STAY AWAKE!

HOMILY FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

Even though we can identify exactly when Christmas Day will be celebrated according to the liturgical calendar, The Son of Man will be coming at an hour that we do not expect (Matt 24:44).

You must have heard the story about the three demons who were coming to earth in order to deceive men and lure them to Satan. The three demons were seeking advice from their boss, Satan, regarding their plans to tempt and ruin mankind.

  The first demon said, “I will tell them that God doesn’t exist.” Satan laughed dismissively and said: “that won’t deceive people, for so many have experience of God in their lives.”

  The second demon said, “I will tell them that Hell does not exist, so they can just go ahead and do whatever they like with their lives.” Satan laughed out loud and said: “people know that there is always a punishment to fit the crime. They will never believe that there is no Hell.”

  The third demon said, “I will tell men that they have plenty of time; that they should relax, take life easy and be in no hurry to amend their lives, for there is always tomorrow.” Satan didn’t laugh this time. An evil grin crept across his face. “Off you go,” he said, “for you will manage to deceive billions upon billions of people.”

Advent is a time to remind ourselves that “time and tide wait for no man”. The clock is ticking … tick-tock! The Lord will come at an hour we do not expect. So, as we get ready for Christmas, the time of which we do know, we should remind ourselves of the need to be constantly vigilant and spiritually ready for the final coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the time of which we don’t know.

When He was here on earth, Jesus talked about himself as The Son of Man. Since we do not know the hour of the second coming of The Son of Man, we are encouraged in the Gospel Reading (Mt 24:37-44) to be ready at all times. Every one of us is aware that when we know the specific time of something that is going to happen (for example when we’ve scheduled something in our diary), there is this temptation to leave things until the last minute. When we don’t have to guess when something is going to happen, we lose that sense of anticipation and expectation. Conversely, then, the lack of information about the arrival of Our Lord at His second coming contributes to keeping us on our toes in fulfilling the demands of the Christian life. In so doing, we do not merely wait passively for the arrival of the Lord, but we are actively prepared and ready for Him. It is futile - and a waste of God’s good time - to expend our energies on trying to discern the hour of the return of The Son of Man. Be warned that speculation regarding the time of the second coming is actually nothing less than blasphemy, for anyone who does this is seeking to wrest from God a secret which belongs to God alone. We can say, then, that Advent is not a time for speculation about the timing of the coming of The Lord, but a time for examination of ourselves with regard to how attentive we are to His message of salvation.

In his admonition in today’s gospel reading, Jesus made reference to the story of Noah. Noah listened to God, prepared himself for the flood, and was saved; but those others, who were focused entirely on their earthly lives and were ignoring God, were lost. The others allowed the activities of this life (even the essentials) to rip them from the activity of heaven. We must never be so immersed in the things of this life that we neglect to prepare for eternity and the eternal life that awaits us. In immersing ourselves in things of this side of eternity, we tend to forgo God, to shove Him to one side; and so, at some point, time catches up with us with shattering suddenness. To live without watchfulness for the Day of the Lord can be disastrous for us. The primary weapon of the thief is surprise; the householder must be constantly on watchful guard against the burglar. We too must be watchful, not with fear (for God is no burglar) but with joy, with eager expectation for the Lord who will come in glory. The season of Advent is to remind us of the need to ready ourselves for His second coming, and to be filled with eager expectation of the time when there will be no more war or hatred, because the people of God will be walking in the light of the Lord (cf. First Reading; Isa 2:1-5). Advent is a time of preparation, peace and stillness so that each one of us shall be alert to detect those signals by which God wants to lead us out of our weaknesses, prejudices and fears.  

Let’s think a bit more about that story about the demons. We deceive ourselves whenever we allow ourselves to be convinced that there is still plenty of time for us to acknowledge God and to do good things. There is no greater deception by Satan than that which delays our invitation to God to come into our lives, the deception that convinces us to put off conversion to the will of God until tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. Let’s get it done. The sooner, the better. But isn’t it true that some people derive pleasure in turning away from God, in postponing their daily conversion, in refusing to participate in good works, in ridiculing the virtuous life and in deliberately declining to reconcile with God and the Church? For example, they tell themselves: Oh, I can come back to the Church any time I want!  But the second coming of the Lord brings with it great surprises. And indeed, life is full of surprises. It is therefore good practice to be ready for the surprises of each day, and for us to extract virtues from them. We ought to live each day knowing that our salvation is nearer than when we first began to believe (cf. the 2nd Reading: Rom. 13:11-14a). We must keep on mining virtues as the days run by!

Advent alerts us to prepare for surprises and sudden changes. How should we get ready for these in our daily lives?

   Sometimes, it can be really worrying to see a change in people’s attitude towards us, especially in those close to us. This is when we have to mine the virtue of patience.

   Sometimes, people’s words and actions can devastate us, especially when they clash with our own plans and desires. That’s when we have to mine the virtue of tolerance.

   At other times, we might be pleasantly surprised, even bewildered, by people’s good intentions and brave endeavours, especially by those from whom we wouldn’t necessarily expect them. Our reaction ought to be one of sincere affirmation, believing in the hidden treasures implanted by God in every person. That’s when we mine the virtue of acceptance.

The list of virtues we can mine through the daily experiences of sudden changes can be lengthy! By undertaking this task of mining virtues, we will have started the Advent season on solid ground.

May the new liturgical year bring forth favours from God and an increase of joy in our lives. May I wish you a lovely and spiritually profitable Advent season. Amen. God bless you.