Gospel Reflection for the 1st. Sunday of Advent

December 3rd. – Stay Awake, Be Prepared and Get Ready…

This Sunday we begin a new season in the liturgical calendar of the Church. Today, we begin the great Season of Advent. There are two messages that we will hear over the next four weeks. One message and set of values will come to us from the media and the shops. We will be told that we will have to move faster, stay busy, queue longer in the shops and spend more money on those ‘must have’ presents so that we will have the ‘perfect’ Christmas, as if such a thing exists.  We will be told and sold the idea that unless we buy more and more and surround ourselves with all the trappings of Christmas, we won’t be happy. This most definitely is ‘fake news.’ However there is a very different message and set of values that will be offered to us through the gospels, the prayers and the liturgy of Advent. We are being asked to prepare a way for the Lord, to stay awake, to make a straight a path for the Lord and to get ourselves ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus. This is most definitely is ‘Good News!

The message of Advent is an invitation and it also a challenge to us. We are called to be looking forward, to be ready, to be prepared and we are asked to wait in joyful hope.

Waiting is not something that we are usually good at these days. Our modern world tells us to move faster in so many ways. We have smart phones, emails and microwave ovens that all ‘help’ us to get through our busy days. However Advent asks each of us to do very opposite. During these sacred days of preparation, we are being asked to take some time to be still and silent as we prepare ourselves deeply for the Christmas. While we can’t simply ignore the shops, the media and the advertisements over the next few weeks, neither can we ignore the words and message of Jesus in today’s gospel; ‘Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come… what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake!”

If we get too caught up in the shopping and spending, there is the danger that we will miss what Advent is really about. This is what the call to ‘stay awake’ means. We are asked not to miss the next four weeks of Advent. We are asked to prepare and get ready as best we can as followers of Jesus. It would be so sad, that if after the shopping and all the other preparations we missed Advent and its joyful and hopeful message.

In what ways can I prepare a way for the Lord this Advent as I get ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas?

• Michael Moore OMI