Homily Advent (A) 1st Sunday - The Day is Coming

The Day is Coming

Core Message:

FOR THE MIND: What do I want them to KNOW?

· The Son of God doesn’t keep secret the hour of his return because he’s wants to keep his distance or because he’s entertained by being cruel and demanding to weak creatures. Rather, he does so out of love for us, to promote our generosity, to safeguard against our tendency to laxity. We are ignorant of his hour so we may ALWAYS be ready the Day of his Coming.

FOR THE HEART: What do I want them to FEEL?

· I long for the coming Savior. Marana tha!

I. He will come like a thief in the night

Burglars plunder the house of Zio Ciro and Zia Anna

“I never slept so well.”

His Return is very soon!

So you better be believing that Our God is an “Awesome God” (Rich Mullins)

Yes, Catholics believe that too!

II. Stay awake!

Like Noah, you don’t know the day or hour…

He was waiting, expecting…

He knew that… He didn’t know when…

He was prepared, he wasn’t swept away

THEREFORE, stay awake

Be ready always!

By veiling the hour of his advent, God helps us to live virtuously, generously, lest we grow lax.

Advent is training for the Day

An Annual Reminder that the King could return

CCC 673 Since the Ascension Christ’s coming in glory has been imminent… This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment

III. Conclusion

Put on the Armor of Light…Put on the Lord Jesus Christ

Defense: armor against sin (drunkenness, lust, quarreling, jealousy)

Offense: light is not shield, deflecting the darkness. It vanquishes the darkness, which is no match for it.

Put on Christ: Let his life surge through you.

In this Eucharist, we anticipate his advent (Parousia)

Like Mary, he comes to dwell inside us.

Only by faith, can we see past the veil of sacrament.

His presence transforms us, preparing us for the Day he returns in unveiled glory

From fear to hope…Maranatha!

And as we train ourselves with daily encounters, fear fades into hope

In this Mass, in this Advent, in our History, we cry out Maranatha!

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

Readings

Sunday, November 27, 2016 | Advent

First Sunday of Advent

Year A | Roman Missal | Lectionary

First Reading Isaiah 2:1–5

Response Text

Psalm Psalm 122:1–9

Second Reading Romans 13:11–14

Gospel Acclamation Psalm 85:8

Gospel Matthew 24:37–44

Index of Readings

First Reading

Isaiah 2:1–5

1 This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 In days to come,

The mountain of the Lord’s house

shall be established as the highest mountain

and raised above the hills.

All nations shall stream toward it.

3 Many peoples shall come and say:

“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

That he may instruct us in his ways,

and we may walk in his paths.”

For from Zion shall go forth instruction,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 He shall judge between the nations,

and set terms for many peoples.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks;

One nation shall not raise the sword against another,

nor shall they train for war again.

5 House of Jacob, come,

let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Response

Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord

Psalm

Psalm 122:1–9

1 A song of ascents. Of David.

I rejoiced when they said to me,

“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

2 And now our feet are standing

within your gates, Jerusalem.

3 Jerusalem, built as a city,

walled round about.

4 There the tribes go up,

the tribes of the Lord,

As it was decreed for Israel,

to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

5 There are the thrones of justice,

the thrones of the house of David.

6 For the peace of Jerusalem pray:

“May those who love you prosper!

7 May peace be within your ramparts,

prosperity within your towers.”

8 For the sake of my brothers and friends I say,

“Peace be with you.”

9 For the sake of the house of the Lord, our God,

I pray for your good.

Second Reading

Romans 13:11–14

11 And do this because you know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; 12 the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness [and] put on the armor of light; 13 let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

Gospel Acclamation

Psalm 85:8

8 Show us, Lord, your mercy;

grant us your salvation.

Gospel

Matthew 24:37–44

37 For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 In [those] days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. 39 They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be [also] at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. 42 Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. 43 Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. 44 So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

Missal

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Entrance Antiphon [Cf. Ps 25 (24):1–3]

To you, I lift up my soul, O my God.

In you, I have trusted; let me not be put to shame.

Nor let my enemies exult over me; and let none who hope in you be put to shame.

The Gloria in excelsis (Glory to God in the highest) is not said.

Collect

Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,

the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ

with righteous deeds at his coming,

so that, gathered at his right hand,

they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

The Creed is said.

Prayer over the offerings

Accept, we pray, O Lord, these offerings we make,

gathered from among your gifts to us,

and may what you grant us to celebrate devoutly here below

gain for us the prize of eternal redemption.

Through Christ our Lord.

Preface I of Advent, p. 534.

Communion Antiphon [Ps 85 (84):13]

The Lord will bestow his bounty, and our earth shall yield its increase.

Prayer after Communion

May these mysteries, O Lord,

in which we have participated,

profit us, we pray,

for even now, as we walk amid passing things,

you teach us by them to love the things of heaven

and hold fast to what endures.

Through Christ our Lord.

Solemn Blessing

May the almighty and merciful God,

by whose grace you have placed your faith

in the First Coming of his Only Begotten Son

and yearn for his coming again,

sanctify you by the radiance of Christ’s Advent

and enrich you with his blessing.

R. Amen.

As you run the race of this present life,

may he make you firm in faith,

joyful in hope and active in charity.

R. Amen.

So that, rejoicing now with devotion

at the Redeemer’s coming in the flesh,

you may be endowed with the rich reward of eternal life

when he comes again in majesty.

R. Amen.

And may the blessing of almighty God,

the Father, and the Son, X and the Holy Spirit,

come down on you and remain with you for ever.

R. Amen.

CCC

I. He Will Come Again in Glory

Christ already reigns through the Church …

668 “Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.” Christ’s Ascension into heaven signifies his participation, in his humanity, in God’s power and authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses all power in heaven and on earth. He is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion,” for the Father “has put all things under his feet.” Christ is Lord of the cosmos and of history. In him human history and indeed all creation are “set forth” and transcendently fulfilled.551 (450; 518)

669 As Lord, Christ is also head of the Church, which is his Body. Taken up to heaven and glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on earth in his Church. The redemption is the source of the authority that Christ, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, exercises over the Church. “The kingdom of Christ [is] already present in mystery,” “on earth, the seed and the beginning of the kingdom.” (792, 1088; 541)

p 175 670 Since the Ascension God’s plan has entered into its fulfillment. We are already at “the last hour.” “Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real but imperfect.”555 Christ’s kingdom already manifests its presence through the miraculous signs that attend its proclamation by the Church. (1042; 825; 547)

… until all things are subjected to him

671 Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled “with power and great glory” by the king’s return to earth. This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover.558 Until everything is subject to him, “until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God.” That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ’s return by saying to him:560 Marana tha! “Our Lord, come!” (1043; 769, 773; 1043, 2046; 2817)

672 Before his Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not yet come for the glorious establishment of the messianic kingdom awaited by Israel which, according to the prophets, was to bring all men the definitive order of justice, love, and peace.563 According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by “distress” and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching.565 (732; 2612)

p 176 The glorious advent of Christ, the hope of Israel

673 Since the Ascension Christ’s coming in glory has been imminent, even though “it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority.”567 This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment, even if both it and the final trial that will precede it are “delayed.” (1040, 1048)

674 The glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by “all Israel,” for “a hardening has come upon part of Israel” in their “unbelief” toward Jesus. St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.”570 St. Paul echoes him: “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” The “full inclusion” of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of “the full number of the Gentiles,”572 will enable the People of God to achieve “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” in which “God may be all in all.” (840; 58)

The Church’s ultimate trial

675 Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth575 will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. (769)

p 177 676 The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatalogical judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the “intrinsically perverse” political form of a secular messianism. (2425)

677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.580 God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world. (1340; 2853)

II. Humble Vigilance of Heart

Facing difficulties in prayer

2729 The habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction. It can affect words and their meaning in vocal prayer; it can concern, more profoundly, him to whom we are praying, in vocal prayer (liturgical or personal), meditation, and contemplative prayer. To set about hunting down distractions would be to fall into their trap, when all that is necessary is to turn back to our heart: for a distraction reveals to us what we are attached to, and this humble awareness before the Lord should awaken our preferential love for him and lead us resolutely to offer him our heart to be purified. Therein lies the battle, the choice of which master to serve. (2711)

2730 In positive terms, the battle against the possessive and dominating self requires vigilance, sobriety of heart. When Jesus insists on vigilance, he always relates it to himself, to his coming on the last day and every day: today. The bridegroom comes in middle of the night; the light that must not be extinguished is that of faith: “ ‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek his face!’ ” (2659)

2731 Another difficulty, especially for those who sincerely want to pray, is dryness. Dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God, with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones. This is the moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus in his agony and in his tomb. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” If dryness is due to the lack of roots, because the word has fallen on rocky soil, the battle requires conversion.19 (1426)

Homily Help

Jesus exaggerates in today's Gospel when He claims not to know the day or the hour when He will come again. He occasionally makes such overstatements to drive home a point we might otherwise miss (see Matthew 5:34; 23:9; Luke 14:26). His point here is that the exact "hour" is not important. What is crucial is that we not postpone our repentance, that we be ready for Him—spiritually and morally—when He comes. For He will surely come, He tells us—like a thief in the night, like the flood in the time of Noah. In today's Epistle, Paul too compares the present age to a time of advancing darkness and night. Though we sit in the darkness, overshadowed by death, we have seen arise the great light of our Lord who has come into our midst (see Matthew 4:16; John 1:9; 8:12). He is the true light, the life of the world. And His light continues to shine in His Church, the new Jerusalem promised by Isaiah in today's First Reading. In the Church, all nations stream to the God of Jacob, to worship and seek wisdom in the House of David. From the Church goes forth His word of instruction, the light of the Lord—that all might walk in His paths toward that eternal day when night will be no more (see Revelation 22:5). By our Baptism we have been made children of the light and day (see Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:5-7). It is time we start living like it—throwing off the fruitless works of darkness, the desires of the flesh, and walking by the light of His grace. The hour is late as we begin a new Advent. Let us begin again in this Eucharist. As we sing in today's Psalm, let us go rejoicing to the House of the Lord. Let us give thanks to His name, keeping watch for His coming, knowing that our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

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