Dominca I Adventus - Advent Watchfulness

If today’s Gospel passage sounds oddly familiar, there is a very simple explanation for that. We heard St. Matthew’s version of this same passage last Sunday. Essentially, the Church has bookended the Liturgical Year with the same passage, but with only 52 Sundays and so much scripture to choose from, why give us the same passage twice?

Certainly it is an important message to get across, preparing for the Second Coming of Our Lord is something the Church has been doing since He Ascended, but as always, the liturgical context gives us some idea of how the Church wants us to consider the message.

Last Sunday was literally the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year, occurring in the month of November when the Church calls us to pray especially for the souls in Purgatory, and to recall the end of our own lives. Today, is the beginning of a new year, and the beginning of a new liturgical season, a season of hopeful attentiveness and watchfulness. The message last Sunday was ‘Christ is coming, you better get prepared.’ The message this Sunday is ‘once you are prepared it’s time to be alert and watch.’

For the faithful, our watchfulness should not be tinged with fear, but rather with hope. When Our Lord speaks the words, “And then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with great power and majesty. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand” He is applying to Himself the prophecy of Daniel who said:

Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition Chapter 7

And to him was given dominion

and glory and kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve him;

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom one

that shall not be destroyed.

We remain alert and watch for that glorious day when Christ’s everlasting Kingdom is inaugurated.

EXPLANATION: The hermit’s vision

There is a beautiful legend told of a certain holy hermit who had lived a long life in solitude, conversing with God alone and continually meditating on heavenly things. One day he saw Heaven opened and in the glory of Paradise he saw a magnificent throne placed high up near the throne of God, but it was empty.

While he was wondering what this vision could mean, an angel came to him and said, “You are anxious to know why God has granted you this vision, and to learn for whom He has prepared this beautiful throne which you see. Know, then, that the glory you see in Paradise is the reward God gives to all His faithful servants, little and great, and that the throne you see placed so high in Heaven is for one who is still one earth, and who has grown old in virtue and merit before God, whom God is now about to call forth from the world, and whom He will place in it for all eternity.”

The hermit asked the angel, “And where does that holy one live, for surely he must be great indeed, and his name must be renowned all over the world, since he has merited so magnificent a reward?”

The angel answered, “Come with me, and I will lead you to the place where that great Saint now dwells.” So accompanied by the angel, the hermit set out to find the Saint for whom the beautiful throne was prepared.

They first came to a stately convent where the sisters were renowned throughout the country for their fervour as they were governed by a holy Abbess who was bent low under the weight of years and much labour done for God. Knowing this, the hermit said to the angel, “Is it for this holy Abbess that the throne in Heaven is prepared?” The angel answered, “No, she is as yet too young in the eyes of God.”

Next they came to a stately mansion, in which dwelt a pious and rich nobleman who divided his time between prayer and works of mercy. Even though he was nearly 100 years old, the angel said, “This man also is too young.”

The next one whom the hermit thought might be the favoured one was a pious widow, now advanced in years, the mother of a large family, some of whom were serving God in the priesthood, others in convents, and those living in the world were models of piety and virtue due to the faithful manner in which she had brought them up before God. The angel, answereing the hermit’s question stated, “No, she, too, is too young.”

At great length they reached a city in which dwelt a woman renowned for her works of piety and mercy. She spent her time in prayer before the altar, or in tending the sick and infirm, taking care of orphans, the blind, the outcasts, and in consoling the afflicted and the poor. The angel knowing the question on the hermit’s mind again said, “Neither is it for this one, it is true that he has lived for a long time on earth but in the eyes of God she is still too young.”

Finally, the angel said, “Come, and I will show you the soul for whom God prepared that throne of glory” and leading him to a humble house in a back street they found a young girl who was dying. The angel said, “This is the soul, grown old in virtue and piety, for whom that throne in Heaven is prepared.”

The angel explained, “From the first moment that she came to the use of reason until now not one hour of her life has been lost for Heaven; not only has not an hour been lost, but not an hour has passed by without her meriting double, and even fourfold the merit of her good works before God, on account of the faith, the love, and the hope in which they were performed.”

As the angel spoke, the soul of the young woman left her body, and the angels received it into their arms, and they began to sing a glorious canticle. A dazzling light filled the humble home, and the hermit looking upwards saw Jesus stretching out His arms towards her and bidding her welcome to His Kingdom.

All of these holy men and women, the hermit included were deserving of a place in God’s Kingdom, but the place of highest honour was bestowed upon the one who best exemplified watchfulness, but spending every moment of her life in the service of God, and who best exemplified the need for watchfulness, dying before those who were 80 or even 100 years old.

IMPLICATION: Be sober and alert

As we begin this Advent Season, the Church calls us in a particular way to practice watchfulness for the Day of the Lord.

Every night the Office of Compline begins with an admonition from the Apostle Peter, which gives us a short summary of what it means to be prepared for the Lord’s return, “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith”.

First, St. Peter reminds us to be sober, of course this has a much broader meaning than not drinking to excess. St. Peter is admonishing us to temperance, to prudence, to practice virtue. We must never be lazy or complacent, because Our Lord may return on a day we do not expect and at an hour we do not know and find we have been unfaithful to Him.

St. Peter then gives a very good reason for our need to be watchful, Satan is prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Satan is an excellent practitioner of watchfulness, but he does not watch for Our Lord’s return, no, he watches us, waiting for our moment of weakness, so that he can strike and drag us down into the mire of sin.

St. Peter’s third counsel, is a simple one, resist the devil firm in your faith. If we clothe ourselves in the full armour of God, by prayer, sacrifice, and the frequent reception of the Sacraments we will stand firm against the assaults of the foe.

When Our Lord comes to us today in Holy Communion let us beg of Him the grace to be sober and alert this Advent, because blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.

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