12/3/2023 - 1st Sunday of Advent B

ADVENT MUSINGS: LIVING IN GOD’S TIME

During the season of Advent, we are called to reflect, be attentive to the Word of the Lord, and make preparations for His will in our hearts and lives.

The prophet, Isaiah, in the first reading addresses the people who returned from exile unable and unwilling to observe their religion in their new home. For the restoration of the Lord's temple, these souls yearned to go back to their native land. We can assume that some members of the community preferred to remain in exile where they were, rather than face the even greater hardship of returning.

We can draw parallels to this in our own lives right now. Due to our own transgressions, we have created a kind of ‘exiled’ existence from the presence of the Lord. Due to the demands placed on our lives by the Lord, not everyone desires to seek Him today. Some are even unwilling to come physically to the Church, where the Lord comes to us sacramentally in the Eucharist, and prefer the comfort of home.

If we have tried to be faithful and find ourselves failing over and over, then surely the words of Isaiah speak to us!  Comfort, give comfort to my people!  Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley.  Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. When we are using our energies to seek the Lord, these words of Isaiah can bring tears to our eyes and open our hearts so much more to the presence of the Living God, who is seeking us.

We are assured, according to Peter in the second reading, that Christ will come. Like the prophet Isaiah, he restores faith in a better future. He urges us to hold fast to the prophetic promises regarding the return of Christ, even though our human understanding of time differs greatly from God's. The teachings of certain false prophets and mockers nearly caused some people to lose hope in the promise of Christ's second coming at the time Peter wrote. Here are some crucial points made by Peter today. First, there is a difference between God's time and ours, so what seems like a long period to us is actually a very short amount of time in comparison. Because of this, the adage "God's time is the best time!" has become so common. "Chronos" is the Greek word for the human system of timekeeping, which entails the counting of seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc. Much of our lives are spent in this kind of time, as we are constantly being pushed forward by the clock to get to our next planned event or appointment. In contrast, the "Kairos" that God uses to measure time represents an intermediate state, an ephemeral interval during which a unique event occurs. To rephrase, the kairos moment is one in which we are so engrossed in the here-and-now that we lose track of the passage of time (chronos) and the ticking of our own artificial clocks. Kairos refers to quality, whereas chronos is quantitative. "The Day of the Lord," which Peter says sneaks up on us, is the center of Peter's second and most crucial message to us this Advent. "You should be living holy and saintly lives while you wait and long for the Day...do your best to live lives without spot or stain so that He will find you at peace." This is his way of reminding us of what we should be doing this time around. At its heart, Peter's message for us today is the necessity of making positive changes in our lives.

Just as Isaiah foretold the arrival of the Lord, so too does John the Baptist in this Sunday's gospel proclaim that He is near. For the forgiveness of our sins, he makes it clear that we must repent. Just what is it that needs repentance? This includes instances when we have disobeyed God's will, let ourselves or our neighbors down, ignored what we should have done for the greater good, spread rumors and criticism about others, lied to ourselves, God, our neighbors, and our nation, and generally failed to live holy lives. Can we live this moment of grace and sanctify the present time of our life? Fr Tom Kunnel, C.O.