First Sunday of Advent

Readings for the First Sunday of Advent

This year I had invited people who would be alone for Thanksgiving for a meal. I must say we had a gala time. It was the preparation for the meal that took me by total surprise. Not long after I had announced about the meal, I was inundated by offers toward the meal mostly by parishioners, but also from other parishes. Every kind of dish and cash began to come in. There were so many offers that I had to refuse them. We still did end up with six pies for eleven people. Many times before and during the meal, I found myself moved deeply with the generosity, the honesty, the humility and the faith of this community. As I reflected back on this event I realize that this event reveals the character of the parish. This event tells us of the kind of people that we are. This event tells us about our faith in Christ. This event tells us how we live out that faith in our love for one another. Today we begin a very special time in the life of the Church – the season of Advent. This is also the beginning of a new liturgical year. The readings remind us of a few important things. First, during this season remind us of God’s saving works on our behalf. The very first sentence of the very first reading on the first Sunday of Advent says, “You, Lord, are our Father; Our Redeemer you are named forever” (Is 63:16b). We find a similar profession of faith in today’s second reading. Paul says in the letter to the Corinthians, “God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ” (I Cor 1:9). When the people of Israel made their profession of faith, they were in exile in Babylon. They sat by the rivers of Babylon and became aware of the graciousness of God, who time and time again proved had himself to be their father, their redeemer and the one who shaped their destiny. As they sat in exile, they longed for their God to come once again and be their father, their redeemer. They longed for God to once again be their destiny.

Second, they also became aware of their own character. They realized the kind of people they were… unfaithful, rebellious, and unclean. So they confess to God and say, “Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful; all of us have become like unclean people, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; we have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind” (Is 64:4b-5). They realized the implications of their infidelity and sin. The realization, then, led them to confession and total surrender to God. The first reading ends with the words, “We are the clay and you are the potter” (Is 64:7). The final resolve of the Israelites in Babylon is to allow God to shape them into a certain kind of people. They invite God to mould and shape their character. They invite God to determine their destiny.

Let me offer three practical implications from today’s readings for advent and the new liturgical year.

a) As I said earlier, the passage from Isaiah is a reflection of a people in exile. Their experience of the exile has made them ask some important questions. So when they say, “Why do let us wander, O Lord…?” (Is 63:17), in reality they are asking some basic existential questions. They are pondering: Who are we? What are we about? What is our relation with God? What is our character? What is our destiny? During Advent these are the same questions that we must ask both individually and as a parish community. Who is God for me now in these days and times? What is my life about today? What kind of a person am I today? What is the direction my life is taking? What kind of a parish are we? How is God trying to shape our destiny together? I will let you answer the personal questions in your own personal prayer. In my second point I would like to talk about our destiny as a parish community.

b) In today’s second reading, St. Paul begins with the words, “I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge…” (1 Cor 1: 3). When I think of this parish community I am filled with the same sentiments as St. Paul. When I think of Immaculate Conception Parish I give thanks to God. The generosity, the honesty, the humility and the faith of this community during the Thanksgiving meal is a sign of who we are as a parish community.

However, it is my conviction that God is shaping our destiny even further. As a parish we observed last year as the “Year of Discipleship.” We had three discipleship retreats on this theme and a few hundred people attended at least one or all three of these retreats. We often ended our petitions during Mass with the “discipleship prayer.” This year we are taking this theme forward and it is suggested that we observe the new liturgical year as “The Year of Grateful Discipleship.” In other words, at the beginning of this new liturgical year, like the people of Israel, we too acknowledge God’s goodness to us. The question before us is this: Aware of God’s graciousness and goodness to us, how can we live out our faith more radically and become a more gracious and grateful community of disciples? How can I be available to God more than less? How can I give my time to God more than less? How can I put a significant part of my resources at God service through this community? How can my life be an expression of my gratefulness to God? How can I be a grateful disciple?

c) The people of Israel recognized that the ultimate purpose of their lives could only be discovered only in God. That is why they prayed, “O Lord, we are the clay and you are the potter.” They realized that their lives could have meaning only if God was in there. They thus made a surrender of their lives to God, allowing God to shape and form their lives. Our greatest act of preparation this advent can be nothing more than this very prayer, “O Lord, we are the clay and you are the potter!” Our greatest act of preparation is to be like the servant in today’s gospel reading – watchful and alert. Our greatest act of preparation is to allow God to shape our lives, our destiny. Our greatest act of preparation is to surrender ourselves to Christ as disciples- grateful disciples.
It is truly a privilege that our advent journey begins at the foot of the sanctuary. In the final analysis, the prayer of every Christian and every Christian community should be that we may be shaped in the image of the very Jesus we receive from this sanctuary. As we receive Jesus in communion may we allow God to shape us in the image of his Son. May Christ find a community of grateful disciples this Christmas. Amen.

Fr. Satish Joseph