It is no surprise to any of us that the season is changing. The mangoes are almost finished, the build-up has begun, and plans are being made for holidays and Christmas. The church’s year changes along with the natural year. Central to Christianity is that Christ became one of us, and so therefore the natural world and the behaviour of its people teach us about our faith.
Our natural world is in a time of waiting. Here we wait for the rain and the greening of the country. The waiting is not passive, because around us the temperature is rising, the humidity increasing and the clouds are beginning to tease us from the horizon.
Often we talk of keeping vigil. We wait beside someone who is sick, worried or bereaved. We do not wait for the sake of it, nor do we wait in a drowsy of lazy state. We wait with eyes wide open with expectation that something will happen. For Christians the time before Christmas is a time of vigil, a time of expectant waiting, a time of hope. We call this time Advent.
Karl Rahner, the famous Bavarian theologian of last century, describes it this way: The term Advent connotes not only an arrival but also that which is yet to come. It has a strange interpenetration of the present and the future, of what exists and what is yet to come, of possession and expectation. So too, in the liturgy of advent, the present and future of Christian salvation are mysteriously interwoven. [i]
In a time filled with such wonder and opportunity, it is important not to lose our way, go troppo or just be subsumed in the mindless rush of parties, end of year windups and consumer madness. We need to actively listen to God in and around us. So how do we stay awake, how do we keep our guard? We have to actively listen to the scriptures and the country. Active listening involves three Rs: Receiving, retaining and responding.
To stay awake we need to begin to understand God’s plan, and we can only receive by being in contact with God through prayer and meditation. When we begin to comprehend, we will retain that knowledge in our hearts and live it in our lives. We will be seen as people of hope. Thus we will be able to respond positively to the invitation to draw closer to the loving embrace of our God. In other words, we will be able to stay awake during Advent! Practically, this means taking time to nourish our soul. We are all busy, there are parties and celebrations galore for everyone. This is a good thing, but it ceases to be this when the peripherals eclipse the centre. If we cannot actively listen to God talking to us during Advent, then we are asleep, and we will most certainly miss him when he comes.
Stay awake! Listen, learn and live in the present, past and future all at once. This is the gift being offered to all who look forward to the coming of Christ at Christmas.
Homily First Sunday in Advent Year B, 27th November 2011.
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