Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 1 December 2024

B Escorial 142

First Sunday of Advent

Advent returns again, the new Church year (at least in the Latin tradition) restarts, and as we enter the last month of our normal calendar there is time for a pause. This is important for yet again we are entering not only the preparatory liturgical period for the great Nativity Feasts to come, but also placing ourselves into a greater framework. It is a double consolation if you like, there is the close, warming, light filled joy of the Incarnation made flesh in the child `Jesus, those familiar scriptural stories of his mother, Our Blessed Lady, the shepherds, angels, and those elusive mysterious magi but also a deeper current that pushes us to the limits of human existence pointing us to a beyond that will come, a new dawn whose light has already touched us. Perhaps it is best we start there and make our pause one of surrender to the love that is Christ for us all.

The great 7th c hymn of the Latin Church, for the vespers of Advent, Conditor Alme Siderum has this as its fourth verse:

'At thy great name exalted now

All knees must bend, all hearts must bow;

And things in heaven and earth shall own

That thou art Lord and King alone'.

This seems to me to be a suitable place to start the Advent of 2024. In the UK we have had a general election, in the USA a presidential election, neither of them seem at all satisfactory, and in fact, amongst a number of vulnerable groups there is much anxiety and fear. We need to firmly acknowledge that. Around us powerful interest groups and strange billionaire Oligarchs dominate news cycles, as though the world was theirs alone to deal with. But our strange disturbing climate and the discontented hearts of the poor and unwanted will not go away; we yearn for somebody better than what there is now, for some kind of care and stability. That is why this verse is a good meditation point because it reminds us there are greater things than what we see in front of us, another power that will not be conquered, one before whom all things shall bend the knee and bow the heart.

If we listen carefully whilst we pause before our scriptures, we will hear this in the first reading from the oracles of the prophet Jeremiah:' 14* The days are coming-oracle of the LORD-when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.15In those days, at that time, I will make a just shoot spring up for David; he shall do what is right and just in the land."(Jer 33: 14,15) It is a call to look beyond the immediate and not to trust in the words of politicians and princes but place our trust in the LORD, the days are coming and already here, now around us, the promises of God are being fulfilled. Our task is to help facilitate this, but how?

Maybe this Advent a first step in the right direction of this preparatory season, would be for us all not to take the name of the Lord our God in vain but seriously, and by that I mean in the proper sense of reverence, let us ask the Lord Christ to protect and guard us, to remember his ever present promise not to abandon us but be with us until the end of the ages, but in doing this, may the Christ help us discern where he needs us to be and where we can show his presence most effectively. The second step follows on swiftly, we must cultivate a true fear of the Lord, not being afraid of God, nor becoming strange abject figures, powerless before a God who is supposedly strict and strong. No! We are to embrace that wondrous fear which is less negative and more positive, the strange inexorable wonder that just as we humans just do not have the capacity to know everything there is someone beyond our ken, a Holy presence that wants to enfold and hold us! As the proverb puts it "The fear (or deep reverence) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom!"(Prov 9:10) , but this fear is a reverence of relationship that will lead us to greater knowledge.

There are doomsayers amongst us that just love apocalyptic readings. The passage from Luke this Sunday is definitely one I have heard very badly quoted, by over enthusiastic Christians, but in their literal approach the key structure of `Jesus words is often missed.

The key to this is to look at the vision he gives us of the Son of `Man, a reference to Himself. Whilst there are signs, and a general shaking of the order of the world and the cosmos, with the imagery of people being entirely frightened, this is not the end-which remember the Son of Man has also told us is an unknown, for:" "No one knows the day or hour of the coming of the Son of Man" (Lk 17:26) Even when you see the Son of Man coming in great glory, this isn't necessarily it, only a sign that:" when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand."(Lk 21: 28). And this is the point, apocalyptic imagery is our mind trying to grapple with a greater reality, namely that this world will end, but it is not the end of our existence.

This is perhaps the important aspect of Advent!

Christ's first coming was in utter simplicity, casting His lot entirely with humanity and all that is on Earth, into this entrance of the All Holy in Christ comes love, a love that is there to triumph over sin and death, which, (and here we need to pinch ourselves hard, because we do know this) has happened in the resurrection. The final coming is the wrapping up of all things imperfect and the opening out of the new perfection in God, it is not a destruction but a transfiguration and transformation already in process.

May this Advent make us strong in hope, firm in faith, ever wider in our love Amen.

Lectio

Advent Hymn 7th C

Conditor alme siderum
aetérna lux credéntium
Christe redémptor
ómnium exáudi preces súpplicum

Qui cóndolens intéritu
mortis perire saeculum
salvásti mundum languidum
donnas reis remedium.

Vergénte mundi véspere
uti sponsus de thálamo
egréssus honestissima
Virginis matris cláusula.

Cuius forti ponténtiae
genu curvántur ómnia
caeléstia, terréstia
nutu faténtur súbdita.

Te, Sancte fide quáesumus,
venture iudex sáeculi,
consérva nos in témpore
hostis a telo perfidi.

Sit, Christe rex piissime
tibi Patríque glória
cum Spíritu Paráclito
in sempitérna sáecula.
Amen.

Creator of the stars of night,
Thy people's everlasting light,
Jesu, Redeemer, save us all,
and hear Thy servants when they call.

Thou, grieving that the ancient curse
should doom to death a universe,
hast found the medicine, full of grace,
to save and heal a ruined race.

Thou camest, the Bridegroom of the Bride,
as drew the world to evening tide,
proceeding from a virgin shrine,
the spotless Victim all divine.

At whose dread Name, majestic now,
all knees must bend, all hearts must bow;
and things celestial Thee shall own,
and things terrestrial Lord alone.

O Thou whose coming is with dread,
to judge and doom the quick and dead,
preserve us, while we dwell below,
from every insult of the foe.

To God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, Three in One,
laud, honour, might, and glory be
from age to age eternally.
Amen.

Homily of Benedict XVI On Advent

First Vespers

Vatican Basilica
Saturday, 28 November 2009

Let us reflect briefly on the meaning of this word, which can be rendered with "presence", "arrival" or "coming". In the language of the ancient world it was a technical term used to indicate the arrival of an official or the visit of the king or emperor to a province. However, it could also mean the coming of the divinity that emerges from concealment to manifest himself forcefully or that was celebrated as being present in worship. Christians used the word "advent" to express their relationship with Jesus Christ: Jesus is the King who entered this poor "province" called "earth" to pay everyone a visit; he makes all those who believe in him participate in his Coming, all who believe in his presence in the liturgical assembly. The essential meaning of the word adventus was: God is here, he has not withdrawn from the world, he has not deserted us. Even if we cannot see and touch him as we can tangible realities, he is here and comes to visit us in many ways.

The meaning of the expression "advent" therefore includes that of visitatio, which simply and specifically means "visit"; in this case it is a question of a visit from God: he enters my life and wishes to speak to me. In our daily lives we all experience having little time for the Lord and also little time for ourselves. We end by being absorbed in "doing". Is it not true that activities often absorb us and that society with its multiple interests monopolizes our attention? Is it not true that we devote a lot of time to entertainment and to various kinds of amusement? At times we get carried away. Advent, this powerful liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention he has for each one of us. How often does God give us a glimpse of his love! To keep, as it were, an "interior journal" of this love would be a beautiful and salutary task for our life! Advent invites and stimulates us to contemplate the Lord present. Should not the certainty of his presence help us see the world with different eyes? Should it not help us to consider the whole of our life as a "visit", as a way in which he can come to us and become close to us in every situation?

Another fundamental element of Advent is expectation, an expectation which is at the same time hope. Advent impels us to understand the meaning of time and of history as a kairós, as a favourable opportunity for our salvation. Jesus illustrated this mysterious reality in many parables: in the story of the servants sent to await the return of their master; in the parable of the virgins who await the bridegroom; and in those of the sower and of the harvest. In their lives human beings are constantly waiting: when they are children they want to grow up, as adults they are striving for fulfilment and success and, as they advance in age, they look forward to the rest they deserve. However, the time comes when they find they have hoped too little if, over and above their profession or social position, there is nothing left to hope for. Hope marks humanity's journey but for Christians it is enlivened by a certainty: the Lord is present in the passage of our lives, he accompanies us and will one day also dry our tears. One day, not far off, everything will find its fulfilment in the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of justice and peace.