Promise, Project &
Prophecy
First Sunday in Advent - November 28,
2021
Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:12
- 4:2; Luke 21: 25-28, 34-36
A very happy new year!
May the new liturgical year that unfolds today, bring us closer to the Lord, in
and through an ever-increasing love for the Word, the Word become Flesh, the
Word become human, the Word who wishes to dwell not only amidst us, but within
us! That is the promise; a promise that leads to the hope that everything will
be reconciled in the Word; a promise that is consoling but at the same time
demanding!
The Word and the
Liturgical significance of this day, give us three key terms to reflect on: promise,
project and prophecy!
PROMISE: The first
reading brings to our mind, the theme central to the new liturgical season that
we begin today. Advent is all about promise! Blessed is the one who believes in
the fulfilment of what the Lord has promised. The book of Jeremiah, just as any
other book of the prophets, enshrines within itself the promises of the Lord,
and Jeremiah as one of the latter prophets underlines the imminence of the promises
of the Lord.
The promise of Salvation comes from the Lord
of Integrity, the Lord who values truth and justice more than mere pacifying
sacrifices and empty rituals. That is where the promise gets exigent – because I
am challenged to measure up to the Lord who has created me and who has called me.
The Lord promises salvation to me, salvation that comes with my dedication and
commitment to integrity; that quality which makes my faith and my daily life one
and the same, my words and my works coherent with each other, and my expectations
from the other and my disposition to them corresponding to each other. The promise
attains fulfillment only in as much as I am committed to the process in the
core of my being.
PROJECT: A promise is
an element of hope, in as much as it sets in motion a project! The Lord has not
given me only a promise, but a project as well. The second reading from the letter
to the Thessalonians, reminds me of this project that the Lord has initiated in
me. The project of becoming holy and blameless in the sight of God, is a life-long
project and on it depends so much the fulfillment of the promises given to me!
The project of
holiness, involves love – loving each and every one, the entire humanity,
and especially those who do not have anyone who could give them this love! That
is the type of life that we are called to live – ‘make progress in the kind of
life that you are meant to live’, says St. Paul. As people of the promise, we
have a life that we are meant to live, when we fail in living up to it, we fail
to be people of the promise! We can have a myriad of reasons – that everyone
out there is so selfish and greedy, that everyone is trying to plot and
exploit, that no one deserves my love, that no one really loves genuinely as
each one has a hidden reason to all the goodness they manifest… none of these
reasons can stand their ground before the love of the Lord who has given us the
promise and who has given us this project. Because the Lord loved us even when
we were sinner; and when we were still sinner, God deigned to send God’s only
Son, that we may be saved and loved forever. That is the source and the summit
of hope: God’s love.
PROPHECY: Apart from
the Word, the liturgical significance of the day today, adds a splendid element
– the prophecy! We have lighted the candle of the Prophets this week, and it
suggests that the event we are preparing to celebrated was not one isolated
event that took place on a particular cold night in Bethlehem. No, there lies a
long history, in fact the entire story of humankind, behind that event in that
starry night.
The prophecy of the Coming
of the Reign, requires that we stay alive, active and alert! That we
watch ourselves, our words and our works, our choices and our priorities, our
wishes and our prayers! When we pray, ‘your kingdom come’, what do we mean? Do
we really mean what Jesus meant: that we be protagonists of the Reign and not those
who are surprised by its coming! When problems arise, crises spring up and
injustice seems to have its sway, we are called to remain alert to notice it,
to remain ardent to denounce it, and thus remain apostles of the Reign who
propose a counter culture. By our very lives and our daily choices, we are
called to propose a counter culture to this world, and not helplessly and
slavishly conform to this world. It is there we see the coming of the Reign and
out lives become a prophecy. That is what Advent calls us to: to live lives of
prophecy that would announce to the world that is tired and wearied, that the
Lord is coming; that the Lord of salvation is coming; that the Lord of
integrity is near!
We are called to be
prophets of hope today, persons and communities who behold the promises of the
Lord, who live by a project of life from the Lord and who hold out a prophecy
to the world, that the Lord and our salvation is near! Come Lord Jesus, may your
Kingdom Come!
