3rd December 2023-First Sunday of Advent
As we begin our Advent journey and light this first candle, we are presented with the vision of hope this Sunday, so needed in the light of all we have been through. In the first reading today, Isaiah writes to encourage a people enslaved and not seeing much place for hope in their lives for they are worn down. The events of these past few years have hurt us and worn us down, some more than others. Like the Hebrew people, enslaved in Babylon, today more than ever we need to feel the loving presence of a God who cares and has not abandoned us. We need direction, politicians and leaders need direction, and we make a contrite plea:
Why Lord, leave us to stray from your ways? (Isa 63:17)
The news of these last few months have filled us with dread and even fear, and it seems like not only the world is full of trepidation because of the onset of perhaps a bleaker and a more difficult future. It could be a future where there is lots of pain--we wonder what will happen to us. Paul offers a encouragement, as we wait, in his Letter from the Corinthians today:
Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.. (1Cor 1:7)
The danger is that we can walk this advent way and it makes no difference at all—in the gospel from Mark, we hear Jesus asking us to ‘stay awake’ (Mk 13:33). We have to be alert and open to the signs of the Divine that are all around us today. The danger is that we can be so caught up in our own worries and fears that our goal is fixed only on December 25th 2023 and the respite it might offer us. Jesus is offering us a real challenge today: to find hope in TODAY!
What brings you hope this First Sunday of Advent?
Watch and reflect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSSWcxjS0_0
Prayer (as you light the first candle):
“Let nothing disturb you,
nothing frighten you,
all things are passing,
God is unchanging.
Patience gains all;
nothing is lacking to those who have God:
God alone is sufficient.”
(St. Teresa of Ávila)