athlete trains himself so that he can endure the race, so we too must prepare ourselves so that we are not too attached to these worldly things when the day comes that they are taken from us. Those who are not ready are unable to free themselves from the worldly structure that is collapsing around them. However, those who are ready, those who have prepared themselves by not giving themselves over to debauchery, gluttony and the cares of the world, these people are agile and ready to give up everything. Jesus speaks of those who have made their domain on the face of the earth having difficulty in this day of great transformation. If we remain aware that the earth is a transitory home, then I am ready to go. I do not carry many things around with me, so to speak. Some people, when they go on a trip, take a huge amount of luggage, including things that they don’t need. Good travellers travel light, fully aware that we need little, and that in any case we can find what we need at our destination. We too must be good travellers in the sense of being prepared to live elsewhere, not attached to the life I have here and now. Often, an event happens and our life is turned upside down. We must be ready, we must keep watch and not be deceived by the apparent solidity of these empty things. We must be prepared to be with Jesus. Our entire life is a preparation to meet him. If all of our existence is directed towards being ready for Jesus, then when he arrives we will truly be prepared. If, however, we live for the things of this world, then when Jesus comes we won’t know how to react. Jesus will in that case be an annoyance and a trauma. For those who are ready to depart, life is beautiful and agile, light and enjoyable. When life is fundamentally directed towards the newness that is God, then when novelty comes we are able to embrace it freely.