We could say to ourselves: last weekend was the last Sunday of the liturgical year, and so this Sunday must be the first Sunday of the new liturgical year. And we would be right. And we could suggest that, since the readings of the last two Sundays had apocalyptic, end-of-the-world-type themes, this Sunday should have more hopeful readings about the new heavens and the new earth.
But Advent continues the apocalypse-style readings, with many warnings about keeping vigil, about being spiritually vigilant, about avoiding evil and doing good. Watching and waiting. Waiting for… Christ to return. That’s what keeping vigil is all about – watching for the return of Christ. The distractions of this world place us in a type of stupor, and we lurch doggedly from one day to the next, our gaze fixed on the world around us. The Apostles and the Church of every age have asked us to awaken from that sleepy/drunken state, and to raise our gaze to Christ, and through Him to God our Father. Thus, S. Paul says to the Roman Christians in the second reading that it is high time that they awaken from slumber, for the day of salvation is nearer than ever. The night is over, the day will soon begin, he says, rather poetically. It is possible to be baptised and, the initial enthusiasm having faded, to sleep-walk back into a destructive lifestyle!
“Love of our neighbour refrains from doing harm of any kind; that is why it fulfils all the demands of the law. Meanwhile, make no mistake about the age we live in; already it is high time for us to awake out of our sleep; our salvation is closer to us now than when we first learned to believe. The night is far on its course; day draws near. Let us abandon the ways of darkness, and put on the armour of light. Let us pass our time honourably, as by the light of day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in quarrels and rivalries. Rather, arm yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ; spend no more thought on nature and nature’s appetites.”
Letter of S. Paul to the Romans, 13: 10-14 [link]
Remember those gospel parables of the bridegroom, the timing of whose coming is not announced precisely, so that his servants and his maid-servants are meant to keep their lamps lit, etc. and plan it down to the point of keeping spare oil at hand if He is more than a little late. Paul gives his Romans more practical detail: Christians are to give up their former, pre-baptismal, sinful lifestyles entirely. The light of baptism brought them out of the darkness of the unbelieving world and into the light of Christ. Returning to lives of sin would be like stepping back out of the light, with shameful acts such as the ones he lists: envies, sexual licence, and the rest. To those of us who have entrapped ourselves in habitual sin, good S. Paul would come up and say, Wake up, Wake up, it’s high time that you Wake up…
And that then is the spirit of Advent. Think of the good Jews of the time before Christ, even the familiar characters we love so much, S. Joseph, our Blessed Lady, S. Zachary the priest, his wife S. Elizabeth, their son S. John the Baptist, old S. Simeon in the Temple, and all the others. Good and holy Jews. The Light had not yet arrived for the first time, but the moment the prophet Daniel had predicted had arrived, and they waited in fasting and prayer. That was their Advent. The Light they welcomed with great joy promised that He would return, and return as the great Judge. And as His people waited His first Coming in fasting and prayer, He bids us now await His second Coming in like spirit. Keep the vigil, with the Latin Church’s tradition of purple veils, and multiple candles. This is our Advent.
Isaiah is the prophet of Advent. In our first reading this weekend, the prophet places the mountain of the Jewish Temple higher than every other mountain. Since the high places were where ancient peoples climbed to offer sacrifices, the various mountains represented other religions.
“This is a message which was revealed to Isaias, the son of Amos, about Juda and Jerusalem. In later days, the mountain where the Lord dwells will be lifted high above the mountain-tops, looking down over the hills, and all nations will flock there together. A multitude of peoples will make their way to it, crying, ‘Come, let us climb up to the Lord’s mountain-peak, to the house where the God of Jacob dwells; He shall teach us the right way, we will walk in the paths He has chosen. The Lord’s commands shall go out from Sion, His word from Jerusalem, and He will sit in judgement on the nations, giving His award to a multitude of peoples. They will melt down their swords into plough-shares, their spears into pruning-hooks, nation levying war against nation and training itself for battle no longer. Come you too (they will say), children of Jacob, let us walk together in the path where the Lord shews us light.'”
Prophecy of Isaias, 2: 1-5 [link]
The prophet is elevating the Jewish religion over every other, and Christ does the same when He says to a Samaritan woman that Salvation comes from the Jews. He is that Salvation, and His very name means God-saves. When does the Jewish religion tower over every other, lifted higher than every other? On a cross, outside the gates of Jerusalem. The prophet goes on… when this happens, when the cross is raised, all the tribes of mankind will stream to the foot of the cross, and the Holy One of Israel will rule their hearts… from a cross…
But that rule of His over our hearts depends always upon our cooperation. And that that brings us back to the theme of vigilance against sin, and Paul’s warning in the second reading that we do not return to lives of sin (as a dog returns to its own vomit, in the words of the Apostle S. Peter). For, if we leave the practice of religion to return to lives of vice, it will be as the gospel reading says, and we shall be badly surprised when Christ returns.
“‘When the Son of Man comes, all will be as it was in the days of Noe; in those days before the flood, they went on eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the time when Noe entered the ark, and they were taken unawares, when the flood came and drowned them all; so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. One man taken, one left, as they work together in the fields; one woman taken, one left, as they grind together at the mill. You must be on the watch, then, since you do not know the hour of your Lord’s coming. Be sure of this; if the master of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch, and not allowed his house to be broken open. And you too must stand ready; the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting Him.“
Gospel of S. Matthew, 24: 37-44 [link]
So, we stay awake, and we stay ready…
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 