Today is the First Sunday of Advent and the beginning of a new liturgical cycle in Year C, the year in which we will follow closely the gospel of Luke.  Our gospel reading today is from the gospel of Luke and we begin the liturgical year paradoxically with the end and not the beginning.  Our gospel reading speaks to us of the end of time, of the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  This second coming will not be like the first which was hidden, quiet, revealed only to a few, clothed in the form of a helpless child but rather this coming will be a coming in power, clothed in glory and seen by all in preparation for a final judgment, as Jesus says to his disciples, “For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth.”

     Advent is a time of waiting and anticipation.  We often think of this anticipation as something exciting, something to look forward to, the waiting for a special gift and this is true for those who can “stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”  Advent can take on the character of the anticipation of waiting for a promise that is about to be fulfilled.  However, our Lord Jesus warns us today that for some this anticipation is not going to be a pleasant experience.  Jesus asserts that, “People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”  Now that doesn’t sound like a Christmas carol, it sounds more like the zombie apocalypse.  There are many people today that are the “walking dead” rather than the “living witnesses.”  What will cause us to “stand erect” and “raise our heads” rather than “die of fright”?  In another passage of the gospel Jesus gives us a hint, “Do not be afraid; just have faith…” (Luke 8,50)  Living in faith is our alternative to dying of fright.  This faith is a process of transformation that is ongoing in the believer that causes us as St. Paul says today to, “increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones.”  The process of transformation in faith will “strengthen our hearts” so that we will not die of fright.

     Faith then takes on a special meaning in this season of Advent in which we experience the anticipation of our Lord’s coming.  Faith allows us to wait in anticipation “with joyful hope” as the process of transformation is at work in each of us.  Pope Benedict asks us: “Is faith truly the transforming force in our life, in my life? Or is it merely one of the elements that are part of existence, without being the crucial one that involves it totally?  Let us make a journey to reinforce or rediscover the joy of faith, in the knowledge that it is not something extraneous, detached from daily life, but is its soul. Faith in a God who is love, who makes himself close to man by incarnating himself and by giving himself on the Cross, who saves us and opens the doors of Heaven to us once again, clearly indicates that man’s fullness consists solely in love.

     Faith affirms that there is no true humanity except in the places, actions, times and forms in which the human being is motivated by the love that comes from God. It is expressed as a gift and reveals itself in relationships full of love, compassion, attention and disinterested service to others.  Of course, the mystery of God always remains beyond our conception and reason, our rites and our prayers. Yet, through his revelation, God actually communicates himself to us, recounts himself and makes himself accessible. And we are enabled to listen to his Word and to receive his truth. This, then, is the wonder of faith: God, in his love, creates within us — through the action of the Holy Spirit — the appropriate conditions for us to recognize his Word. God himself, in his desire to show himself, to come into contact with us, to make himself present in our history, enables us to listen to and receive him… May the journey we shall be making this new liturgical year enable us all to grow in faith, in love of Christ, so that in our daily decisions and actions we may learn to live the good and beautiful life of the Gospel.”  May this year be a joyful year as we celebrate a Year of Jubilee and approach this new year as “pilgrims of hope,” living in faith and witnessing to love!  There are good things yet to come!