The Return, Restlessness and Reckoning
First Sunday of Advent - December 3, 2023
Isaiah 63:16-17,64:1,3-8; 1 Corinthians 1: 3-9; Mark 13: 33-37
Expecting the Reign: The key to the season of Advent is Waiting! Waiting, though it is not part of its inherent meaning, may sound a bit passive. That is why there is a more invovled, gripping, active and indulgent sense offered through the term, Expecting. Expecting the Reign therefore wishes to add an element more, to waiting that is so characteristic of this season of Advent. And the added element can be seen presented in vividly in the readings today, in terms of a return, a restlessness and a reckoning!
Return: We see this term used in the first reading. Isaiah echoes the longing of the people praying God to return! "Return Lord, for the sake of your servants," he says, "Oh that you would tear the heavens open and come down!" That is a yearning cry to the Lord to Return. This cry has to be taken with an added consideration: does the Lord ever leave us? Never. The Lord has promised us so, there is no gainsaying it. But the feeling of the distance from the Lord, as the prophet presents, is true indeed! Hence the return is not so much the return of the Lord, as much as our return to the Lord. It is our return that we are called the project and programme this season... our return to the Lord, that makes us feel the closeness to God yet again in our day to day experiences. A return to integrity - that is the call that is placed before us as a project for this season, if we wish to see and experience the return of the Lord, the coming of the Reign!
Restlessness: Waiting for the Reign is not a lethargic slumber awaiting the first rays of the dawn. Expecting the Reign, is doing my part that the Reign may be experienced here and now. Doing my part with the same restlessness with which the prophet cries out and wishes a tearing open of the heavens. St. Paul, through his words to the Corinthians, reminds us that we have been given with all that is needed, to wait actively, to expect the Reigh proactively! We have the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we have teachers and preachers to instruct us, we have all the ways in which the Lord continuosly speaks to us, convicts us and challenges us to embark upon that journey towards integrity. We need to feel that restlessness within us, to work our way to this integrity, because that is the only way that the Reign can be made present here in this world. The Lord has repeatedly taught us, the Reign is not an otherworldly reality that will descend upon this earth. It is amidst us, it is within us, it is us, growing in our integrity.
Reckoning: Let us not be complacent and callous about this call to integrity! Expecting the Reign involves a sense of urgency. Let us not think that there is an entire eternity to work on this call - to make the Reign present here and now! We have limited time and that is why the Lord warns us: stay awake! For you know not the time when "the master will return". You pray for the Return of the Lord, and Return the Lord shall! For certain the Lord shall come - but when that happens it will not only be a time of rejoicing, but also a time of reckoning! Each of us have to render an account about the call we have received and response we have managed. It is not merely how much I have accomplished, but how willing and awake I have been all the while that counts. This is integrity, and known only to myself and my Lord - that is the reckoning! The season of advent is a reminder of this challenge - wake up, shake up... buckle up and keep up! Keep the journey going... yes, it is a life journey.
Advent is not an event; it is not a festival. Advent is a journey, a journey towards the Reign. Te Reign is amidst us! Expecting its revelation, is a journey of return, with a sense of restlessness and an urgency of the reckoning that awaits us. Let us begins this journey well and make it to that beautiful moment of receiving the Lord amidst us, the moment of rediscovering the Reign.