Gospel: First Advent Sunday

Today marks the First Sunday of Advent, and the Gospel will be proclaimed according to St Matthew (tap here for today's Mass readings from USCCB).

Today is the first Sunday of the new liturgical year for the Church. The Advent season includes the four Sundays that precede Christmas. It is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord. In this season we recall two central elements of our faith: the final coming of the Lord in glory and the incarnation of the Lord in the birth of Jesus. Key themes of the Advent season are watchful waiting, preparation, and justice.

In this new liturgical year, the Gospel of St Matthew will be the primary Gospel proclaimed (Lectionary Cycle A). In today's Gospel, we hear Jesus speak about the need for wakefulness, for watchful waiting, and for the coming of the Son of Man.

St Matthew's Gospel is dated by most scholars after 70 AD. Most believe that St Matthew wrote for primarily Jewish community, but one that was no longer centered on the Temple in Jerusalem. These were Jewish Christians trying to come to terms with their relationship to Judaism in a new situation: Judaism after the destruction of the Temple. There may have been Christians who believed that the events of the world around them gave evidence of the imminent return of the Lord in glory.

The passage from St Matthew that we read today is rather straightforward. No one knows the precise time of the glorious coming of the Lord, so watchful waiting and vigilance are required. The passage speaks to the uselessness of looking for signs because there will be none. As a thief sneaks in during the night, so will the Lord's coming in glory be.

The question for us as members of the Christian community, then, is how do we prepare for this? Today's passage speaks more about the manner of waiting, rather than the details of the preparation. Jesus compares the vigilance required of Christians to the vigilance of a homeowner who knows the plan of the thief. If one knows that the thief's actions are imminent, one remains watchful. As Christians, we know that our Lord is coming even if we cannot know the precise timing. Jesus calls us to be watchful and vigilant, like the homeowner. If we become lax in our Christian living, ignore the more important things, forget to go to confession, lack the motivation to partake of the Eucharist, fail to pray despite living a comfortable life, indulge in the pleasures of the flesh and forget the holiness of sacrifice, and disregard our love for neighbors, we may be caught unprepared. Life is very short, and death is certain, so constant vigilance is required.

Today, we also light the first candle in the Advent wreath, which symbolizes hope.

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