Meditation for the First Sunday of Advent, A: Watching for the Messiah – Vatican News

Reading: Is 2, 1-5; PS: 121 (122), 1-2, 3-4ab, 4cd-5, 6-7, 8-9; Rom 13, 11-14; Matt 24.37-44.

Dear brothers and sisters, here we are at the beginning of a new liturgical year, year A during which we are essentially going to read the Gospel according to Saint Matthew.

The season of Advent, with which we begin the liturgical year, invites us to welcome both personally and collectively the coming of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, into our lives. It’s time to take stock of our way of welcoming Jesus on a daily basis, of welcoming him as the child of the manger and thus making our life a perpetual Christmas; to finally welcome him when the times are fulfilled to enter into his glory.

This welcoming of the Son of Man requires of us the vigilance to which this Sunday’s Gospel invites us. Through the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, Jesus reminds us that the coming of the Son of Man will be similar to what happened in the time of Noah. Those of the people who cared about the ordinary things of life without any vigilance were surprised when the flood swallowed them all up while Noah was in the ark. Certainly, there are noble concerns of human life. But what Jesus teaches us today is to be careful not to forget the Lord because of these concerns, however legitimate they may be. God should be our first concern.

The second example that the gospel gives us illustrates this best:two men will be in the fields: one is taken, the other left. Two women will be at the mill: one is taken, the other left“. By the model of two men in the fields and two farms at the mill, the Lord shows us how even in our workplaces we must watch, await his coming. Let no area of ​​life, not even work, put a pause in our search for God. Let us rather find it in everything. And above all that work be for us the place of sanctification so that on the day of the Son of man we are taken and not left.
The last example of awakening that the gospel gives us is that of the householder who would not have let the wall of his house be pierced if he had known at what time of night the thief would come. Let’s take a look at the phrase “night time“. This “night timewhere the eyes fail, where the guard drops. It is precisely at this hour that the Lord asks us to watch, and to watch again. This time can represent difficult times, times of doubt and despair. Yet it is in these moments that the Lord promises us his new day, he is the Sun of justice. Our only price to pay, to access the day of the Lord, is to watch.

It is this day of salvation that the second reading from the letter of Saint Paul Apostle to the Romans proclaims:The night is almost over, the day is near. Let’s reject the activities of darkness, put on for the fight of light“.

By being faithful to this recommendation of the Apostle Paul, we will take part in the gathering of all nations to enjoy eternal peace in the Kingdom of God as the prophet Isaiah announces to us in the first reading.

Dear brothers and sisters, may the grace of the Lord support us at this beginning of the season of Advent in preparing for the coming of Jesus Christ. Amen.