Texts of the Readings
November
29, 2009
First
Sunday in Advent (C)
Dr. Terrance Callan
Jer 33:14-16
X
1 Thess 3:12-4:2
X
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36
This Sunday we begin both a
new liturgical year and our observance of the season of Advent, preparing to
celebrate Christmas. Throughout much of Advent, the readings will remind us
of the expectations of Israel that were fulfilled by the birth of Christ.
But the readings for this first Sunday of Advent focus on our expectation of
a second coming of Jesus at the end of the world.
This is most emphatic in the reading from the gospel according
to Luke. In this passage Jesus describes the end of the world and the
coming of the Son of Man, i.e., the second coming of Jesus himself. This
will be a time of turmoil and tribulation, but is a time that we should
welcome because then our redemption is at hand.
In this passage Jesus not only predicts the end of the world,
but also calls on us to live our lives in the light of our belief that Jesus
will come again. He warns us that carousing and drunkenness and the
anxieties of daily life may cause us to forget our hope that Jesus will
return to complete our salvation. We should try to keep this hope before
our minds so that we will always be ready for its fulfillment.
The reading from the first letter of St. Paul to the
Thessalonians makes a similar point. In this reading Paul prays that God
will make the hearts of the Thessalonians blameless in holiness before our
God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. And
he suggests that a key element in this is that the Thessalonians abound in
love for one another and for all.
Together the gospel reading and the reading from 1 Thessalonians
invite us to make this Advent a time to recall our hope for the second
coming of Jesus and to let this hope order our lives.
The reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah is an
expression of the hopes of Israel that we believe were fulfilled by the
birth of Jesus. However, in the context of the other two readings, we
realize that the hope of Israel for redemption was only partly fulfilled by
the first coming of Jesus. Gods salvation of Israel and the entire human
race will only be complete at the second coming of Jesus. Thus we can see
the passage from Jeremiah as a prediction both of the first coming of Jesus
that we celebrate at Christmas, and of the second coming of Jesus that we
now await. At the second coming of Jesus Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem
shall dwell secure, and the whole human race will live forever in the peace
of God.
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