Advent Sunday December 3, 2023

Advent is upon us once more. In the first instance, Advent is not about looking back to the first coming of the Saviour some two thousand years ago, which we will celebrate once more at Christmas.

Advent opens a new year of the Church’s life by looking forward to Our Lord’s Second Coming. Today, Our Lord urges us to be vigilant, watchful—so that we will be ready to meet Him.

How are we to be vigilant? Think about it in terms of someone who learns that he or she is going to die soon. Wouldn’t that knowledge change the way you looked at things? Even those who don’t believe in God or in His judgement find the idea of imminent death a sobering one, to say the least. But for those who do believe in the Judgement, that should make us live every moment of our lives more carefully and watch-fully.

How will what I have done today and in all my past days look when I go before my Judge.                      ~ Fr. Paul Dobson