Year C/ Ordinary Time / Week 34 / Saturday
(Last Mass of Year C)
Readings: Revelations 22.1-5 / Psalm
94.1-2, 3-5, 6-7 (R/v 1 Cor 16: 22b, see Rev. 22:
20c) / Luke 21.34-36
Imagine
you are at home. You’re doing your own thing. There’s an unexpected knock on
the door. ”Who could it be?” you ask as you head towards it, anxious to open
and see.
Here we are at last Mass of this
liturgical year. This evening, Advent begins with Vespers, and we take our
tentative first steps into the new liturgical year.
We may not say it but I suspect we all
harbor a sense of anticipation—we are eager for a time we have longed awaited for this whole
year. This time we have hoped for, this time of the coming of the Lord, Jesus. It is dawning upon us.
This morning we stand poised on the brink
of Advent. Our mouths are beginning to quiver: “Maranatha! Come, Lord
Jesus!” they are beginning to voice—voice more confidently what we just recited
in our responsorial psalm.
Our readings are apt for the Advent about
to dawn upon us, and its invitation that we look beyond the darkness of human
sin and failure to the radiant light of Jesus’ coming. They express what we want to proclaim with
greater and greater joy as we come closer and closer to Christmas but we do not dare to do wholeheartedly yet: that with Jesus the reign of God comes alive into our midst.
Our first reading evokes a vision of God's wellspring for us. Its crystal clear water promises to cleanse us and
to wash over us as preparation for us to worship and to gaze into God’s face. The
reading conveys a sense that God is coming with this promise; the right
response we can make is to prepare ourselves.
This is what the coming Advent should mean
for us: preparing ourselves to open our hearts to Jesus in whose visible face
we see the invisible face of God’s mercy in our midst. His face that turns our
faces—no matter how imperfect each is—to what we are all meant to become: a lot
more human so as to become a little more divine.
We can however miss this Advent invitation
to re-orientate our Christian lives onto Jesus.
It’s like the miss I made during my first year of studying Theology in Boston. Fall in Boston is indeed a most wonderful
season: beautiful and magical. The changing colours. The faintly mingled leafy perfumes. The nippy
cold of winter setting in. However, one can “nod off” and miss these subtle autumnal
changes. I did: I was drowsy with the anxieties of a student’s daily life of
reading, preparing for tests and writing papers. I was too focused on my schoolwork
to lift my gaze upwards and outwards often enough to wonder at the splendour of everything changing throughout autumn from summer into winter.
Did you make miss like mine when you look back on your
relationship with Jesus this past year? Could we all make this same
mistake in Advent and forego the Advent grace of re-orienting our lives?
Possibly.
This is why we should heed Jesus’ warning in
the gospel reading against nodding off. If we did, we would miss his coming—not
as a past event we celebrate but as his daily interventions in our lives.
“Behold, I am coming soon” is Jesus’ message.
The author of the Book of Revelation repeats it in our first reading. For him,
Christians must live in hope-filled anticipation of Jesus’ coming for where he
is, there too will be the life-giving wellspring the first reading describes.
“Behold, I am coming” says Jesus. Are we
anxious when we hear his words because we know we are ill-prepared to welcome
him? Or, are we jubilant, expectant, hopeful because we know we’ve prepared
well be with him? Let us hope that it is the latter. Then, we can indeed say—with
gratitude and joy—“Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus”. Our mouths will no longer
quiver these words; they will proclaim his coming wholeheartedly.
Yes, today’s gospel reading presents Jesus
admonishing his disciples, and us, with these words: “don’t let the day of my
coming catch you like a trap. Be vigilant; expect me at all times”. They are harsh and challenging words for us to hear today. But they are Jesus' wisdom for us to hear him and be saved.
Those who hear and humble themselves are
wise: they know the value of the Advent grace to re-orientate our lives. By
seizing it, they make of their lives in Advent so much more hospitable and welcoming
to embrace God who comes to us in Jesus at Christmas. To know this and to make it real in our
lives empowers us to answer Jesus’ challenge with these words: “Come,
Lord, we are ready for you.”
You
hear the unexpected knock. You go to the door. You open the door. You see the
face of a friend that you have often spoken to, but have not seen for some
time. Recognizing his face, joy floods you and you pull him to you and
into your home.
Imagine
this surprise you will experience when you answer that unexpected knock on our
door.
Expect
such a surprise. Anticipate such joy. This is the Advent promise: all your
preparation will lead you to open your door to Jesus. He is coming to be with
you. Don’t hesitate; be expectant; look forward to that knock on your door.
Preached
at mass for ACCS' REAP Programme at Catholic Junior College, Singapore
Photo: trappist monastery at spencer, MA, usa, dec 2013 by adrian danker, sj
Photo: trappist monastery at spencer, MA, usa, dec 2013 by adrian danker, sj
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