1ST SUNDAY OF ADVENT YEAR B – HOMILY

1ST SUNDAY OF ADVENT YEAR B – HOMILY

Fr Cyril Unachukwu CCE

One sure truth about our faith is that the Lord will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. This final coming of the Lord presupposes His birth in human form in Nazareth in the little family of Mary and Joseph. He will come to consolidate the fruits of His first coming; to mercifully, lovingly and justly reward each person according to his or her merits. Ours is to strive always to make ourselves ever-ready so as to never be taken unawares. Whenever the Lord comes in His heavenly splendour, may we be found ready; Amen.

With the Liturgy of this First Sunday of Advent, the Church begins a New Liturgical Year. Every Liturgical Year is a Spiritual Journey with the Lord that bears rich fruits in the Church as Family of God and in the individual lives of the faithful. These fruits are borne and flourish through sincere openness and humble meditation on the life and mysteries of Christ and through a total, proactive and faith-laden abandonment to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as we place our focus on our true Homeland in heaven where our common Father and Creator awaits us in glory. To make progress in this journey with the Lord, the Church guides us through as a loving Mother and as the Legitimate Custodian of the Household of God here on earth, and she continues to feed all of her children, drawing strength from Christ our Lord and from the spiritual wealth handed over to her by her Eternal Spouse in the Sacred Scriptures and in her Sacred and living Tradition. Very unique to this Liturgical Year B is the fact that a greater percentage of the Gospel Readings on Sundays will be taken from the Gospel according to Mark with the exception of the Sundays of Easter and of some solemnities that fall on Sundays. For this reason, the Year B of the Liturgical Circle is also known as the Year of Saint Mark. The word Advent is from the Latin word ‘Adventus’ which is derived from the combination of the words ‘ad’ meaning ‘to’ and ‘venire’ meaning ‘come’. It literarily means arrival. Hence, the Season of Advent is integrally a Season of Preparation for the arrival/coming of the Lord. The preparation is in two fronts; firstly the preparation for the coming of Christ in glory at the end of time (from the First Sunday of Advent to the 16th of December) and then secondly, the preparation to celebrate at Christmas the commemoration of the coming of Christ over 2000 years ago (from the 17th to the 24th of December). The liturgical arrangement of the readings during this Season reflects these two fronts of the Advent preparation. Violet is the Liturgical Colour for the Advent Season which signifies its penitential, preparatory and expectational characters.

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The readings of today inspire us to be ever conscious in our preparations and never to lose sight in our expectation of “He who is to come” (Rev 1:8). God has always spoken of His coming in glory even before the time of the biblical prophets. The people of God were also aware and conscious of the fact that the Lord will come in glory. However, one thing always stood as obstacle on their way. This is the reality of sin and infidelity to God. Nothing obstructs our conscious preparation and progress more than sin. The reality of sin obscures our vision of the One Who is to come and makes us inattentive to the indications He gives us about His coming. The Prophet Isaiah was aware of the destructive effects of sin and infidelity that he prayed earnestly in the First Reading (Is 63:16-17, 64:1, 3-8); “why, Lord, leave us to stray from Your ways and harden our hearts against fearing You?… Oh that you would tear the heaves open and come down! At your presence the mountains would melt.” God leaves us free to decide, but He also expects us to listen to Him and to pay conscious attention to His direction. His words and directions are ever made present by the life and mission of our Lord Jesus Christ with which the Church guides us through every Liturgical Year. In the Gospel of today (Mark 13:33-37), our Lord invites us to “stay awake, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming, evening, midnight, cockcrow, dawn; if He comes unexpectedly, He must not find you asleep.” Being awake is only achievable by God’s divine assistance remaining with us. Saint Paul was aware of this as he addressed the people of Corinth encouraging them to be steadfast in their expectation. Speaking to them and also speaking to us all, Saint Paul wrote “that you will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit while you are waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed” (I Cor 1:3-9). The presence and gifts of the Holy Spirit keep us firm in our love for God our Father and in our expectation as we await the coming in glory of Christ our Lord whose power can overturn the course of events for our good, even in the midst of the present global tension caused by the various sounds of war and natural disasters.

May your graces, Lord, keep us ever focused and ready in our daily and progressive preparation, helping us to be fully awake for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ so as to reign with Him in the eternal glory of the celestial realms; Amen. Happy Sunday;

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