Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
Creative Fidelity for a Season of Hope (Advent): Our God is Faithful to his Promises, What about Us?
What is certain about the prophecy of Jeremiah is the message of hope he preaches in an apparently hopeless situation – the perennial nature of Israel’s infidelity to God. Israel makes covenants with God only to break them. What was predictable of Israel was its fidelity to infidelity to God. This track record is all invasive and pervasive in Jewish history: from the disobedience of Adam and Eve to the deluge as corrective for sin and infidelity; the worship of the golden calf in the very heart of liberation from Egypt through the rise of monarchy and the apostasies of Israel’s monarchs. Now, prophetism confronts Israel’s infidelity.
But how does God deal with the infidelity of his people Israel? After the disobedience of Adam and Eve as well as the fratricidal killing of Abel by Cain, God finds favor with Noah, with whom he starts anew. God’s call and adventure with Abraham ends with two nations in the one womb of Rebecca – Esau and Jacob – the rise of family division. Through the champion of dreamers, Joseph, a child of Jacob, Israel finds a place of survival in Egypt. The leadership of Moses provides a new beginning out of slavery for Israel in a Promised land.
Just as Israel maintains its track record of infidelity, God guarantees that human infidelity does not hijack divine fidelity. For God, fidelity is creative: God shows mercy and forgives, in order to start afresh. So, the history of God with Israel is that of creative fidelity – God finds reasons to keep his promises in spite of human infidelity.
In the prophecies of Jeremiah, “sin” does not have the last word; there is always a hope of salvation – the cloud of sin wears a silver lining! After all, the name Jeremiah means – Yahweh/God raises up! Indeed, when it seems that Israel is down and out, she bounces back on her feet, and she is up and about again because God never fails to raise his people up when they are down – what a creative fidelity!
Our first reading today makes salvation a divine affair. To assure Israel’s salvation, a savior is promised – “I will raise up for David a just shoot; he shall do what is right and just in the land.” Since sin makes human salvation impossible, after many attempts through leaders and prophets, God offers a future hope of salvation to humanity. God anchors this promise of future salvation in Jesus Christ. Still, a creative fidelity!
A creative Church, like a creative God, sets a season of hope apart and calls it ADVENT SEASON. “Adventus – arrival,” therefore, is this period of hope (Advent Season) that God will save his people in Jesus Christ. The hope that Jesus’ coming will bring us salvation, whether he comes at the moment of our individual death or at the end of time, our hope for salvation rests in Jesus Christ and in God’s creative fidelity to save us.
St. Paul realizes that salvation is a gift of God to human beings, so all he does, in the second reading of today, is to pray, and this is his wish for the Thessalonians and for us: “May God . . . strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones” (1 Thessalonians 3:13).
The realization that salvation comes from God should not send us to bed; on the contrary, Jesus teaches us in the gospel today, the secret of salvation – prayer. The gospel says: “Be alert, praying at all times” (Luke 21:36). Prayer becomes imperative because human beings need divine help to do what is right. Here is an offer to us to be creative in our fidelity to God – prayer – despite the requirements of morality – “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap” (Luke 21:34).
Human beings tap into God’s creative fidelity for human salvation through prayer. Prayer is the acknowledgment that God is stronger than human weaknesses; praying constantly is the keeping of the hope of salvation alive in ourselves, which leads to the keeping of God’s commandments; yes, “prayer” is our reminder to God that we need his help toward our salvation – human creative fidelity to God.
As long as we remain faithful to prayer, salvation will be ours; why? because our hope in God’s salvation will never fail us, since it did not fail our forebears. Indeed, “hope” is the believe that God will offer us all we need for our justification and salvation! Yes, the hope of ultimate salvation should not blind us here and now as we deal with our addictions to pornography, substance addition, bankruptcy, lies telling, womanizing, theft, despair and desire for suicide: in all these circumstances, there is hope for me and you; prayer gives us hope to weather every storm, because God is always faithful to save us from present day predicaments as well. Let’s keep hope alive and be creative in our fidelity to God.
Assignment for the Week
Could you do one or both of two things: find time for daily prayers (daily Holy Eucharist, daily recitation of the rosary, daily divine mercy, etc) and/or could you remind yourself daily that your salvation is anchored in Christ, so there is hope for you in Christ?
An Exegetical Homily on Luke 21:24-28, 34-36 for 1st Sunday of Advent Year C (Nov. 29, 2015)
Step I: What does the Text say?
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. (Luke 21:25) People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (Luke 21:26) Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory (Luke 21:27) Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28) “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, (Luke 21:34) like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. (Luke 21:35) Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36)
Step II: What does the Text Mean?
Prayer as a Sign of Hope for Salvation
- The verbs in today’s gospel passage mix up the future and continuous (tense) time (will, coming, drawing, praying), on the one hand, and the past and the present (begin, stand, catch, weighed, escape), on the other. Also, there is a spatial differentiation – above and below. While “above,” sun, moon and stars will produce signs, “below,” there will be such reactions to the signs “above” as confusion, distress, sea-waves, fainting and fear. Importantly for us, the verbs in imperative encapsulate the meaning of our gospel text (be alert, stand up, be on guard).
- Consequent upon the reactions “below” or upon earth to phenomena “above” or in the skies, midway between heaven and earth, a spectacular event is noticed – the appearance of the “Son of Man.” The gospel passage gives us the meaning of this singular event – “your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). Notice, however, that the text does not say salvation is already here, rather it says – “is drawing near.”
- We now come to the crux of our text – the verbs in imperative or command verbs. The following command verbs, “be alert,” “stand up,” and “be on guard” suggest ethical imperatives – things to be done, while signs are seen “above” and diverse reactions experienced “below.” In other words, the signs in the skies and their concomitant results upon earth are inevitable – “For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:35).
- In order to be among those to be saved: a) stand up and raise your heads [Luke 21:28]; b) “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life [Luke 21:34]; and c) Be alert, praying at all times that you may have the strength to escape all these things [Luke 21:36].
Step III: Points for Homily
- ADVENTUS, meaning “arrival,” is the season we begin this Sunday (First Sunday of Advent) – the arrival of Jesus Christ. This arrival can be experienced in three ways, according to Bernard of Clairvaux: 1) the original birth of Christ, 2) at the death of a Christian, and 3) at the second coming of Christ (parusia). For us here and now, the two options possible are the parusia and death. Fundamentally, the Church invites us to prepare for the commemorative coming of Jesus at Christmas. This commemorative preparation is a spiritual training for us, in case the two options (death or parusia) available to us do take place before Christmas, we will be ready to meet our savior.
- Instead of expecting the moon and stars and sun to display wonders here and now, there is a creative way to understand today’s gospel. At the present moment upon earth, we experience all kinds of signs of unrest: wars, terrorisms, ethnic cleansing, racism, etc.: these are phenomena leading to distress and panic upon the inhabitants of the earth. These situations invite us to realize that our dependence on Jesus Christ makes human life and relationships meaningful.
- We observe that there are all kinds of human solutions to stress, panic and depression; as solutions, we see people who take to drinking, womanizing and suicide because their lives did not turn out according to their expectations. Even within the Catholic Church, there are many who despair for the future of the Church, as if God has abandoned his Church.
- The call of the gospel to “be alert” and “be on guard” makes it crystal-clear that human beings have a role to play in their salvation, everything does not depend on God. To paraphrase St. Augustine (Sermon 169, 13), the God who created you without your help, will not save you without your help.
- Christians are a moral people – people who live their lives on the basis of God’s precepts. The major injunction today is prayer: “Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things” (Luke 21:36).
- A theology of hope is at the core of today’s gospel – “hope” that God will not abandon his people, especially those who call out to him for help in prayer!