A Cycle -1^st Sunday of Advent 25

Mt. 24: 37-44

Advent is a time of patient waiting as the church prepares us to embrace the promised messiah.  There is a song which is frequently sung during Advent.  It is whose words encourage us to “prepare ye the way of the Lord.”  The result of our preparing is it creates a desire for more because we realize the mission of Christ was our redemption. That realization moves us to bow before Him and give witness to His majesty and beauty.

Advent invites us to be glad and “prepare ourselves for an encounter with Christ.”  That song, when you sing it with an intent to invite Christ into your life opens the door for you to make Advent a reality in your life.  Christ present to you every day, every season with humility stand in awe at the things He will do in your life and in your community of faith.  

Why do we need the church to remind us to prepare ourselves for an encounter with Christ?  Perhaps it is because we get comfortable with our relationship with Christ.  Comfort makes us content with our relationship with Christ.  Why is Advent different than “ordinary time in the church?” The church is decorated; the advent wreath has us lighting a different candle each week. Everything prepares us for the celebration of the actual arrival of the Messiah in Bethlehem. It is a marvelous time in the church, but we soon forget the lessons of Advent.

Preparing ourselves for an encounter with Christ should not be a onetime effort which last only a few weeks.  It should be a new beginning with Christ, just as Peter had on the shores of Galilee after he denied knowing Christ. It begins with our understanding we have failed to acknowledge Christ in our everyday contact with others.  We need to repent and do everything to encounter Christ. Adding some advent prayers to our daily routine is not repenting. 

Preparing the way for Christ is more than us deciding what we need to add or delete from our lives.  It takes more than a few weeks of reflection, adding something new to our daily routine, and then after Advent quickly return to our old habits and routines.

Preparing the way has a deeper meaning than we want to admit.  Preparing demands more than self reflection.  It demands we admit we have not submitted our wills to live as Christ demands we life.  Preparing demands, we acknowledge we have measured our holiness by how well we follow the laws and ritual of our faith It means we must admit we do not know how to give God what He truly desires and that is our heart.

Paul, in today’s second reading, reminds the church how easy it is to sleepwalk during our faith journey.  We do not even think about how to give God our hearts because we are too busy giving God what we think is the proper way to worship.  Preparing the way means we must admit we have failed to acknowledge how much we need to stand before God and like Paul and peter admit we failed. 

Admit we have not allowed the Holy Spirit to pour the love of God into our hearts.  We have not allowed the Holy Spirit to be the fuel that propels us to desire to seek an encounter with Christ.

We have mastered the requirements to practice our faith and allowed our obedience to rituals to deceive us into a state of false purity.  We are sinners in constant need of forgiveness who believe we are in good standing with God. We are today’s Pharisees who measure ourselves by what we are doing without realizing we have failed to give God our hearts.

Advent reminds us we need to encounter Christ. We need to hear the quiet whispering promptings of the Spirit coming to us in the scriptures, the prayers and the songs of Advent telling us to prepare yourself to encounter Christ. To seek Him first instead of trying to appease Him.  We need to kneel before Him and thank Him for the gift of forgiveness. We need to see in the flames of the candles on the Advent wreath, the flame of the Holy Spirit, whom God desires us to receive and allow it to transform our way of thinking.