{"id":1242,"date":"2013-12-01T09:53:02","date_gmt":"2013-12-01T14:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1242"},"modified":"2013-12-01T09:53:02","modified_gmt":"2013-12-01T14:53:02","slug":"homily-first-sunday-of-advent-year-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-first-sunday-of-advent-year-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily – First Sunday of Advent, Year A"},"content":{"rendered":"

1st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nIsaiah 2:1-5
\nRomans 13:11-14
\nMatthew 24:37-44
\nDecember 1, 2013<\/p>\n

Even before Thanksgiving Christmas items were appearing in the stores.\u00a0 I saw a Santa in a mall two weeks before Thanksgiving.\u00a0 Radio stations are beginning to play Christmas music.\u00a0 The Christmas lights are going up.<\/p>\n

But it isn\u2019t Christmas yet!<\/p>\n

In fact we have a whole season to celebrate in our Church before we get to Christmas.\u00a0 It\u2019s called Advent.<\/p>\n

There can be no doubt that Christmas is important.\u00a0 It is the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Indeed it is second only to Easter on our church calendar.<\/p>\n

In fact we have a season just to help us get ourselves spiritually ready for Christmas.\u00a0 We call this season Advent and we begin it today.<\/p>\n

Advent means \u201ccoming\u201d.\u00a0 It is the coming of our Lord that we celebrate during this season.\u00a0 During Advent, we are called to think about Jesus\u2019 coming in two ways, his first coming at the first Christmas and his second coming at the end of the ages.<\/p>\n

Thus Advent is both a season of joyful anticipation of our Christmas celebration of Jesus\u2019 first coming.\u00a0 It is also a penitential season as we think about our readiness for the second coming of Jesus.\u00a0 Our liturgical color for Advent is violet (known as purple to many) symbolizing our need to reflect upon our sinfulness and our need to change.<\/p>\n

Christmas is a time of joy and hope so it really shouldn\u2019t be surprising we tend to want to jump ahead to Christmas.\u00a0 Why think about our sins when we could think happy thoughts about Christmas?<\/p>\n

It is precisely our thoughts of Christmas that should lead us to reflect on our readiness and to make changes in our lives.\u00a0 Jesus coming into the world is a wonderful thing.\u00a0 But Jesus doesn\u2019t want to just be in our lives at Christmas.\u00a0 Jesus wants to be part of our lives each and every day.<\/p>\n

Of course, we should want Jesus in our lives each and every day.\u00a0 What is it we pray in the Our Father?\u00a0 Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So we have Advent as a special season to reflect upon lives and to discern what changes we need to make in our lives.<\/p>\n

This can be a radical change as Isaiah speaks of beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.\u00a0 Won\u2019t it be wonderful if everyone changed their lives so there would be no need to for war and violence?<\/p>\n

To help us make the necessary changes, God instructs us in his ways<\/i> in the scriptures we hear at Mass that we may walk in his paths.<\/i><\/p>\n

Why do this now?\u00a0 Can\u2019t it wait?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s your call.\u00a0 Jesus tells us that the coming of the Lord will happen just like the flood, nobody knew it was coming (except Noah).<\/p>\n

What does Paul say to us?\u00a0 You know the time; it is hour now for you to awake from sleep<\/i>.<\/p>\n

When we hear Paul say \u201cyou know the time\u201d, one might think it refers to the time of the second coming (which we don\u2019t know) but that isn\u2019t what Paul is pointing to.<\/p>\n

Paul is telling the Romans it is time to change.\u00a0 They have heard of Jesus and his teachings.\u00a0 Now is the time to begin to live what Jesus teaches us.<\/p>\n

It is time for us to make changes in our lives, to recommit ourselves to the Lord.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know when the end will come but, as Paul says, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So, we begin Advent today by thinking about our failings.\u00a0 This should lead us all the more to realize the great gift Jesus is to us for he brings us forgiveness made possible by his love.<\/p>\n

What greater gift is there than Jesus\u2019 love and forgiveness?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:37-44 December 1, 2013 Even before Thanksgiving Christmas items were appearing in the stores.\u00a0 I saw a Santa in a mall two weeks before Thanksgiving.\u00a0 Radio stations are beginning to play Christmas music.\u00a0 The Christmas lights are going up. But it isn\u2019t Christmas …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily – First Sunday of Advent, Year A’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-k2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1243,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions\/1243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}