First Sunday of Advent

God calls us to live Advent days aware of a certain ambiguity in the Christian life.  Advent takes us to the cooing of a baby in Bethlehem’s nursery but requires us to gaze toward that great and agonizing day on Calvary and that last day when time will cease.  Advent also invites us to live with a joyful certainty. Ours is the work of living every day in joyful expectation that God’s Kingdom is surely coming with power and great glory.  And the best way to prepare for the Lord’s coming is to busy ourselves being the people of God.  As God’s People, we see every day as an opportunity to make a difference in God’s Kingdom, knowing that patience can triumph over anxiety and mercy can win over hostility.

So, we begin this new season of ambiguity and of joyful certainty and of renewing our identity as the People of God.  Advent is the season to live in such a way that the love and mercy of God really become the substance of who we are and how we live, all to the greater glory of the One who once came at Bethlehem and will come in glory on the clouds of heaven.  Come Lord Jesus… in this Eucharist and in the Advent of our lives!