Advent Week 1

Today, we begin another church year. The First Sunday of Advent begins the calendar anew for the church proper. We move into Cycle A – Matthew’s Gospel – and away from Luke’s, Cycle C. Also, in our daily readings we move to Year One away from Year Two. Advent anticipates the coming of Christ in a twofold manner: at the end of time and then like one like ourselves at Christmas. The first two weeks of the Advent Season is devoted to the end of time with Christ’s coming a second time. Christmas is that annual celebration of the nativity of Christ, honoring our human nature by becoming one like Christ, honoring our human nature by becoming one like us. Advent is a season of hope. We have the ability to think about our future. But we also have the opportunity by choices and decisions to shape it. Our future is built on the present day actions, choices, and decisions. We are made in the image of God by our capacity to choose. This gift of living life with hope is essential to all of us. Human beings cannot live without hope, without something to live for, without something to look forward to. Without hope we surrender to fear and ultimately death. This gift of hope is also echoed in creation. We celebrate the four seasons of the year, one leading into the next. Though the autumn is now upon us, with the resulting imagery of dying, we know that is not the end. Autumn will yield to winter – an imagery of death.  But that is not the end. We look forward to spring arising again, bringing with it new life which flourishes in summer. And then the cycle repeats itself all over again. We continue to read each Sunday from the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Scriptures. They provide us with the reality of how hope is necessary throughout life. Their hope was big. They sought fertile land, a united people, the blind see, the deaf hear, the mute speak, or the lame walk. Our hopes are no different than those of the Old Testament. Just like they, we too, hope for lasting peace, tranquil lives, sufficient food and an end to all suffering, pain and misery. As we go through these four weeks of the Advent season, may we continue to renew our hope in many things that are needed to be more effective in living life.