Homily: November 27, 2022, First Sunday of Advent

Although we are beginning a new liturgical year, the readings today continue to focus on preparations for the end times when Christ will come again.

Stephen Covey said, begin with the end in mind. Knowing how we want to end, will help us decide how we want to start.

So how do you want to end the year? How does God want the world to be, finally?

Prophet Isaiah gave us a glimpse. From the first reading we heard, “one nation shall not raise the sword against another nor shall they train for war again”.

In the end, the world will become a peaceful place, no war, no fights, no enemies. All will be one, together, forever.

That is what we want too, isn’t it? So how do we reach that?

When I was in high school, our principal was a priest. He was a strict disciplinarian. He had a big bamboo cane which he beautifully taped all round with a red sticky tape. 

Occasionally, he would go around the school, walking past each class holding his beautiful red cane behind him. 

The excitement would start when he spotted a naughty student in action, he would wield out his cane and give a good beating on the butt.

I know it is hard to imagine that for Americans but that’s how India disciplined her young. Did it work?

Yes, I think it worked very well. I can still recall the pain of being caned. Just one beating and we were all careful not to get it a second time. We never knew when the principal would be walking around so we resisted all temptations to do the wrong thing. It was like the warning in the Gospel today, “Stay awake, for you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”

We do not know when Christ will come again, not to give us a beating, but to give us our due judgement, with lots of merciful discounts and with loving goodwill thrown in we hope. 

Still, we have to present ourselves to the Lord, we would be fully exposed on judgement day so let us ensure we have nothing to hide by then.

We do not know the hour nor the day, let us keep awake, be ready and prepared all the time.

St. Paul exhorts the Romans in the second reading that “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed, the night is advanced, the day is at hand”. Two thousand years have passed since then, we are now much nearer the end than in St. Paul’s time.

Are we ready? Are we prepared to meet Christ, who will be our judge, also our Saviour? This new year will pass very fast, what can we do to be more prepared than we were last year?

As St. Paul says, “Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light”. To do that, I have two suggestions: 1) dispel darkness with the sacrament of reconciliation; and 2) arm ourselves with the word of God.

First, I invite everyone of you to receive the sacrament of reconciliation before Christmas. It is easy for us to get into a spiritual mess called sin, but we have a fantastic cleaning machine, so let us use it. 

Throughout this year, as soon as we get a little messy inside, let us clear it out quickly with the sacrament and get better at avoiding further messiness.

Second, in this new liturgical year, we will be reading from the Gospel of Matthew. There are altogether 28 chapters, if you read just a chapter each day, you will finish in time for Christmas. Begin today. 

And then revisit and reflect on the relevant chapters as we go through the year. Let us arm ourselves with the word of God in our hearts and minds.

If we can just do these two things, we will be transformed, we will begin to see changes in ourselves, we will surely end the year more prepared than we are now.

Let us be vigilant, be strong inside out so that the thief of life will not have a chance to take away our gift of salvation.

“O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!”

Amen