November 27^th 2016. First Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL: Matthew 24:37- 44

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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: Matthew 24:37- 44

Jesus said to his disciples:
“As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
In those days before the flood,
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage,
up to the day that Noah entered the ark.
They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.
So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.
Two men will be out in the field;
one will be taken, and one will be left.
Two women will be grinding at the mill;
one will be taken, and one will be left.
Therefore, stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

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

Kieranàs summary . . . Advent is a time of preparation for the celebration of the coming of Jesus, both in the Incarnation and when he returns at the end of time. In the Gospel on Sunday, Jesus speaks of the coming of the Son of Man, and compares it to the days of Noah. At the time of Noah, everyone continued eating, drinking and getting married right up to the end. This is relevant for each one of us, for you and me today. Jesus will come to all of us sooner or later. Will he find that we are entirely preoccupied with eating and drinking and satisfying our various appetites? Or will he find that we are already living in profound relationship with him, ready to welcome him? The fact is that the Son of Man comes to us regularly in the shocks and upsets that we encounter in life. These are the ways in which the Lord tries to clear the fog from our eyes and draw us closer to him. In reality, Jesus comes to us every day, but often we do not heed his coming. The Gospel speaks of pairs of people working in the fields or at the mill. The Lord comes and takes one away, leaving the other. The Lord comes to me every day. Do I allow myself to be taken away by him to a new level of relationship? Or do I remain in my own mediocrity, satisfying my appetites? In the end, the issue is this: Who is the master of my life? If it is me, then I will not welcome the coming of the Lord. The coming of the Lord will be like the coming of a thief who is not wanted. But if Jesus is the master, then I will be ready for his coming. I will accept the upheavals and shocks of life in faith and trust, drawing me into a deeper relationship with him.

Advent is a time to prepare for the celebration of the Incarnation. It is also a time to consider the end of our own earthly lives when the Lord will come again

This week we enter into the glorious season of Advent with a reflection on the end of life, the passing away of all things. The first reading from Isaiah 2 says that “In days to come,
the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills”. On that day we will learn the Lord’s ways and follow his paths, and the Lord himself shall come to be our judge and arbiter. Our swords shall become ploughshares and our spears pruning hooks. What a beautiful image, a picture of peace, wisdom and growth! All of this leads us into Advent, which has two aspects. One aspect concerns the parousia, the final coming of the Lord, whilst the other aspect concerns the period of preparation for the Incarnation of Our Lord which we celebrate at Christmas.

Like the people in Noah’s day, we run the risk of being too fixated with our biological needs, rather than on the ultimate significance of things.

In the Gospel Jesus says, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man”. The case of Noah is a striking one for Jesus to use. It was a world just two steps away from disaster, but everyone acted as if everything was as normal. They ate, drank and married right up to the day Noah entered the Ark, and no-one expected anything. This story illuminates a risk that we run in our present state of life. Sooner or later the Lord will come for us and this earthly life will end. The day that we will die is coming rapidly, but other days are on the way too – days when our existence is shaken, when we are challenged to change direction in life, when serious and grave things happen to us, prompting improvement and evolution. The risk for each of us is the tendency to act as if this present state of life were permanent; as if it had a significance that it doesn’t have. The present moment is a great and marvellous thing, but our current situation or state of life must not be given absolute significance. The present moment is a temporary point of passage for each of us; and must not be attributed absolute importance. In Noah’s day, and in our own, people eat and drink and take husbands and wives – focussing on their biological needs, living only for their biological and psychological drives. This is in contrast to a way of life that lives for the ultimate things, that lives everything in relationship with the Lord.

We must live every day in a state of readiness, because the Lord is putting things in our way daily that would help us to grow and mature if only we embraced them properly

In the Gospel, Jesus exhorts us to stay awake because we do not know when the Son of Man will come. If the master of the house knew when the thief was coming he would have remained awake. The Lord is coming. We do not know when; therefore we must be ready. The Gospel tells us that he will come at a time that we are unable to imagine. The plans of God for us are beyond our imagination. But if we are conscious that he is coming; that he will shake up our lives; then we will at least be prepared. We should be aware that he intends to stun us every now and then in order to prompt us to grow and mature. If I live in a state of mind that welcomes and digests these “strikes” from the Lord, then I no longer live as someone who expects the world to respond to my appetites. Instead I see life as something that is all about responding to God, and I myself respond to the best of my ability.

Who is the master of my life? If it is me, then the coming of the Lord will be unwelcome, like the coming of a thief. But if Jesus is the master of my life, then his coming will be welcome. I will live in a state of readiness for his daily interventions that lead me towards him.

It is also essential to be aware that my behaviour will one day be judged. I am not the master of life. Life has been given to me as a gift that I might respond, that I might construct something beautiful and do that which is worthy of being done. All of this prompts a growth  that permits me to live in the world with a certain detachment from the things of the world. This detachment enables me to do things in the best manner. The central issue is this: Who is the master of my life? Who is the lord of my existence? If the Lord comes like a thief, then this means that I am the master! But if he is the master of my existence, then his coming will never be like that of a thief. If he does come unexpectedly, if my plans go completely awry, I will be able to say, “Of course! He is the Lord! He is the one who governs!”

The Lord is coming. He comes daily, if only I would heed him. Am I ready to be taken away? Or do I prefer to be left in the mediocrity of satisfying my own appetites?

If I am absorbed in my appetites, if I am a slave to my own habits and way of life, then I will find it hard to accept that I must one day leave these things behind me.  I would prefer to be left in the mediocrity of my own things. The one who is taken away readily is the one who goes with the Lord. The Gospel speaks of pairs of people doing the same thing: two are working together in the field; two are grinding corn at the mill. One of them is surprised by reality but knows how to change and move forward. The other remains there stuck doing things the same way that they have always done them. How often it happens that a very grave event happens and, as a result, one person matures whilst another degenerates. We must learn to be ready for the coming of the Lord! He strikes us and clears away the fog from our eyes, shocks us with things that we do not expect. If we expected such things to happen then we would not be left in such a state of shock. If I am conscious that the master will come and say, “It is time to have to have a look at the accounts”, then I will keep the accounts in order. But if I think that I myself am the master, that there is no-one above me, then I am utterly taken by surprise when life comes to ask me to give an account of myself. But to tell the truth, doesn’t life demand me to account for myself every day? Whether I am in the field or at the mill, I am being asked to respond authentically and make that leap forward, allow myself to be “taken away”, rather than remaining at the level of my appetites - eating, drinking and looking for a spouse. All of us are like the people in the Gospel who are working in the fields. We all work in our particular field, but the “land” that we work is something transitory. Advent is beautiful and calls us to sobriety. It invites us to rediscover ourselves and live in a way that is more beautiful, grave and serious than the way we live now.