Advent Sunday
“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Summary
Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ. It is a time of expectation when we wait for Christmas but it is also a time to look forward to the final coming. For Isaiah 2:1-5 this will be time of justice and judgment but also a time of peace which encompasses all peoples and nations. The hope of this day encouraged and comforted God’s people through times of struggle and hardship.
However, Matthew 24:36-44 was written when the hope of Christ coming was diminishing. So Jesus encourages his disciples not to give up hope but to be ready to welcome in the kingdom whenever it comes.
We live between the first and the final coming of Christ. Yet Christ still comes in our ordinary, everyday lives, for “when two or three are gathered in my name there am I, in the midst of them.”
We too are waiting and hoping for justice and peace but in the meantime we are reminded to be ready to welcome Christ whenever and wherever the kingdom breaks through, not at the end of time but in our time.
FIRST READING
Isaiah 2:1-5
In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more.
O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!
GOSPEL
Matthew 24.36-44
“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
