Sunday Scripture Readings

Submitted on May 24, 2007

Fr. Francis X. Cleary, SJ

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, NOVEMBER 30 Jeremiah 22:14-16; Psalm 25; 1 Thessalonians 3:12, 4:2; Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 OUR GOOD NEWS: We look forward to God’s future for us, the better to learn and do his present will. Last Sunday, the liturgical year fittingly closed with readings that looked forward to the Second Coming. With this return to Christ His universal and total kingship will become a reality, and all creation will be radically restored and renewed. Advent now begins a new annual cycle, but this does not mean just starting over again. Advent means "arrival," a season when the Church looks back in order to look forward. We recall Jesus’ first coming 2,000 years ago to rekindle hope in the certainty of His final coming. The first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians (second reading) is probably our earliest surviving Christian document, composed a mere 20 or so years after Jesus’ crucifixion — and a generation before the first Gospel, Mark. It provides a priceless view of the young Church that both reassures and challenges subsequent generations. Clearly revealed is the "love affair" that united local Christian communities with founding apostles. (Paul, together with Silvanus and Timothy, comprise the "we" speaking throughout the letter.) The Good News centers on the universal "love" which sets us apart as a "holy" people. It must be taught by example as well as precept but also prayed for, since it is God’s free gift and is unavailable through merely human resources. "Hearts" strengthened by God are the source of commitment and dedication, not just of good feelings. Jesus’ Second Coming fills us with hope (first reading), but also summons us to practical concern for ongoing spiritual growth (Gospel). The Church’s task, then and now, is to provide "instructions" in areas of faith and morals (see today’s psalm). She teaches proper conduct, through which we constantly "make still greater progress." The final sentence succinctly expresses the role of the teaching authority. Already in its very first generation, the Christian community acknowledged a normative and binding tradition that originated with the historical Jesus. This was to be applied and adapted by authoritative leaders who are guided by the risen Lord Jesus, invisibly present within every community. Advent is a time of joyous expectation, centering on the Jesus who has come, is coming daily (especially in biblical word and in the Eucharist) and who therefore will come on the Last Day to complete His salvific work. Like Paul with his converts, we teach one another and our children to love by personal example. Signs of affection, acts of thoughtfulness and genuine practical caring for each other are essential to our Christian witness. Further, there are times to exhort and admonish, but this is to be done positively, building up the good already there. Daily Christian living is strongly focussed on the End. Our attitude toward Jesus’ Second Coming summons us to full involvement in the world but also to a healthy detachment. We are concerned to live each day and each hour as though it were our last. And yet, hope in God’s final victory carries us through every pain, disappointment and loss.