1st Sunday Advent, 30 November 2013, Matthew 24:37-44

In the summer of 2007 I had just been ordained as a deacon. It was the summer before my ordination as a priest. During that summer I spent a month in a parish of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in California. Spending a month in America was about killing two birds with one stone; I wanted to get a holiday and I also wanted to get some parish experience.

One night, about two weeks into my stay, I was brushing my teeth before going to bed. Suddenly the bathroom window began to shake and rattle. I didn't know what was going on, and at first I thought that someone was trying to break into the house.

Then, I saw the mirror over the sink. It was swaying in and out from the wall. It was then that I realised that I was experiencing my first earthquake! It measure 4.1 on the richter scale and it woke up many people in the neighbourhood.

In California earthquakes are commonplace. But, even though I knew that, I just presumed it would never happen while I was there. I presumed wrong. If it had been a more serious quake I wouldn't have been at all prepared, and God only knows what might have happened.

The Gospel call on this first Sunday of Advent, is to become prepared, to stay awake because we do not know when the time will come. The day and the hour of the gospel, this is God's time. It is a time that we are not ready for, a time that we need to become ready for. And for us believing Christians, we are reminded today that this really should not be a surprise for us. God’s time and God’s actions may not be predictable; but that God is with us, communicating himself to us is surely no surprise to us. We have been learning about this since our earliest days.

Advent is not about staying awake to wonder when the end of time will be. Advent is about recovering that which has become hidden in us over time. It is about waking up from our spiritual darkness and assuming a position of waiting, of waiting, fully prepared for the coming of the Lord. It is like ‘reheating’ our spiritual selves. We are to come awake again out of the slumber of our everyday existence. What we know in our minds, we must allow to come alive again in our hearts. God is with us. God chose to send his Son among us, as one of us. It is in and through our encounter with God in the readings, in Eucharist celebrated and Communion shared; in prayer, and in the Sacraments, that we are prepared for our ultimate encounter with the Lord, face to face.

So, our readings today are all about time, and about coming awake again in time. Maybe today is a good time to remember all that has happened over this past year, to remember the tragedies and failures, the successes and joys. As we light each candle on our Advent wreath, we mark both the year that has been and the time that is to come. Lighting the candle is lighting up our hope again.
To pray, remember and give thanks to God for all that has been, and to look forward with hope to the coming Kingdom of our Saviour, Christ Jesus the Lord.