2025-11-30 First Sunday in Advent

 First Sunday in Advent

 

Last week's action item

Prayer To St Dismas

Saint Dismas, you alone were Canonized a Saint by Christ Himself;
you were assured of a place in Heaven with Him, “This day”
because you confessed your sins to Him on Calvary;
and you were truly sorry for them as you hung beside Him on a cross;
you who opened the Heart of Jesus in mercy and forgiveness
even before the centurion’s spear tore it asunder;
you whose face was close to that of Jesus in His last agony,
to offer Him a word of comfort;
you who knew how to pray,
teach me the words to say to gain pardon for my sins;
and you who are close to Him now in Heaven,
pray to Him for me that I shall never again desert Him,
but that at the close of my life I may hear the words He addressed to you:
“This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.” Amen.
… St Dismas, Pray for Us … 

 

Prayer for the Advent Wreath

Lord, our God, we praise You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, for He is Emmanuel, the Hope of all people.

He is the Wisdom that teaches and guides us.
He is the Savior of us all.
O Lord,
let your blessing come upon us as we light the first (purple) candle of this wreath.
May the wreath and its light be a sign of Christ's promise of salvation.
May He come quickly and not delay.
We ask this in His holy name. Amen.
 

Isaiah 2:1-5

As the first scriptural reading of the first Sunday of Advent, the image of nations flocking to God’s holy mountain, converting their weapons of personal and mass destruction into tools that feed the world, provides an apt vision of hope for all of us. 

The backdrop of today's reading is the ambition of the Assyrians to establish an empire that would stretch from Assyria (N Iraq) all the way south through to Egypt. In order to achieve complete power, they first had to defeat all the smaller kingdoms in what is modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel. As they conquered city after city, they deported the indigenous populations to various locations under their rule to serve as cheap labor supporting the war effort. 

The relentless advances of the Assyrian Empire has already crushed the northern nation of Israel including the capital Sumariain 722 BC, forcing the Israelites to seek refuge in the southern nation of Judah only to see the Assyrians attacking it's capital Jerusalem around 700 BC. 
Long gone are the relative prosperity and peace the nations of Israel and Judah experienced during the early 8th century BC. 
Against this backdrop of suffering, anxiety, and imminent imperial conquest, the prophet announces he has received a vision concerning God’s perspective about Judah and Jerusalem - a future that contradicts the people’s present experiences. 
In fact an untimely civil war in Assyria’s capital saved Jerusalem - which Israelites took as a miracle from God. Isaiah prophesies that someday, these very same enemies will return here to this city, not in hostility and violence, but in humility and kindness;, when they realize that Israel’s God is the source of wisdom. They come so that God may instruct them in his ways, and they may walk in his paths.
 
The phrase “nor shall they train for war again” and its imagery are foundational for the Negro/African-American Spiritual, “Down By The Riverside.” In biblical text, this anticipates a time when the instruments of war can be abandoned and transformed in favor of tools that bring and sustain life. For Isaiah, a land ravaged by sword-wielding and spear-hurling soldiers is transformed into a fertile land in which every sword and spear become agricultural tools to provide food for a peace-filled community.

Psalm 122

Identified as “A Song of Ascents,” this psalm describes the pilgrim throng entering “the house of the Lord.” Quite similar to what we hear from the prophet Isaiah: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of Jacob” (Isaiah 2:2). Here on the mountain the message of peace is proclaimed and taught. Here the prophet heralds the word that calls for the beginning of a new era of swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, and nations not waging warfare (Isaiah 2:3-4).

The watchword of Advent is a call to be alert for we do not know the day or hour of the appearance of the Son of Man; he is the one who will come when we least expect: “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour” (Matthew 24:44).

Romans 13:11–14

Though the recent converts have come to accept Christ as their redeemer, the forces of sin and death still assail them, seeking to draw them into behaviors that do not align with their new identities and seek to destroy the community that is Christ’s body

St Paul exhorts believers to live fully into the new identity gifted to them by Christ’s death and resurrection. This new life is a divine gift that is should be a present reality, so that they can experience the grace of God, something that will only be fully realized in Heaven.

This is a holistic process involves not only individual body, spirit, and mind. But even more so, Paul is speaking of the collective transformation of the entire body of Christ, or church, of which each believer is a part 

Matthew 24:37-44

Jesus reminds the disciples that in the days of Noah, people went about life as usual, right up to the moment when the floods came. The emphasis here is on the sudden, unexpected devastation that was to sweep them away, for which there was no warning, no call to repentance, nothing that would alert them to what was coming. “They knew nothing until the flood came” (24:30). Even Noah knew only in general terms what was coming but despite not knowing the precise day or hour, he was busy preparing.

So also, when Jesus returns in the second coming, many will be taken away in judgment, but some will be left behind. Those left behind are those blessed to have escaped the great judgment just as Noah’s family escaped the flood.

The analogy of Christ’s return being like a thief in the night implies an arrival at an unexpected or surprising time, hence the exhortation to stay awake. It is the certainty of the Second coming, not the precise timing itself which motivated this behavior of being ready at any moment.

 

 

This week's action item

- Setup an Advent wreath at home

- Sacrament of Reconciliation 

Closing Prayer in Thanksgiving

O, heavenly Father

We thank thee for food and remember the hungry. 

We thank thee for health and remember the sick. 

We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless. 

We thank thee for freedom and remember the enslaved. 

May these remembrances stir us to service, that thy gifts to us may be used for others. Amen.