Homily For The First Sunday Of Advent, Year B, December 3, 2023.
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“Advent, this powerful liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention He has for each one of us”.–Pope Benedict XVI
Sunday Readings
My Dearest Friends In Christ,
Welcome to this season of hope and spiritual vigilance. Today is the first Sunday of Advent. This is a glorious season when we prepare for the coming, on Christmas Day, of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world. The color of the season is purple which symbolizes repentance and fasting, hence this is a penitential season when we self-examine ourselves and mend what is broken in our relationship with God. Advent is a time of renewal in preparation for meeting Christ the Lord.
Like the garbage bin, our lives can accumulate a lot of debris, which when not cleaned, can constitute a great spiritual ailment of the soul. Advent is that season of the cleansing of the soul from the debris of sin that has become stuck to it. Every Christian must be conscious of the fact that even venial sins when overlooked for a long time can become mortal and dent the purity of the soul.
We Have All Failed and Disappointed God
The first reading from Isaiah is a sincere acknowledgment of how guilty we all are for having failed to live according to God’s expectations. Have you ever asked yourself if God is still with you? Do you sometimes feel He is no longer with you or angry with you? A lively conscience when in sin often feels this way. Such thoughts about God’s abandonment force us to seek His face; to plead with God not to be angry and not to turn His face away from us because of our uncleanliness and polluted lifestyles. Sin builds a wall that separates us from God. The more we persist in sin the more this wall gets higher and takes us further away from God. This season is another opportunity to seek to make amends; a time to be sorrowful and to realize that we are but clay in the hands of God. Now is the time to seek God’s Face and break down the wall of sin separating us from Him. Dont say You have No Sin. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us”. (cf1John 1:8-10)
God Has Provided All We Need To Grow in Faith and Please Him
In the second reading, Paul draws our attention that through Christ, we are all enriched and not lacking in any spiritual gifts needed to persevere in faith and a good life as we wait for the coming of the Lord. The wonderful help we get from St. Paul in the second reading today is the knowledge that we can begin this Advent season with the confidence that what we need to be ready for the Lord’s return has already been given to us. God wants us to see His face again, as much as we do. He has done everything necessary for that to happen, as we cannot do it for ourselves. What is our part? It is to do the work He has given us to do with all the spiritual gifts granted to us in our Baptism and Confirmation. Let us, therefore, strive to maintain our fellowship in Christ and friendship with God.
Be Watchful and Stop Being Slothful
In the Gospel of today, Jesus emphasizes to His disciples the need to be watchful. Many are in deep spiritual slumber, lazy and complacent. Sleeping is the opposite of being watchful. “Sleeping” here doesn’t just mean physical sleep, (although Jesus said to His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Watch and pray that you do not fall into temptation, the spirit is willing but the body is weak.” And three times Jesus found His disciples sleeping! ) In today’s parable, “sleep” refers to the very common indifference to the orders of the master; a flippant attitude acting as if we have the right to do whatever we want, regardless of what God says; living according to the sinful flesh, with no regard or obedience, even being defiant to God’s Word and Will. Why is God telling us to be watchful then?
Beware of the Many Distractions and Remain Aware
People often think that being psychologically aware of our surroundings or being awake is the same as being watchful in the spiritual sense. Here is an analogy to illustrate the idea of spiritual vigilance. It has been said that one of the causes of road accidents is the lack of situational awareness (SA)on the part of the driver. SA involves a continuous scanning of the immediate environment to make decisions promptly on any prevailing condition on the road or to make decisions in anticipation of possible outcomes. Using a phone while driving or looking at an accident scene at the shoulder of the road, are among the many reasons that could lead to a lack of SA. Even when the autopilot is activated in cars like Tesla, SA is still needed. Our spiritual life is like driving to a destination. Our destination is Heaven. As in a road journey, there are many distractions that can take our attention away from remaining focused on the road as we drive to this destination, which leads to our lack of SA. What SA is to driving, being vigilant or alert is to our spiritual life.
Don’t Crash
Many have crashed in their spiritual life, in the same way many crash on the road. They weren’t alert and watchful. Many indeed have lost their direction completely because they are living a life that is completely defiant to God’s. It is not enough to say, “I am steering my life to a destination, but the question is to what destination? And how focused are you as you drive to it? Little distractions like those I mentioned earlier, can make a driver lose SA and collide with another car. In the same manner, in the journey of life, the devil, the world, and the self( three enemies of the spiritual life) possess multiple distractions daily to take our focus away from our spiritual journey.
“By preference, the devil attacks man at the moment of awaking; before the mind has had time for pious thoughts he presents to it bad and forbidden ones.”–St. Ignatius of Loyola
Those Little Sins and Imperfections Matter
Many have lost their way because they are no longer vigilant and focused on Jesus who is the compass that leads us to this eternal destination. When we take our eyes away from Him who is the Way, we lose the life He offers. Dear Christian brother and sister, the little sins we commit daily could constitute great enemies in this spiritual journey. To be vigilant or alert is to be conscious of sinful attitudes that could deprive us of eternal joy and make us unworthy to receive Christ when He returns. It involves persevering in doing good works assigned to us by the Master. The uncertainty of the day of the return of the Lord makes vigilance a spiritual imperative for all children of God. Jesus will come again on a day and time we do not know. As surely as Jesus came the first time, in a manger, He will come again, in power and glory. In the meantime, He “comes” to us in every Mass, in the bread and wine.
Will Jesus find you alert when His returns? To be alert is to be found doing good, and to be in a state of grace when He returns. To be asleep is to be found in the act of sin or a state of mortal sin when He returns. God has placed us in charge of His work as His servants and the most important work of all is the care of our souls. St. Paul says work out your salvation in fear and trembling(cf. Phil 2:12)
During this penitential season, let us check ourselves for drowsiness and heavy-lidded eyes. Let us have ears to hear what the Church is saying: “Be alert!”
I keep you and your family always in my prayers. ©Clem C. Aladi (2024)
