Today is the New Year in the Church. Today on this First Sunday of Advent the liturgical year begins. Advent is a call to the spirit of poverty and hunger for God. Advent, Christmas preparation is a time for conversion, to follow and seek God’s presence.
It is the reflection of the great mystery of the Incarnation, of humanity expecting a Redeemer who comes to save his creation.
On the first Sunday of Advent, the invitation of the Word of God is to “to look and watch overâ€, to respond and to be aware of the realities of our time.
The first reading from Isaiah describes the social and religious situation of the Jewish people who returned from exile but when they reached Jerusalem they found the temple abandoned, and encountered a vacuum. What they needed was a human community that received them well and made them feel at home but they did not find it. Isaiah invites us to prepare for the Lord’s coming, with calls for repentance and to put ourselves in the “potter’s handâ€.
We wait for the Christmas gift, not of the riches of the earth: we must expect our richness in the simple things in our daily life.
God who comes to fill the void that cannot fill all the Christmas presents when pride and vanity are in the heart.
The announcement of the Gospel is to be alert and watchful. So we need to be attentive to God’s voice inviting us to see the signs of the times. Today these signs are: violence, lack of peace, alcoholism and drug addiction and we can add violence within the family. Hence to enter Advent we are called to act in our daily life, in this spiritual preparation for Christmas, to be hungry for God and commit ourselves in a society where we have to be heralds of God’s Presence (Kingdom).
Written by: MarÃa Clara
The readings for today’s feast, “SOLEMNITY OF CHRIST THE KING” portrays an image of a God who is a Good Shepherd. A shepherdwho tends one’s flock and look for the lost sheep. The prophet Ezekiel put it, “For thus says the Lord God: I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tend his flock when he find himself among his scattered, so I will tend my sheep, I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark”(34:11-12). This recognition of God as a Shepherd is beautifully crafted in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In verdant pastures he give me repose…” However in the second reading there is a slight shift from a Shepherd God to the person of Jesus Christ who is the first fruit of all creation. From Him comes a new life. Christ as the Son of God who “will hand over the kingdom to God the Father”(1 Cor. 15:24). He must reign after having destroy all God’s enemies that leads to death such us power, sovereignty, authority and death (1 Cor. 15:24-26). Christ then as a King and as Shepherd will not only look for the scattered sheep but also will judge his flock according to their deeds and act of kindness. The Gospel of Matthew tells us how the Shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep represents the people who did acts of loving kindness such us feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and the prisoners, welcoming the strangers, providing a drink for the thirsty, clothing the naked and comforting the lonely. On the other hand the goat represents those people who are indifferent towards the least of their neighbors.
