Revised by Fr. Ray Reitzel, C.R.
Father Ray was born in Waterloo and is #9 of a family of 9 boys and 3 girls. One brother (Harry) is a C.R. priest, and two sisters, Cecilia & Marcella are Notre Dame Sisters. He taught at St. Jerome’s High School for 16 years, at Scollard Hall high school, North Bay for 15 years, and served in 4 parishes for 17 years. He is semi-retired and living in the priests’ residence at St. Jerome’s University, Louis Hall.
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
November 29, 2015
GATHERING TIME (10-15 minutes)
Introduction to the Word:
A story, we have often been told, is worth a thousand words. This is one of those stories that gets to the heart of the season we call Advent.
Once upon a time there was an old, old monk who had become the much loved and revered abbot of a monastery. One day a much younger enthusiastic monk came to question him about his life: “Father,” he asked, “in all your years of prayer and fasting, of rising early, of penance, of daily routines, have you become enlightened? Have you become holy?” The old revered abbot broke into a revered laugh: “No, I don’t consider myself very holy. As for enlightenment or wisdom, I’m not so sure. On most days I consider it an accomplishment just to get through the day somewhat gracefully. To learn wisdom as well is asking for a lot.” But the eager young monk was not satisfied. “Well, why then do you stay in the monastery? If you don’t feel very holy and you are not growing in wisdom, why have you stayed all these years? What have you learned about God?”
The old monk became more serious, a little startled by the urgency of young monk’s honest question. “Well, yes. I must admit that I have learned one thing about God. I have learned:
Stay Awake! You never know when your God is going to drop in on you.
Stay awake! You never know when your best laid plans will get rudely interrupted.
Stay awake! God loves to surprise you, coming at the most unexpected times, and wanting to be the centre of your life. Yes, that is one thing I have learned about God, God never leaves your side, so Stay awake!”
WAKE UP! This is the focus on the first Sunday of Advent.
Jesus in the gospel urges us, “Be on your guard!...Be alert at all times!”
Advent is set aside to prayerfully prepare for Jesus’ coming in the flesh. The Church designates Advent as a time to be mindful and responsive to the Lord’s coming. It is time to be aware of the Lord’s presence to us now, and in so many ways, until the Lord welcomes us to our final home.
It is time to recommit to the Advent Way of Life. The experience can be as ordinary as a visit by a friend, or a moment in prayer, or the birth of the child, or the death of a loved one…each is an extraordinary revelation of God.
The focus of the;
2nd week of Advent is SHAPE UP! John the Baptist, “Prepare the way of the Lord!”
3rd week is CHEER UP! This is Gaudete Sunday. St. Paul: “Rejoice in the Lord always!”
4th week is HURRY UP! “Mary went with haste to visit Elizabeth.” The birth of Jesus is imminent!
Warm-up Activity: (about 8-10 minutes):
“Stay awake!” The following questions serve as a personal awareness check:
1. Have you ever fallen asleep in some embarrassing place or while at the wheel of your car? Explain.
2. When you must be awakened at an early hour, how do you ensure getting up on time? Elaborate.
3. Name a few happenings you already have missed, or could miss out on, if you didn’t stay awake?
The Table of the Word
Living the Advent Time – Waiting in Joyful Expectation
Our lives are like a continuing series of Advent experiences; we are painfully aware that the world is not as just, not as loving, not as pleasant as we would like it to be. We are constantly waiting to become, to discover, to change, to complete, to fulfill. Hope, struggle, fear, expectation are all part of life’s many Advents. But then, Christ came at a point in time to reveal to us the possibilities of God. His promise to return at the end of time challenges us and empowers us to realize those possibilities. His coming among us today and every day gives us reason to hope in such possibilities, namely, that He is in our midst; that light continues to shatter the darkness; that we continue to be liberated from our fears; that we will never be alone again because Advent’s promise keeps assuring us that our God is Emmanuel —our God–is–with– us.
Leader: Let us be vigilant at all times for our redemption is at hand.
Lord Jesus, fulfillment of God’s promise, Lord, have mercy.
Christ Jesus, the “new vine” of the line of David, Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, our Emmanuel Lord, have mercy.
Let us pray (together):
Lord, help us to be watchful and alert,
ready to embrace the salvation you promise
through Christ, your Son. Amen.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION TIME (45 minutes)
(As Christians we believe that the WORD of God we hear proclaimed each Sunday is an empowering Word, and that God is present in the Word proclaimed. This is the Word that God wants us to hear today. The dynamic of the Small Christian Community is such that God’s Spirit becomes present, and the gifts of the Spirit are experienced as empowering and life-giving. )
FIRST READING (Jeremiah 33:14–16)
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
SECOND READING (1 Thessalonians 3:12–4:2)
Brothers and sisters: May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, as, in fact, you are doing, you should do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL (Luke 21:25–28, 34–36)
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord.
Jesus spoke to his disciples about his return in glory. “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
“Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catching you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Lectio Divina means “sacred prayer through sacred reading.” It was a popular form of prayer in the early Church. This Word proclaimed today is God’s own Word, God’s way of speaking to you today through God’s own Spirit. So take a few moments to be quiet, allowing this Word you have just heard to touch you or soak into you as you reflect quietly on the three readings. Is there a word or thought that somehow attracts you or has your interest? If so, simply identify it and describe it in a few words.
COMMENTARY:
On TV we are deluged with seemingly endless apocalyptic–like happenings from all parts of the globe. But then there are times when the daily news sounds just too good to be true. In today's first reading Jeremiah tells his people: “The days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will fulfill the promise I made to those of Israel and Judah.” Chances are, not too many people were banking on God's promises when Jeremiah uttered this prophecy. Within a generation, Jeremiah’s nation would be divided: Israel to the North, and Judah (with its capital in Jerusalem) to the South. In 722 B.C.E., the Kingdom of Israel was practically wiped off the map, and by Jeremiah's time, the Southern Kingdom of Judah had largely been sent off into captivity in Babylon. Israel had become a “dead stump”, both politically and spiritually.
How similar this is to the once thriving Church in the West where now, less than 10% of Christians attend Sunday worship, and many ancient Christian centres in the Arab world are being dissolved. Are we part of the faithful remnant (the anawim in Hebrew), the prophets who are calling in the wilderness today ??
Who would be left in the Promised Land to be the recipient of God's promise? A fair question—yet scripture scholar Alice Camille notes that Jeremiah dares to make this prophecy in the teeth of an invasion that would propel the people away from their homeland and into exile (Exploring the Sunday Readings). In the light of all these historical facts, Camille, with a touch of humour, suggests that in our darkest hour, it is helpful to have a prophecy of hope in your pocket or purse because such a prophecy is not a fairy tale but a divine promise.
This is not a bad idea for today’s faithful sojourners, living in our own apocalyptic times. As we view TV’s daily news highlights, and actually witness some of the unspeakable carnage caused by suicide bombers, and a number of massive natural disasters, and the many thousands of refugees fleeing the war in Syria—all taking countless lives and leaving millions of women and children displaced and homeless—we are experiencing all over again the scene that Jeremiah writes about in the first reading. Most of us older folks have seen the “signs” that Jesus points out in the Gospel today. The young prophet’s message needs to be heard today just as surely as it was some 6oo years before Christ.
Jesus Christ, “the just shoot,” the scion, sprouting from the “dead stump” has come indeed and is present through His Spirit in the midst of the carnage and the pain. Jeremiah reminds us that our God does not hold grudges but gives second and third, even countless chances “to straighten up and fly right.” The young prophet gives us reason for hope, even though on face value, hope seems but a faint reality far beyond our reach. In a word, Jeremiah is saying: Don’t ever give up on your God, because your God never gives up on you, and God’s time of fulfilment is on its way. Comforting words in our disturbing times.
Paul (2nd reading) is all excited about the news he is delivering to his beloved community in Thessalonica: “God is coming into your midst.” This coming, says Paul, is not just an historic moment long past; it is a recurring reality here and now. It is a message of positive expectation, not one of fear and trembling. Paul then makes a touching and personal appeal to his faith community: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for each other just as I abound in my love for you.” Here Paul is reminding his people that the virtue of love makes us whole within ourselves. Love is the womb, the path, the vehicle and the destination. It binds us together: in pairs, in families, and in communities. In a perfect world we would all be united by its powerful forces that seek the common good, and we would see to it that no one is compelled to live in need. The disciples once asked Jesus to increase their faith, but Paul suggests here that a loving and affirming family and faith community may be even more important.
Each year at the start of the Advent season, the tone of the readings for this Sunday catches us off guard. Instead of anticipating the hope and joy of Jesus’ birth (i.e., Christmas) “for unto us a Child is born,” and hearing those comforting stories about people in darkness discovering a great light, our Gospel tells of people dying of fright because terrible forces are coming into the world which are shaking the heavens and the earth. And these forces will open wide like a trap to catch the unwary! What kind of way is this to start a season of hope and joy, we ask?
Surprisingly, Alice Camille suggests that this may well be the best way for us to catch Advent’s message. A firm faith requires of us that we believe that light can shine in our darkness; that love can come into an old weary world, that things that frighten us cannot hurt us because our God has assured us of his presence and his power and his love. And our God is a most powerful God!
Walter Burghardt, S.J., offers us a final thought that addresses the same issue. Feeling so burdened by the worrisome and destructive nature of “the signs of the times,” how can we say that our redemption is at hand? Because we must remember that these are not the only signs. In the face of all that gives us dismay, we see heroism and patience and understanding; we see honesty and unselfish service of others; we see genuine holiness and fidelity. In other words there are increasing numbers of people all over the world whether in governments, or in the Church, or in our neighbourhoods and families who are committed to justice and peace. Their lives testify that the reign of God has indeed taken hold. For just one example, consider the brothers, Marc and Craig Kielburger, who began Social Justice work as children now run a worldwide “Me to We” movement that works in the developing world to provide clean water, education, and food security for thousands and thousands of world’s poor. We witness the heroic example of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor who has opened the doors to invite thousands of refugees from Syria to find a new home in Germany.