First Sunday of Advent, Year A
Today we begin the Catholic Church’s new year with the season of Advent. Happy New Year to you all! Advent means Coming, hence, this wonderful season is a time of expectancy, preparation and hope for the coming into the world and the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Advent season lasts for four weeks and these four weeks are for preparing and re-focusing ourselves on Christ and His impact in our lives as Christians as we get ready for the first coming of God made man. Advent is a season of anticipation through prayer and reflection, followed by hope and joy that leads up to Christmas Day. Advent is also a time of waiting with patience, trust and optimism.
Saint Paul in today’s second reading from Romans 13:11-14 reminds us that 'Our salvation is nearer,' as we await the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then Jesus in today gospel reading from the gospel of Saint Matthew 24:37-44 tells us to ‘Be prepared and stay awake, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.’ These two readings remind us of the need to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. My dear friends, we know how to physically prepare for the coming of Christ on Christmas Day as can be see in the way we put up our Christmas decorations, do our Christmas caroling, shop for Christmas, write and mail out our Christmas cards, buy food items needed for the Christmas feast and gatherings etc. So how do we prepare ourselves spiritually for the coming of Christ on Christmas Day? We can prepare ourselves spiritually for the coming of Christ on Christmas Day by Praying more and better; by Mortification and by doing an Examination of Conscience.
Prayer as we know is our conversation with God, in which we praise Him, adore Him, worship Him, thank Him and ask Him for our needs. I believe we know how to pray and we pray as Jesus urged us, but during this season of Advent, let us pray differently as we await the coming of Christ. This Advent season, we can spend more time in prayer, or pray more for others and not only for ourselves and our needs; or we can incorporate the four kinds of prayer into our daily prayers, that is, prayer of adoration, prayer of contrition, prayer of thanksgiving and prayer of supplication so as to pray better.
During the Advent season, we are call to practice Mortification, that is, we are called to subdue our bodily desires to come closer to God. During this season of Advent, we can denying ourselves pleasurable things, like certain foods we love, going to the movies, over-shopping, eating or dining out, idleness etc as ways for us to spiritually prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ this Christmas season. We can also practice interior mortification by giving up pride, gossiping, hate, spiritual idleness, calumny, slander etc so as to make changes in our lives that would aid us come closer to God.
During this Advent season, let us practice the Examination of Conscience more consistently. The Examination of Conscience is a prayerful reflection on one's thoughts, words, and deeds in order to identify any sins or practices that destroy our relationship with God. We need to find out how we have failed God, what ways we have done so, what leads us to such actions and practices, then go to confession, and look for good practices and lifestyle that would help us grow in faith and come closer to God.
My dear brothers and sisters, as we begin the Catholic Church’s new year today, let us be attentive to the words of Jesus to us today in the gospel reading saying "Be prepared and stay awake, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." Let us truly and sincerely prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ this Advent season through prayer, mortification and examination of conscience.
