Reflection for Sunday 1 December, 2024

First Sunday of Advent

Life is a journey from God our Creator back to God our final destiny.  When this circle of life is forgotten, life is in danger of becoming a directionless succession of unconnected moments.  The digital watch represents the minds of many today as it shows no past or future but only the dancing digits of the present moment.   Without roots in the past or vision of the future, one lives only for the present moment.  And if this collapses, as in a broken relationship or a defeat, everything falls apart.

The Advent Wreath

The Advent wreath symbolises the circle of life.  It is made with evergreen leaves which withstand the winter of decay, thus expressing the virtue of hope which survives spiritual darkness and coldness in the winter of faith.  Each week in Advent, an extra candle is lit before the white candle in the centre expresses the coming of Christ, the light of the world.  Christmas is the mid-winter feast of the light which conquers all darkness.

Stay awake, praying at all times

As a preparation for the final coming of Christ, the message of today’s Gospel is “Stay awake, praying at all times.”  What does this “praying at all times” mean?   Saying prayers twenty-four hours?  Hardly that.  What is meant is an attitude of prayerfulness or attentiveness to God rather than just saying prayers.  If we talk too much and never listen in silence, it is unlikely that we will ever experience the depths of thirsting for God.

Thirsting for God

In our Catechism there is a beautiful description of thirsting for God, based on the Samaritan woman meeting Jesus, waiting at a well.  “If you only knew what God is offering and who is saying to you ‘Give me something to drink,’ you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.”(John 4:10).

The Catechism meditates on the scene.  

“The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being.  It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink.  Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us.  Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours.  God thirsts that we may thirst for him” (CCC 2560).  Personally, I found this text opened my eyes.  Prayer does not start when I am ready.  No, prayer has already begun because God was waiting for me, reaching out to me, but I wasn’t attentive.

The woman at the well had a painful background of broken marriages.  Jesus would be the seventh man in her life and seven is always a divine number in John’s Gospel.  What Jesus asked from that woman was her empty bucket.  He is waiting for us to bring our minds empty of trivialities and our hearts thirsting for God.  Call it attentiveness to God’s presence. 

It will be wellnigh impossible if we allow the sensitivity of the soul to be “coarsened with debauchery, drunkenness and the cares of life,” as today’s Gospel puts it.  These sensual gratifications only draw a veil over the huge abyss in the heart which can be filled by God alone.  The experience of Saint Augustine taught him that the heart is made for God and will know no rest until it rests in God.

Christmas has been commercialized

In preparation for Christmas, the colourful street-lights cheer us up during the dark days of winter in the northern hemisphere.  Yet it is a pity that the commercial side of Christmas has devoured the great lessons of Advent. One day last week I saw many young people wearing Christmas pullovers.  It puzzled me until I learnt that it was Students Christmas Day!  In November!  Have we returned to pre-Christian paganism?

Advent is the season of coming.  It prepares us for the threefold coming of Christ: his coming in the past at the Nativity; his future coming at the end of life; and his everyday coming to us as he sits by the well, thirsting for our approach in prayer as we bring our empty bucket. 

Stay awake, come to the well, be attentive to the presence of God.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

Come, Lord Jesus, come.