Jeremiah 33.14-16/ 1 Thessalonians 3.12—4.2/ Luke 21.25-28,34-36
Today is the first day and first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of a-year round Church life. We are invited to start our Church year in love and holiness. We are invited to offer these four weeks of Advent in prayer reflecting on the three (3) comings/arrivals of Jesus in our lives. Let us well be guided by the candles of Advent wreath with its important signs and symbols that will finally bring us to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ (Christmas), in which we understand as His first coming.
In this season of Advent, we are also invited to be vigilant at all times, and pray more so that we will all be worthy recipient of the merits of His (Jesus`) second coming at the end time. In fact, the invitation to be always ready in the second coming of Jesus gets more emphasis this first week of Advent.
In whatever case, the keyword for our reflection as a good start is “preparation.” We acknowledge the first coming of Jesus to us through His birth in Bethlehem. We prepare our hearts to celebrate in thanksgiving this coming Christmas. We at the same time acknowledge the Second Coming of Jesus at an unknown future date, in which in this case too, we are invited to prepare and realize something really important.
The Advent season invites us to welcome Jesus in our lives in the here and now. This is another kind of Jesus` coming/arrival in our midst. Jesus comes and speaks to us through many situations and many individual human experiences. Acknowledging the coming of Jesus in this way too results to having a heart really willing to renew our present priorities and attachments. On how we welcome Jesus in everyday life will become the basis on how well we can fully celebrate Christmas in thanksgiving. It is the same basis on how we become ready for the unknown date of Jesus` Second Coming.