Padre Pio Parish Glenmore Park

Happy New Year! We begin another Liturgical Year (B) today with the First Sunday of Advent. The common theme of today’s readings is that vigilant service prepares us for the coming of Christ as our saviour during Christmas and as our judge and Lord at the end of the world. The reason why the liturgical year ends and begins with the same theme is clear: if we have already embraced Jesus in His first coming, we will have no fear of His second coming. Advent is the season of special preparation and expectation for the coming of Christ. It encourages us to examine our lives, to reflect on our need for God to enter our lives and to prepare earnestly for, and eagerly await the coming of Christ. He will come to us in the celebration of the Incarnation, in His continual coming in our daily living and in His final coming as our Lord to judge us all and to renew the Father’s creation.

Using apocalyptic images, the gospel urges the elect to be alert for the return of Christ because no one except the Father knows the day or the hour of the Lord’s return. Jesus summarizes the complexities of Christian living to two imperatives: "Take heed!" (Be on guard) and "Watch!" (Be alert, stay awake, and don’t grow careless). Our life on earth is to be one of productive service uninfluenced by a supervisor's presence or seeming absence. We wait for Christ in two ways. The early Sundays of Advent teach the endof- the-world theme. In this context, we wait for Christ to come again in glory, to judge the living and the dead. The later Sundays of Advent celebrate a different theme: the coming of the Messiah in the flesh.

Today’s second reading from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, written from Ephesus in 57 A.D., begins with a greeting and a thanksgiving prayer. The letter is Paul's answer to reports concerning disputes and difficulties in Corinth which had reached him. It was written while he and his audience were still sure that Christ's second coming was just around the corner. Like all early Christians, the Apostle used the phrase “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” as another way to speak about Jesus’ Parousia — His Second Coming at the end of the world. Paul reminded the Corinthians that they were not ready to face the Day of the Lord because they were misusing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. After describing the special gifts of the Holy Spirit they had received, Paul reminded the Corinthians that they were using their gifts in the wrong way. Christ's favour, the speech and knowledge they possessed, the spiritual gifts in which they gloried -- all were useless unless used for the good of the community. In fact, many of Paul's converts had been using their gifts to destroy the community instead of building it up. What should have been an asset, had become a detriment. Paul could only pray for the eventual conversion of his community. "He (Jesus) will strengthen you to the end," the Apostle writes, "so that you will be blameless on the day of Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, and it was He who called you to fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."