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Can you still remember those post 9/11 days, after the terrorist attacks on The World Trade centre, when Australians were advised to be watchful and alert for any suspicious terrorist activity? “Be alert but not alarmed’ was the catch-cry. It was certainly a wake-up call for Australians to be aware and alert to possible danger in our nation. Today, the Church again gives us all a fresh wake-up call as we commence another season of Advent waiting. We are reminded again that we have here no abiding city. For those of Christian faith we believe that our life’s journey does not end completely at death, for life is a time of preparation for ‘life after death’. Time is precious and our best preparation for the future lies in the present. We need have no fear of the future if we live each day, trusting in our loving God and being faithful to his commandment of love. Isaiah, writing in the eighth century, at a time when Israel was surrounded by the hostile Assyrian Empire and when religious observance had become lax, foresees a period when nations shall be at peace with one another and everyone will “walk in the light of the Lord”. How many nations in our own world must long for an end to violence and war-mongering! Perhaps a good Advent exercise would be to remember the refrain, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me”! During these Advent weeks we reflect not just on the first coming of Jesus at his birth in Bethlehem, but on the Second Coming of the Son of Man in judgement at the end of the world. To the early Christians this Second Coming was considered imminent. Now, two thousand years later, we are still waiting, but, as Matthew’s Gospel reminds us, Jesus said, “at an hour you do not expect, the Son of man will come”. At the end of time there will be faithful and unfaithful servants and we really do prepare best by living now as Jesus instructed, “stay awake ... be prepared”. Each day offers me numerous opportunities to welcome the living Jesus into my life and to acknowledge the signs of God’s loving presence all around me in the natural world, in family, in the poor and needy who rely on me. Show me, Lord, what I need to do, to be spiritually alert and awake during this Advent time of waiting. Denise Sullivan op Return to Liturgical Calendar Page
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