November 27, 2022

This week we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent.

We begin the season of Advent, preparation for Christmas. Our world seems to go faster pace each year. During Advent, in spite of all that will continue to go on around us, we are asked to slow down so that we might reflect on the significance of what and whom we will celebrate on Christmas and throughout the Christmas season. 1) Remember Christs’ first coming. 2) Celebrate Christ in our hearts. 3) Reflect on our belief in Christs’ second coming.

In our first reading Isaiah pictures a time when all nations will come to the Holy City to seek instruction from the Lord “O house of Jacob come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” It will be a time of peace for all. In St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, he tells us to “awake from our sleep”, for our salvation is near. Paul insists that we love one another, “love is the fulfillment of the law”. We are invited to shed the old ways and put our Lord Jesus Christ first. We must change our lives and seek to be more like Jesus in all we do.

St. Matthew reminds us to be prepared. It won’t make any difference what we are doing the next time Jesus comes. The world, as we know, will be over. So as long as we have life, it might be time to make the changes necessary in order to really be prepared to meet the Lord. Don’t wait until it’s too late, be prepared, be vigilant for Jesus will come at a time we least expect him. Wake up! Be prepared!!

~Msgr. Jaeger