1st Sunday of Advent (01/12/2024): Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that, gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

Commentary on the Mass Readings for the 1st Sunday of Advent, Year C (01/12/2024):
The First Reading is taken from Jeremiah 33:14-16. On this the first Sunday of Advent the Church wishes to remind us of what Advent means—a period of preparation for the Advent—the Coming—of Christ our Saviour. This prophecy of Jeremiah intended to encourage the Jews to trust in God in spite of all their present difficulties, can and should encourage us, too. The fulfillment of the ancient prophecies in Christ (this particular one was made six centuries before he came on earth) are a guarantee for us of the truth of his claims—he was the Messiah promised to Abraham, David and the Chosen People. In the Christmas festival each year we commemorate his coming on earth. What the Jews of old looked forward to, we can see fulfilled. The great central hope of their religion and of their history—-their expectancy of One who was to come, has taken place in our history.

The Second Reading is 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2. The teaching of Christ, the Christian faith, is for all races, all places and all times. St. Paul is telling us today what he told the Thessalonians nineteen centuries ago, to prepare for the Second Coming of Christ—the great day of judgement, by living each day as God wants us to live it, namely by living in love and peace in God and our neighbor. Some of the Thessalonians at that time were expecting the Second Coming—the general judgement—in their own day. It didn’t come then, it hasn’t come yet, but the particular judgement came to them, and it will come to us, in our day and sooner, rather than later, than we expect it. And that particular judgement, when we draw our last earthly breath, will decide our eternal fate. Advent—the preparation for Christmas, Christ’s First Coming, is a most suitable occasion to prepare ourselves for that day.

Today’s Gospel is Luke 21:25-28; 34-36. In these verses St. Luke gives our Lord’s prophecy concerning the end of the world and how we should prepare ourselves to meet it. That this earth is not our permanent home nobody denies, yet many people live and act as if it were. They see funerals and read of the death of friends and fellow men every day, yet they try to persuade themselves that somehow they will not have to go the same road. But go they must and render an account they must, to the “Son of Man coming with power and in great glory.” We have been forewarned and the words of Christ read in today’s gospel should awaken us to the true facts of life and of death. He does not ask us to ignore or despise this earth or this life but he does ask us to estimate it for what it is—a period of transit which properly used will earn for us our eternal home. If we judge ourselves daily we need not fear the day of judgement. If we are loyal and faithful to our Christian vocation, our end on earth will not be an end but the beginning of our true life.

What better occasion could we have for taking a serious, sincere look at ourselves and at our attitude to life and the things of this life, than this Advent period. If we can welcome the humble Babe of Bethlehem at Christmas with a sincere and open heart—a heart grateful for all the gifts already given us, and sorrowful for all the meanness and thanklessness we have shown in the past, we can trust and hope that the second and glorious coming of Christ will not be for us a catastrophe but rather the culmination of all our dearest hopes and desires—the beginning of a never-ending Christmas of happiness and joy.

Excerpt from The Sunday Readings, Cycle C by Fr. Kevin O’Sullivan, O.F.M.