First Sunday of Advent

“Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” Mk: 13:1

Isaiah, one of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, spoke these words thousands of years ago:

“Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we no longer fear you? … No ear has ever heard, no eye has ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him.”

Waiting. Remembering. Returning. Watching.

All of this – and more – is what the season of Advent is all about.

The problem is the competition: shopping, parties, decorations, traveling, and a host of others distractions – all pleasant and often family oriented, but still distracting.

Why so?

Because all the emphasis on and expectations about Christmas highlight values that can easily hinder us from remembering the main point of this wondrous season:

The coming of the Christ Child, and with him, the coming of a whole new way of seeing the world around us, the coming of a value system that confronts us, shakes us up, and demands a new kind of heart.

That’s why those words of Jesus in today’s gospel – “Be watchful! Be alert!” – jar us, and maybe even annoy us. They’re words that stop us in our tracks, that pull us out of a mood, that direct us to some very serious thinking.

Advent is the time of year when we repeat words like “waiting,” and “anticipation,” and “hope.” It’s the time of year when we light candles as a means of remembering that we are called “out of darkness into the light.” It’s the time of  year when we sing songs that wake us up, pray prayers that call us to be vigilant, read scripture passages that invite us to “get ready.”

It’s an “on-call” time of the year when we are alerted to the need for interior review, and the need for actively reassessing our priorities.

Perhaps most importantly, it’s a time of year when we look deeply at where it is that we will truly find the Christ child. Will it be only in a story about a manger in Bethlehem thousands of years ago? Or will it be somewhere else?

Pope Francis seems adamant, along with all the gospels, that the most opportune place to find the Lord of the Universe is the same place Jesus repeatedly told us we would find him: in the poor, the weak, the vulnerable, the hungry, the handicapped, the mentally ill, the elderly, the homeless, the imprisoned, the unborn.

Or, putting it even more simply, Pope Francis describes the place where our God lives as being “in the powerless” and in the ”inequality that spawns violence.” It’s the place where God hides.

A beloved spiritual writer, Fr. Henri Nouwen, poses this question:

“How can we come to know God when our focus is elsewhere, on success, influence, and power?”

Nouwen goes on to say he increasingly believes … “that our faithfulness will depend on our willingness to go where there is brokenness, loneliness, and human need. If the church has a future, it is a future with the poor in whatever form.”

Ultimately, then, what Advent is all about is a time set aside to remember.

Remember that we are to become the light that dispels the darkness around us.

Remember that we are to become the place where God himself dwells – not just in Bethlehem, but in our hearts.

Remember that we are to “Be watchful! Be alert!”

Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.

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11/30/17