{"id":1968,"date":"2016-11-27T09:34:57","date_gmt":"2016-11-27T14:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1968"},"modified":"2016-12-17T08:56:08","modified_gmt":"2016-12-17T13:56:08","slug":"1st-sunday-of-advent-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/1st-sunday-of-advent-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"1st Sunday of Advent, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

1st<\/sup> Sunday in Advent, Year\u00a0A<\/a>
\nIsaiah 2:1-5
\nPsalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
\nRomans 13:11-14
\nMatthew 24:37-44
\nNovember 27, 2016<\/p>\n

It should be apparent that the seasons are changing.\u00a0 Outside it is evident from the snow we got this past week that winter is coming.\u00a0 This is not the season change I want to talk about today.<\/p>\n

We just celebrated Thanksgiving.\u00a0 For many, this means travel and a big Thanksgiving meal.\u00a0 While Thanksgiving often happens just before the season change that I want to talk about, they are unrelated.<\/p>\n

If you have been shopping lately you\u2019ve seen the Christmas stuff out or maybe you\u2019ve seen some street decorations going up pointing to Christmas.<\/p>\n

Christmas is not the season I want to focus on<\/em> today.<\/p>\n

Christmas starts on December 25th<\/sup>.\u00a0 However, Christmas, as the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, is too important to celebrate for just a single day.\u00a0 So, we have a whole season.\u00a0 If you go by what you see in the stores you might think the Christmas season has started.\u00a0 However, for us Christmas does not start until December 25th<\/sup>.\u00a0 From then, it will continue through Epiphany and ends when we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord.<\/p>\n

However, Christmas is so important that we don\u2019t have just one season associated with it, we have two, Christmas and Advent.<\/p>\n

Advent is wheat what we begin today.\u00a0 Advent is about getting ready for Jesus.\u00a0 No matter what day of the week Christmas falls on, there are always four Sundays of Advent.\u00a0 This means, Advent normally starts around Thanksgiving but not always.<\/p>\n

As we get closer to Christmas, our Advent readings will focus on the first coming of Jesus, recalling the time leading up to the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 We are not there yet.<\/p>\n

As we begin Advent, our readings point towards the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of time.\u00a0 As we approached the end of the last liturgical year, we heard from Luke\u2019s Gospel about the End Times.\u00a0 As we start the new liturgical year in our church, we hear from Matthew\u2019s Gospel (as we will for most Sundays of the coming year) about the End Times.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we don\u2019t want to hear about the End Times because we fear the judgment that comes.\u00a0 As I said a couple of weeks ago, it doesn\u2019t matter when the Second Coming will happen for if we follow Jesus always, we will have nothing to fear.<\/p>\n

However, the reality is that we are not always ready.\u00a0 At times we sin.\u00a0 There is always confessions on Saturday.\u00a0 If you read the bulletin, you will find out about some extra times during Advent when I will be in church for confessions.<\/p>\n

That being said, there is another way to look at the Second Coming.\u00a0 Instead of focusing on the judgment that comes at the end, I believe we need to turn our attention to what comes after the judgment.<\/p>\n

After judgment, all who strive to follow Jesus are welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven.\u00a0 When writing to the Romans about the End, Paul says, \u201cFor our salvation<\/em> is nearer now than when we first believed.\u201d\u00a0 He does not say our condemnation<\/em> is nearer but our salvation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Paul takes a positive approach.\u00a0 What is a better motivator for you?\u00a0 To think about the negative consequences of our bad actions or to focus on the positive rewards of our good actions.<\/p>\n

Think about it this way.\u00a0 How many children (and adults) work extra hard to be good as Christmas gets closer?\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 They try to be good so they will get lots of presents.\u00a0 The presents are seen as something good, something to aspire towards.<\/p>\n

The negative motivates us through fear<\/em>.\u00a0 The positive motivates us through hope<\/em>.\u00a0 What greater present can we receive than to receive salvation and spend eternity in Heaven?<\/p>\n

We know we need to be good to get presents.\u00a0 Ultimately, the giving of presents is meant to be an act of love.<\/p>\n

If we focus on hope, then we move ourselves to trust in God\u2019s love.\u00a0 We see God\u2019s love revealed to us when we see Jesus.\u00a0 In Jesus we see hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1st Sunday in Advent, Year\u00a0A Isaiah 2:1-5 Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:37-44 November 27, 2016 It should be apparent that the seasons are changing.\u00a0 Outside it is evident from the snow we got this past week that winter is coming.\u00a0 This is not the season change I want to talk …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘1st Sunday of Advent, Year A – Homily’ »<\/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":true,"_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":[62,82],"tags":[148,205,32],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-vK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968"}],"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=1968"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1993,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions\/1993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}