First Sunday of Advent: Waiting for Him to Come and Heal Us

Nov 27, 2014

The First Sunday of Advent (Year B)
Readings: Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7;
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Gospel: Mark 13:33-37

The first reading for this, the First Sunday of Advent, has many verses that are key to our understanding of Advent. The prophet calls upon God to come down from heaven. He says that when the Lord does come, he will come in power and might. He is the Awesome God. No ear has heard nor eye has seen the might of God. We are the clay, he is the potter. We are the work of his hands. Six hundred years after the first reading, St Paul returned to this passage recognizing that the prophet was speaking about Jesus Christ and the power and might of the Kingdom of God, and our role in that Kingdom.

It is the second verse of the readings from Isaiah, Isaiah 63:17, that caught my attention, though. The prophet voices the complaints of the Hebrew people against God. They know that they were responsible for their own pain and suffering, but they complain to God: “Why do you let us wander from your ways?”

This strikes a chord with me, and perhaps with you. I witness the devastation caused by sin, my own sin and that of others, and I get angry with God for allowing me and others to sin. Maybe you have experienced the same sentiments. Perhaps you, and I, have complained, “Why, Lord, did you let me go there? Why, Lord, did you let me be so hypocritical? Why, Lord, did you let me destroy my life and the lives of others?” So the man has an affair, gets caught, and then sees his marriage come to an abrupt end, resulting in his losing the only woman he ever really loved, going from a devoted dad to a weekend visitor, and seeing his meager finances get destroyed, as he now has to support two residences. He complains to God, “Why did you let me do this?” Or the young woman who did her best to avoid big problems, falls for the lie that she is missing a lot of good times by not trying drugs, or getting drunk, or having sex. She’s a high school girl now, or maybe a college girl. Her fall is worse than she could ever imagine. Then, she gets caught by the police who raid the party. She has to face her parents’ disappointment in her. She has to deal with the possibility of losing a scholarship. She even starts worrying that she might be pregnant. She complains to God, “How did you let me get into this mess? Why didn’t you stop me?”

Sadly, in some ways, to some degree or other, most of us can relate to the cheating spouse or the fallen teen. And, like the human beings that we are, we blame God for letting us wander from Him. Of course, we try to blame God to lessen our own guilt. We certainly don’t want to be reduced to animals and not have free will, not have the ability to make choices in life. But, we have to cast the blame on someone other than ourselves; so we blame God. “Why do you let us wander from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we no longer fear you, O God,” the passage from Isaiah begins.

But then, Isaiah says that God will come in power to heal us, to free us from the devastation of our lives. We have to wait for Him. This is the theme of the First Sunday of Advent. We have to trust in God, hope in God, and wait for Him to come to set us free from the mess; whether this mess is the mess of mankind who continually chooses hatred and sin over love and virtue, or the messes created by every person who choose selfishness over sacrifice.

Like the loving Father that He is, God sees our hurt, our pain, and hurts for us, even if our wounds have been self inflicted. He promises us a Saviour to free the world from its chaos, and to free you and me from our turmoil. Jesus Christ came to release the world from the power of evil. He came to free you and me from the power of evil. He did this through his death on the cross. His total sacrifice to the will of the Father was the supreme act of love for His Father’s creation. He did this for you and for me. Blessed Mother Theresa used to tell people to hold out a hand and say this on each finger, “He did this for me.” Now, He calls us to make a new commitment to His Love.

And so, we watch for Him to come into our lives. We watch for the Divine Healer to come and lead us into His love. We watch for the times, more than we could imagine, when God extends His love to us. We watch for the times when we can serve His love by serving others. We watch for the opportunities to unite ourselves closer to His love through prayer and sacrifice. We wait. We watch. We watch for opportunities to grow. Advent, the time of watching, reminds us that our entire lives must be a watching for ways that we can grow more spiritual, grow closer to Christ.

And He will come. Advent is a time of hope. “Our hope is in the Lord, who made heaven and earth,” we pray in Psalm 124. We call on Him throughout Advent and throughout our lives, “Tear a hole in the wall between heaven and earth, rend the heavens and come down. Show us your power, your awesome deeds, and heal us with your love. For our hope is in you, O Lord. You are far more powerful than we are. We cannot create any horrible situation, any mess, that you in your love cannot or will not heal.

Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus. --By Fr Joseph A . Pellegrino