First Sunday of Advent, December 3, 2023

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We are called to discernment and watchfulness

Mark 13:33–37

Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.

It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.

Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.

May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.

What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

Music Meditations

Opening Prayer

“To Keep from Singing” by Ed Ingebretzen, S.J.:

To us who live in darkness
a great grace
passes through the night
like a star

the valleys and the mountains
are one land
the lion and the young lamb
are one heart
darkness and light
are one life:

Peace shall find a home in us;
He shall walk with us
the long day
the great climb

Let us reflect on and name what we are waiting for in this dark time, either for ourselves or someone else, what graces we are keeping watch for during this advent. After each petition, pray: “Come Spirit of Hope.”

Companions for the Journey

From “First Impressions” a service of the Southern Dominican Province 2020

Even if you are only live streaming Mass these Sundays have you noticed the changes today? Not just the cooler weather. Not the vestments from green to violet. It is the first Sunday of Advent and we have shifted to Mark for the Sunday gospel readings. Mark is the earliest of the four Gospels and the shortest.  It is only 16 chapters long, but it had a profound effect on the others. There is a great deal of emphasis in Mark on the suffering and death of Jesus and the call for disciples to follow him by taking up their cross. In the other Gospels Jesus promises blessings for those who give up houses and family for his sake. Only in Mark does Jesus indicate that with blessings there will also be persecutions (e.g. 10:30). Mark wrote his gospel around 70 A.D. and the consensus is that he wrote it for the church in Rome during Nero’s persecution. Like Mark’s first readers we find strength in God’s Word and the Eucharist to follow the way of our Master, denying self and taking up his cross of self-giving love.

During Advent and Lent the Scripture readings are more thematic. Today’s emphasize watching and waiting. Especially during these pandemic-threatened days, as we wait for a vaccine, we call out, “When are you coming to rescue us O Lord? Where are you? Why do you delay?”

Jesus directs us, “Be watchful! Be alert!” For what? He urges us not to get discouraged in the overwhelming details and questions raised by these days, but to be ready to welcome him. How can we do that? We are doing that already as we try to prayerfully be attentive to the Word, respond to what we hear and watch for his entrance into our lives as we wait for his final return?

Do the powers around us really have our best interests at heart? If these crisis days have taught us anything they have shown us the debilitating effects of political wrangling and selfish interests. Those powers seem demonic with intentions to rip apart the ties that should bind us to one another like: compassion, understanding, forgiveness and communal interests. Jesus urges us to keep awake lest we let those evil-intentioned powers break into our “house.” What can we do this Advent to be faithful servants who have the responsibility for the household Jesus has left in our care?

A big handicap to our spiritual growth is that we “doze off,” that is, we live almost unconsciously. We are preoccupied by our routine and habitual lives and don’t notice opportunities to grow in awareness of what is happening in our world and immediately around us. If the pandemic has any good side-effects, and who wants to admit anything good can come from this horror (!), it might have awakened us and made us more watchful for how and when the Lord is coming to us throughout the day—“whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cock crow, or in the morning.”

A while back I took a friar to the hospital emergency room. We checked in and were told to take a seat and wait for an available doctor. There was quite an assortment of sick and needy people waiting with us. Some of their needs were plainly visible, bleeding wounds, a smashed wrist, etc. Others had ailments that were not obvious, but there we all were in the emergency room waiting for a skilled doctor to come to help us.

I think Advent is a waiting room like that. Some of us need help for visible ailments, other needs lie below the surface, but affect others. Here we are waiting, not sure when help will come. But he did promise he would and that gives us hope. While we wait we’ll pray for ourselves and each other that we don’t give up and remain watchful and hopeful.

During Advent those able to gather in church will sing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” The prayer goes back to the late fifth, or early sixth century. It was a time of marauding Vandals, Huns and other barbarians who were pillaging, killing and also “vandalizing” the great libraries of Europe. It was a prayer for the millions forced into exile—the hymn names them—“lonely exiles.”  Today another pillaging pandemic has invaded every country, race and class of people. We yearn to return to our Advent warm and comfortable churches. But instead these days we are joined to our ancestors in faith pleading, like them, for deliverance. Vikings are not at our gates coming to wreak havoc. Instead, the virus has forced its way into the very inner sanctums of our homes evoking fear and a sense of impotence. What shall we do? We pray as our ancestors in faith prayed, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”

I am sure at this time of the year we have heard more than one warning about commercialism and consumerism. Let’s presume most of the readers of these reflections are trying to avoid the secular pitfalls the season presents. Let’s also presume we are already looking for ways to preserve, even nourish, the spiritual aspects of the coming Christmas season. That is what Advent can do for us, be a time of reflection on our lives and show us changes we must make. The scripture readings through this season can help us along our path of self examination and readiness for the Lord’s coming.

We have also been told by medical experts to: be alert, wear masks, wash our hands, keep social distance, etc. Now Jesus is giving a similar kind of advice, “Be watchful! Be alert!” Many of us are very busy trying to keep our jobs, or find new ones; teach the kids at home; shop safely for food. For what else do we need to watch and be vigilant?

Advent can seem like the “same old, same old.” We’ve heard the stories and sung these hymns before. Maybe that is why the first gospel of this new season calls us to wake up. We will need help to do that. Today’s Psalm response can word our prayer for the beginning of Advent, “Lord make us turn to you: let us see your face and we shall be saved.”

Further reflection:

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Stay awake!

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • Someone said that when we get on the good train heading to hope, this is where we are more apt to see Jesus.
    How do we do this?
    How can I help dispel the darkness of fear, isolation, anger or self-pity the surrounds us all?
    How can I be a true sign of light and hope to others?
  • At the moment, if the darkness is to be called back, I’ve got to do it. How can I be a small sign of light for someone?
  • How does denial pay out in our spiritual lives?
  • What is “active waiting”?
  • What does God want to reshape in my life this Advent?
  • What gifts has God given me to be shared in this time of watching and waiting?
  • Walter Burghardt, S.J., once said “If you want to Live Advent, BE Advent.” How can we be a sign of hope to the hopeless this Advent season?
  • From Jude Siciliano, O.P.:
    In what place in my life am I waiting for God to act?
    How do I feel during this time of waiting?
    What enables me to wait in patience?
  • Has there ever been a time when you were wrestling with a spiritual question?
    Did others dismiss the question or offer facile answers?
    What eventually helped bring you peace or resolution?
  • Life has a way of catching us off-guard. Have there ever been moments that have thrown you off-balance?
    How do we live our lives so that daily care and attentiveness can sustain us somewhat when life plays its tricks on us?
  • Have I ever had someone or something that I was willing to wait for?
    How did I deal with my impatience?
    Was I willing to sit with the process or did I jump into a quick fix?
  • Have I ever tried to get out of a bad place by doing something, anything, to get out of the discomfort of where I was emotionally or physically?
    How did that work out?
  • Often, we think of waiting as a desert between where we are and where we want to be. Am I awaiting a time when all of my problems will be solved?
    What will solve them?
  • Saint Augustine, who finally converted to Christianity, was said to have prayed: “God give me the virtue of chastity, but not yet…” Is there any behavioral change I have been putting off until “the time is right”?
  • Is there something in my own life that I am unwilling to deal with?
    What is it, and what is the source of my unwillingness?
    What are my denial mechanisms?
    Are they helpful for me in the long term?
  • The Greek word Parousia (the return of Christ in glory) is Adventus in Latin. Is Advent only about the Parousia?
    If not, then what IS it about?
  • What are some real-life attention-getters that we sometimes do not recognize as a visitation of the Holy Spirit?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Examen:

The message of today seems to be that we must be alert to the presence of God in our lives, or we may miss it in the busyness and illusion that invades our consciousness and sometimes controls us. Some signs of God’s light might be so subtle that we miss them. Hence the advice to watch, to pay attention, and remember that we are not in charge, God is.
Pay attention! When did I notice God’s presence in the good times, the simple good things I experienced this week?
Pay attention! When did I notice God’s presence in the painful times this week?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Adapted from When Christ Meets Christ by Walter Burghardt, S.J.

We need to remember Christ is here.
Christ is present in the Eucharist
Christ’s real presence is in the world, although it requires us to pay attention and notice His presence.
Christ is here in the love we have for Him, and our obeying His commandment to love one another.
Christ is alive in others, including the most annoying and the most needy as well as the most lovable.
Christ is alive in all creation, in the glory of the mountains and seas, the beauty of trees and plains, the exquisite animal kingdom.

So, how do I bring Christ to others?
So, how do I radiate the presence of Christ in me?
So, how to I care for and nurture the earth and all its creatures instead of destroying nature for economic gain?

I resolve to pay attention and notice God’s presence in the world around me this week, and pray for gentleness and courage to be Christ in the world.

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Reading: Psalm 10: 13-14, 16-18

Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless.
Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself: ”He won’t call me to account”?
But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land.
You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.

Reflection adapted from Wm. Bausch in Once upon a Gospel:

Yes, there are terrible things going on in the world. But faith people like health workers and faith agencies like Catholic worker House remind us that the hidden Lord is among us: unsung, unannounced, unreported by the media, but here. Be alert for him. Watch!

Finally, this truth is our challenge. Our deeds of charity, our acts of forgiveness, our compassion, our morally lived lives, like pinpoints of light in a morally dark world, must show a weary and anxious people that the Lord really has come and is here, and if there is any watching to be done to detect Him, it is to watch us.

If others watch us, if others watch me, what signs of the Lord’s presence in this world will they see?

This Advent, I invite you to make a special effort to notice those around you who are struggling, albeit silently, and to offer help where you can. I challenge you to donate something to a charity of your choice: in this area, we have Catholic Worker House, the Giving Tree, the Red Cross, St. Elizabeth Seton School, Catholic Relief services, and the guy begging on the corner near the shopping center, (just for starters…)

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style:

I read Psalm 62. What am I worried about, or what do I feel threatened by at this moment? How real are my worries? When have I relied on God for comfort? When Have I relied instead on myself, on others, on wealth, on talent or on social position for comfort? I write my own version of Psalm 62.
—Anne Greenfield: Songs of Life, Psalm Meditations from the Catholic Community at Stanford

Poetic Reflection:

This is how one woman stays aware and stays awake until whatever comes her way. A novel way of “waiting” by “not waiting”:

“Advent at Midlife”

I am no longer waiting for
A special occasion;
I burn the best candles ordinary
days.

I am no longer waiting for
The house to be clean;
I fill it with people who understand that
Even dust is sacred.

I am no longer waiting for
Everyone to understand me;
it’s just not their task.

I am no longer waiting for
The perfect children;
My children have their own names
That burn as brightly as any star.

I am no longer waiting for
The other shoe to drop;
It already did, and I survived.

I am no longer waiting for
The time to be right;
The time is always now.

I am no longer waiting for
The mate who will complete me;
I am grateful to be so
Warmly, tenderly held.

I am no longer waiting for
A quiet moment;
My heart can be stilled whenever it is
called.

I am no longer waiting for
The world to be at peace;
I unclench my grasp and
Breathe peace in and out.

I am no longer waiting to
Do something great;
Being awake to carry my
Grain of sand is enough.

I am no longer waiting to be recognized;
I know that I dance in a holy circle.

I am no longer waiting for
Forgiveness.
I believe, I believe.

—by Mary Anne Perrone (National Catholic Reporter, 12/15/06)

Poetic Reflection:

This excerpt from the Fifties Beat Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a lighthearted introduction to the central issue of Advent: Advent is a time of waiting. But what are we waiting for, and how are we waiting?

“I Am Waiting”

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting for the Age of Anxiety to drop dead
and I am waiting for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe for anarchy
I am waiting for the Second Coming
and I am waiting for a religious revival to sweep thru the state of Arizona
and I am waiting for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored
and I am waiting for them to prove that God is really American
and I am seriously waiting for Billy Graham and Elvis Presley
to exchange roles seriously
and I am waiting to see God on television piped onto church altars
if only they can find the right channel to tune in on
and I am waiting for the Last Supper to be served again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder

and I am waiting for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth without taxes
and I am waiting for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am anxiously waiting for the secret of eternal life to be discovered
by an obscure general practitioner and save me forever from certain death
and I am waiting for life to begin
and I am waiting for the storms of life to be over
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder

Closing Prayer

From Isaiah and Psalm 80:

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
We are the clay and you the potter;
We are all the work of your hands.
Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we will be saved.
Amen.