December 2 // 1st Sunday of Advent

Reading I: Jeremiah 33:14-16
Responsorial Psalm 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
Reading II: 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2
Gospel: Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Today, the Church throughout the world prays with Jeremiah 33: 14-16. While we may view the Advent season as a time for parties and gifts, today’s scriptures suggest we be counter-cultural by pausing to listen to God more regularly by making time for quiet. Advent can freeze frame our frenzied culture so we can prepare our hearts for the coming of the bringer of justice for the common good.

We are each a bundle of uncertainty and hope, fear and longing. We bring all that to worship, in touch with God accepting the sacred nerve points of our feelings of hope and doubt. Advent comes from the Latin adventus, “an arrival.” In a sense God is coming but also God is present now and God is still to come, the now and not quite yet of God-with-us. We catch a glimpse of the power and glory of God in the stillness in the snowfall, the joy of children, the smile of a baby and the kindness of a stranger.

Still we wait for God to be revealed in fullness as we imagine how the injustices of the world can be transformed and our hearts await reconciliation. Advent is a season of humility and penitence when we acknowledge our wounds and inadequacies on our way to experience the joy of Christmas. See how counter-cultural Advent is?