Ad Dominum

Advent I

Posted on November 28, 2009, 9:54 pm, by Thom, under Catholic Christianity, Christendom, Life, Liturgy, Spirituality.

Advent has always been my favorite season in the Church year, so the inauguration of the new year and the first Sunday in Advent makes me happy. Not jump up and down and scream happy, but happy in a thoughtful sort of way.

The second half of today’s Gospel sums up, for me, the ethos of the season:

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.

For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth.

Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Jesus has been speaking of the final things, and so we have this exhortation. He says that we should not be so caught up in mundane things and wasting our time that we are surprised when something happens to shake us- something that will shake the entire world.

We know the darkness all too well; now we await the light.