Running Forth to Meet Christ, First Sunday of Advent (C), December 1, 2024

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
First Sunday of Advent, C
December 1, 2024
Jer 33:14-16, Ps 25, 1 Thess 3:12-4:2, Lk 21:25-28.34-36

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following text guided today’s homily: 

• Today we begin a new liturgical year. Sometimes Christians find this a little strange, that in the Church New Year’s Day begins today, on December 1, the First Sunday of Advent, rather than on January 1, exactly a month from now. But, when you come to think about it, it’s today that makes all the sense in the world and next month that makes little. Our liturgical year traces the life of the central figure in human history, Jesus Christ, from the time when the Jews anxiously awaited his appearance (Advent proper), to his time in the womb, birth, presentation, flight into Egypt and return, finding in the temple, forty days in the desert, baptism, public ministry, miracles, going up to Jerusalem and entering her on a donkey, Last Supper, agony, trial, crucifixion and death, resurrection, ascension, sending the Holy Spirit, and ultimately return in glory that we anticipated in a special way last week on the feast of Christ the King. This is what the liturgical year means. Jesus said to us 17 times in the Gospel, “Follow me!” and each liturgical year we do just that, tracing his footsteps along the route of salvation history, trying to become more and more like him whom we’re following.
• Compared to this, the civil year means very little. The reason why we celebrate the civil New Year on January 1 is because 2070 years ago, in 46 BC, Julius Caesar decreed that the year would begin with the month of January, the month dedicated to the pagan god Janus, the deity with two faces heading in opposite directions. Caesar thought it was appropriate, because, in a sense, Janus would be facing backward learning the lessons of the year just passed and forward to the year now beginning. How much does this tradition mean to you? Yet most of us will make plans to celebrate it — with Times Square the center of the world’s attention as a crowd counts down from ten and a ball drops on cue — even though the reason for the celebration makes no more sense to us than the lyrics of Auld Lang’s Syne. Today’s New Year’s Day in the Church, on the other hand, really does mean something. If we’re accustomed to the good practice of making New Year’s resolutions, now would be the fitting time to make them. Now’s the time that the Church wants us to make them, so that we can make this new liturgical year a real “year of the Lord” (A.D.).
• What resolutions should we make as we begin this new year? To make good, intelligent and ultimately useful ones, it would be helpful first to understand the purpose of Advent. Advent is a time in which we prepare to meet Christ in history, mystery and majesty, in the past, present and future. The word Advent is derived from the Latin word “to come,” and our response to Jesus’ coming in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, in prayer, the Sacraments and daily life today, and in glory on the clouds of heaven is summarized by the opening prayer of today’s Mass, in which we “resolve to run forth to meet … Christ with righteous deeds at his coming.” Christ comes to us and we eagerly run out to embrace him.
• The first way we do so is in history, as we retrace the centuries of spiritual preparation of the Jewish people for the coming of the Messiah. That’s why we lean on the writings of various prophets, like Jeremiah today, Isaiah quite a bit, but also Micah, Zephaniah and others, in order to help us profit from everything God revealed to help get his people ready for the Messiah when he finally came. We know that some were ready — like Mary, St. Joseph, the Shepherds, the Magi, and eventually St. John the Baptist, Simeon, Anna the Prophetess, the disciples and the apostles — but the vast majority of the Jewish people, who had been awaiting the advent of their Messiah for over a thousand years, were simply and sadly not prepared when at last he came. Every Advent, we learn from their mistakes and seek to heed the message of the prophets and make the spiritual pilgrimage to Bethlehem. This is the focus especially of the third and final part of Advent, which begins December 17 and encompasses the Fourth Sunday.
• The second way we run forth to meet Christ is in mystery, meaning the sacraments, prayer, in the moral life and in the various ways Christ comes to us each day. If most of God’s people were out of it when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, despite centuries of preparation, most of God’s people today seem to behave even more obliviously. We have been prepared by Jesus the Messiah himself, who said, “I am with you always until the end of the age.” He showed us how to pray and promised that he would be in our midst. He gave us his own Body and Blood in the Eucharist and taught us that he was really, truly present. He summarized for us the moral life as life with him, as branches on the Vine, as following him and imitating his example, as loving others as he has loved us first. But the vast majority even of the baptized, who know and call themselves Christians, do not run forth to meet Christ with righteous deeds each day. They live basically like most others live, repeating the mistakes of the ancient Bethlehem inn-keepers, or worse, the mistakes of Herod’s scholars or even sometimes of Herod himself. Every Advent, every new spiritual year, we have the chance to renew ourselves in the most important choice we’ll ever make in life, which is to respond to Jesus’ presence in the world like Mary and Joseph did, centering our whole life on Jesus, rather than keeping him as just as one of many parts of our life, or the periphery of our life, or not at all on our existential radar. The present, meeting Jesus in mystery, is a special focus on the second part of Advent, and particularly of the work of St. John the Baptist, whom we will meet on the Second and Third Sundays.
• The third and final way we run forth to meet Christ is in majesty, as we prepare for Jesus’ second coming, having learned from the unexpired words of the prophets about how to get ready spiritually to receive Jesus and having put those words into practice by the way we seek to run forth to meet him each day in the Eucharist, in prayer, and in charity. Preparing for Jesus’ second coming is the focus of this First Sunday of Advent and, in some ways, the principal theme of Advent. Just like a good student at the beginning of a course looks over the course description and the syllabus to learn how to approach the class intelligently, so the whole Church looks ahead toward the end the time to learn how we need to live here and now. Jesus is indeed coming again — at the end of time or at the end of life, whichever comes first — and doesn’t want to catch us off guard. He wants us to be ready. The chief purpose of Advent is to help get us ready so that when he comes — even if he comes today — we will be prompt and eager to run forth to embrace him.
• The readings the Church gives us today are particularly helpful with regard to getting ready for Jesus’ second coming in majesty, but they are likewise useful in terms of meeting Jesus in history and mystery, too. At the beginning of today’s Gospel passage, Jesus speaks of a generalized disorientation with changes in the sun, moon, and stars, all of which used to help the ancients find their bearings. They’ll all be convulsed, together with the waves, and no longer capable of serving that purpose. Then, however, Jesus says, we will “see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Jesus wants to become the one from whom we get our bearings, who gives us our direction, who orients our entire life. Jesus gives us four verbs describing what we should do as he comes, which will help us live well not just in Advent but throughout life:
  • “Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand” —  We should lift up our heads, our hearts, our whole existence to our Redeemer. It’s common for us to be weighed down by the things of this world. Like the woman in St. Luke’s Gospel who for 18 years was bent over and incapable of standing up straight, whom Jesus healed on the Sabbath in a synagogue, we often don’t take our eyes off the ground. We focus on material things. We are crushed by our worries. We obsess about what weighs us down. Jesus tells us to get up and raise our minds to him, our hearts to him, and souls to him, with all our strength. Our redemption is at hand, our redeemer is in reach, and he wants us to run forth to embrace him.
  • “Be vigilant” — Elsewhere in the Gospel, Jesus gave a parable about his second coming in which he contrasted the faithful and prudent steward who awaited his Master’s return and faithfully fed himself and others with the nourishment the Master provided, with the unfaithful and foolish servant who said, “My Master is long delayed” and began to get smashed and to abuse the servants under his care. This is the essential lesson of Jesus’ first coming: few were vigilant, but most people were not. Jesus wants us to be alert for every way he comes to us, to recognize his presence, faithfully to feed ourselves and others with the food and gifts he provides.
  • “Pray that you have the strength to escape the imminent tribulations” — Jesus tells us to pray, and specifically to pray that we have the strength to escape the imminent tribulations and to stand before him. He is quite realistic about temptations and our need for strength in the face of them. We remember what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus took Peter, James and John apart from the others to pray with him. He instructed them, “Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test, for the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Their weak flesh, however, won out. They didn’t stay awake and pray but fell asleep. And when the soldiers came for Jesus, they all failed the test. To remain strong under trial, we must remain with God in prayer. Prayer wakes us up to see that God is alive and is with us. It helps us to escape caving into tribulations but to convert them into opportunities to give witness and glorify God. Advent is meant to be a time of prayer, but we need to choose to make it so.
  • “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life” — To let our hearts become drowsy through worldly pleasures and anxieties is the opposite of standing erect and raising our heads, the contrary to vigilance and prayer. Jesus does not want to let our hearts fall asleep by seeking worldly pleasures, being eaten alive by worries, or anaesthetizing our existence through drunkenness or other addictive escapes. This obsession about pleasure and on escaping pain keeps us from concentrating on Jesus. We remember what Jesus told us in the Parable of the Sower and the Seed, that the thorns in the soil that choke the growth of his action in our life are “anxieties and riches and the pleasures of life” (Lk 8:14). We need to be on guard against them. We need the virtue of courage to fight against our anxieties and fears. We likewise need the virtue of temperance to strengthen us against becoming addicted either to good things or evil. At the beginning of a new liturgical year, as we think about Christ’s second coming, the Church wants us to heed Christ’s words of preparation and to ask for those virtues.
• In the second reading today, St. Paul tells the Christians in Thessalonika, who were so preoccupied with the Lord’s second coming that some had even stopped working, how to live day-to-day life well in view of the Lord’s definitive advent. His advice is super straightforward. He wants them to “increase and abound in love for one another and for all.” The time we have, he indicates, is a time to grow in love. The best way we prepare to love God when he comes is by loving the neighbor he sends us each day, and even running forth, like the Good Samaritan, to care for our neighbors in need. St. Paul similarly urges them, and us, to “Strengthen your hearts to be blameless in holiness … at the coming of Our Lord Jesus.” He points out, first, that it is principally our hearts that need to be strengthened. The problem is seldom with what we know or don’t know, but what we love or don’t love. Where our treasure is, as Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount, there will our heart be. The apostle wants us to strengthen our hearts to be “blameless in holiness,” to get an A+ in hungering and thirsting, choosing and doing what pleases God. He puts forward the example of the saints as well as what they had received from him and his collaborators as examples of how they should conduct themselves. And he summoned all of them to be on guard lest any of them rest on their previous spiritual laurels. If they’re already living in a way pleasing the Lord, he said, they should “do so even more,” as each day is one day closer to Christ’s return. He urges them to “increase and abound,” not to remain satisfied.
• The Advent wreath we’ve blessed and lit is meant to symbolize this growth, this readiness, this desire of our heart to be blameless in holiness and vigilant and eager in prayer. The most important part of the Advent wreath, we know, is not the color of the candles, which symbolize the hopeful spirit of the weeks, or the evergreens, which symbolize God’s eternal love. The most important part is the flame, which symbolizes our prayerful vigilance for Christ’s coming. Just like the five wise bridesmaids in Jesus’ parable (Mt 25:1-14) whose lamps were always burning in anticipation for the return of the Bridegroom, so the flame of these candles symbolize and remind us of the flame of desire we are called to have for Jesus’ return. That fire, that flame, grows week-by-week as a sign of how our eagerness is supposed to be growing toward becoming in us an all-consuming bonfire. The Advent wreath, here in Church, or at the entrance to the Merton Institute, or even in our homes and dorm rooms, is, like a candle in a window in former days when one was expecting a visitor, a sign of vigilance, of not falling asleep, of eager longing for the arrival of that guest. It’s an expression of how we are getting increasingly ready to run out to meet Christ when he comes and knocks.
• With all of this in mind, let’s get practical about how we’re going to live the gift of this Advent and the new spiritual year that begins today. There’s an annual temptation to waste Advent, like most in our culture, who don’t live this season much if at all, who the day after Thanksgiving start celebrating a “Holiday season” that basically worships, not the baby Jesus, but commerce; that leads many people to spend more time shopping than they do in Church; that gets them to focus on gifts for lots of people but not really on the gift of themselves to Jesus and Jesus’ incredible self-gift to them. Others can focus more on getting and decorating Christmas Trees and preparing to welcome Santa Claus than getting their souls ready and preparing to embrace Christ. Students at Columbia can be tempted during this season to focus all of their attention on cramming for their exams, full of worldly cares and anxieties, and to spend little time preparing for the final exam of life when Christ comes again. Other people can spend Advent going from one Christmas party to another and celebrating, honestly, not Jesus, his love and his teachings, but mistletoes, eggnog and the very “drunkenness and carousing” Jesus warns us about in the Gospel.
• We have a choice to make about the type of Advent we’re going to lead. What resolutions will we make to live Advent well and make this new spiritual year a true year of the Lord, the best spiritual year of our life until now? I’m going to ask you to consider a few things:
  • Run forth to meet Jesus in the Eucharist as often as you can throughout the Advent Season and beyond. The Bridegroom is here and the wisest will come out to meet him as much as possible. If you can’t come to Mass each day because you’ve got class at that hour, I’d encourage you at least to meditate on the readings with the help of the free copy of The Word Among Us, or to watch Mass at any time of time on your smart phone or computer. I’d urge you as often as you can to raise your heads and to your Redeemer who is at hand, and who wants to place himself on your hand or on your tongue, so that from within he can strengthen your heart and lift your mind.
  • Run forth to meet Jesus in prayer. If you’re not yet coming to adore God here in the Eucharist, give him this gift as you prepare for his birthday at Christmas. Imitate the shepherds and the Magi and Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and come to worship him. Make your own the words of today’s Psalm and come to say to him, “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and for you I wait all the day!” Next Saturday, we will have an Advent Morning of Recollection here in Church from 9 through 12:45, with talks on prayer, Advent, adoration and Mass. Please try to make it part of your Advent journey.
  • Run forth to meet Jesus in his mercy. Try to make the best confession of our life this Advent season and then come at least once a month throughout this year to obtain Jesus’ healing. Whenever we’re preparing to receive guests, we like to tidy up the house. Confession is the way by which Jesus himself helps us through his priests to prepare to receive him within in Holy Communion “blameless in holiness” and so be ready to receive him well at his coming with all his holy ones at the end of time. I hear confessions Monday through Friday from 11 to noon. I’ll hear confessions during the Morning of Recollection on Saturday, starting at 8 am. On the first day of study period, December 10, I’ll hear confessions all day from 9 am through 5:30 pm, except the 12:10 Mass, to make it as convenient as possible for you to come. Jesus has come into the world as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. Let him this Advent take away yours!
  • Finally, run forth to others to help them come to meet Jesus with you in his Body and Blood, in prayer, and in his mercy. This is actually the greatest gift you could give someone for Christmas. This is also a gift that would please God very much. In the midst of a world that is trying to take Christ out of Christmas, it’s crucial for us who believe in Him, who have received the countless gifts of his love, to spread our love of him and keep him front and center not only in the way we spend our time this Advent season, the way we prepare our souls, but also the way we imitate his generosity and share in his saving mission by helping others come with us to meet him.
• Each Advent is a gift of the Lord, to bring us back to what is most important in life, God’s love for us and our response to him in faith and love. On this first day of this new liturgical year, on this first day of the rest of our life, let us ask the Lord for the grace to make this a truly holy year. As he speaks to us and prepares to give himself to us as the Word-made-flesh in Holy Communion, let us ask him to help us run forth to embrace him, to stand erect, with hearts and heads strengthened and uplifted, increasing and abounding in love and righteous deeds, vigilant and prayerful, absolved and blameless in holiness, with lives not drowned in fear, anxiety or addictions but filled with fortitude, temperance and the inebriation of his grace. The Lord is coming in history, mystery and majesty. Let us run forth to meet him! And let us help each other to hasten to meet him, so that changed by him, we might together sprint with him throughout the year drawing ever closer to eternity. Come, Lord Jesus!

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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