First Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44
Active or Practical Hope: The Christian Attitude to Waiting/Advent

“Coming” and “waiting” are two dominant verbs to take seriously during the season of Advent. Notice that both verbs are in the progressive form or present continuous tense, as we often say. In themselves, theses verbs are suggestive of what is expected of a Christian during the period of Advent, the liturgical season when we await the arrival of God as human being – Christmas or Incarnation – and we receive encouragement to assume the position or attitude of expectant parents at the news of an imminent arrival of a child into the family or hosts expecting a guest: “waiting” as “working out our salvation,” by keeping God’s Commandments.

“Coming,” who is coming and what is to be done? The general disposition of hosts expecting guests is material preparations: house cleaning, grocery shopping and cooking. Less frequently, hosts organize parties or excursions/sight seeing for their guests. In a nutshell, they anticipate the needs of their guests and do their best to put up a good reception, even when they do not mean what they do. In a reverse situation, the expectation of an enemy calls for a different preparation: stock piling of arms, enlistment of soldiers and/or mercenaries, drills and stratagems, etc. The commonalities between these two kinds of waiting or expectation are material and mental preparations. Advent is starkly different and requires a distinctively different approach to preparation – Advent demands a moral and a spiritual transformation of Christians. For us Christians, Advent is a period of virtuous-incarnation; a period when we replace our vices with virtues, as a preparation for the Incarnation of God among us – Emmanuel!

Now, Jesus will not come as a human being on December 25; he did already two millennia ago. Mary will not need to sit on a donkey, while Joseph walk his family to Bethlehem in December. No! But your life and mine will make a thirty days journey of faith, a period of incubation to make sure that the virtues of joy, which the Angels will announce on Christmas eve, the proclamation of peace upon earth, which makes the need for the appearance of “people of good will who find favor with God” important once more on the planet earth. These two necessities, for joy and peace upon earth, require both a moral and a spiritual preparation, not a physical or pecuniary preparation. In this light, our Christmas shoppings are not important!

According to Isaiah 2:5, “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” Advent is a period of practical hope, the realization that peace needs architects, and those architects are you and me, Christians. The Judeo-Christian understanding of “walking” is the conformity of one’s lifestyle to the Commandments of God. To have “light” for one’s feet is to be dependent on the guidance of God’s Commandments. To refuse to walk in accordance with God’s commandments is the propagation of darkness upon earth. It is precisely because the angels who chorused the birth of Jesus do God’s will that there appeared a great light our of heaven when they came to sing the arrival of the infant Jesus, the night he was born. In like manner, the planet earth will enjoy abundant light through the virtues of Christians, should we engage on a radical virtue-orientation campaign.

There is a correlation between the appearance of light and the eyes they see the light. The light of God is only visible to the person who has God in his/her life. Hear what our first reading says: “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” (Isaiah 2:3). “Come,” “climb,” “instruct” and “walk” are four verbs that teach us how to arrive at a moral transformation, while “waiting” for the “coming” of Jesus. We need to leave behind us our vices and “come” to Jesus, a motion toward our new destination as Christians. We are required to “climb” the ladder of virtue, an uphill task, towards the incarnation of virtues. It is only in God’s house, at the feet of Jesus, may we find “instruction” that will make us authentic Christians, after which we can “walk” in the light of the instructions or Commandments of God.

Furthermore, the four verbs (come, climb, instruct and walk) we just talked about are the requirements for Isaiah’s metaphorical instruments of peace: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again” (Isaiah 2:4). In other words, where there are Christians, there are no wars or strives. The age of the Messiah is the age of peace, peace motivated by virtue. Make no mistake about it, there will always be “swords,” and “spears” but they will be used exclusively for agricultural purposes, according to Isaiah. “Swords” and “spears” have no moral values without human agency. St. Francis of Assisi is on target when he prayed: “Lord make me an instrument of your peace.” Human behavior determines whether there will be peace or war. But where there are true Christians, there is only peace, and joy and love and justice.

St. Paul says, in a starker way, in our second reading, what we have been arguing thus far: “Put on Christ!” (Romans 13:14). This is to say that Christianity is not just an external identity but a way of life. Haven dealt with the distinctions between Jews, Christians and Gentiles, in Romans 1-11, Paul begins, from Romans 12, to extol the virtues and character of a Christian. To “put on Christ” is to be Christ-like in our actions; it means that people should see Christ in us, as our identity-marker. The very first step in this regard is a moral transformation; this is why Paul says: “Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy” (Romans 13:12b-13). Darkness is the consequence of sin and unChristian living, while virtue is the “armor of light.”

Little wonder, two people in one bed, one taken, the other left behind, according to our gospel. Why is that the case? Well, one fellow is Christian, morally transformed, the other is not. How do I know that? It is simple, Jesus admonishes that “So too, you also must be prepared;” it follows that Jesus comes for those who are ready. Those who were not ready during the time of Noah were those who refused to accept the invitation to enter into the ark or, in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, those who perished were sinners.

This first Sunday of Advent, when we reflect on “coming” and “waiting,” let our “waiting” be a moral transformation of ourselves, let the “coming” we expect be spiritual, not physical.