1st Sunday of Advent, Cycle A (2025)

Later in this Season of Advent we will shift to meditate upon the promised coming of our Lord, born to us in human flesh, the birth of the baby Jesus. But Advent properly begins by focusing on his coming at the end of times. Jesus declares in clear terms: “The Son of Man will come” and furthermore, says that we are to be prepared for it. Advent begins, we give attention to the end of days, when Jesus will return—the Parousia, as it’s called.

While we might wonder what that event will look like and to when exactly it will occur, Jesus asks us only to be prepared for it. In our culture, we’re told to prepare for the future: to set money aside for an emergency; to prepare for our children’s future, and so on.

We do this for our material and temporal needs, but what about our spiritual needs, our eternal needs? When it comes to the Jesus’ coming at the end of time, if it comes to mind at all, we tend to think of it as some obscure notion, that can’t possibly happen today, this week or this month.

But probably most of us have had somebody in our lives who was here one day, and the next day they were gone. We assumed they would always be here, but without warning everything changed. What we thought would never happen, happened.

There’s an old fable about three young devils in training, discussing the best tactic to turn people’s focus from Christ’s call to be ready. The first devil suggested the best way would be to tell the people there is no God. The second proposed that it would be best to tell them that there is no hell. The third however determined the most effective approach would simply be to tell the people that there’s no hurry^[1]. All three of these tactics continue to work pretty well.

On some level the end-times fascinates us—not the child-like fascination of Christmas, but instead as St. Paul declares, “throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light”. In other words, let us rid ourselves of a persistent desire for comfort, power, affirmation of others, our ugly attitudes, and our attractions to so much that is spiritual garbage.

Instead of all that, put on the armor of light, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, immerse yourself in Jesus, in what you read, what you hear, how you live. Look at him, not at yourself—as we overly self-reliant and self-focused. Get out of “selfie” mode .

On some level the end-times causes fear in us. The Scriptures describe what happens to those who choose not to be ready. For all the ways we might find fear in this, we shouldn’t be.

God is merciful and can work with our failings, as long as we seek his will for our lives. Instead, our fear should be of pride that keeps us from even caring about God’s will for our lives. In that, we are saying yes—even if passively so—to separation from Him, saying “yes” to hell.

Jesus tells us: ”Stay awake...be prepared. For at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come”. In a short story entitled The Displaced Person, author, Flannery O’Connor, describes an elderly priest standing on the back porch of a home, somewhere in the south, observing peacocks in the back yard. Without warning—with a fluttering poof!—one peacock ”raised his tail and spread it with a shimmering timbrous noise”. Marveling at the tail in full splendor, beaming like the sun at high noon, the priest paused then declared, “Christ will come like that”^[2].

^[1] God Still Speaks: Listen!: Homily Reflections for Sundays and Holy Days: Cycle A, Harold A. Buetow, PhD JD

^[2] Lift Up Your Hearts: Homilies for the “A” Cycle, Guerric DeBona, OSB