BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (#1)
First Sunday of Advent, Year B

 

"The Coming of the Lord"

 

Bible READINGS

Is 63:16b-17, 19b;  64:2-7 // 1Cr 1:3-9 // Mk 13:33-37

 

I . BIBLICO-LITURGICAL REFLECTIONS

 

My father, a Filipino immigrant to the States, was diagnosed with liver cancer in July 1997.  It was his wish to spend the last days of his life in the Philippines.  With love we brought him to the island of Cebu, nurturing the hope that the sea breeze and the love of family and friends would make things easier for him.  But the virulence of the cancer ravaged his body with agony and pain.  As we hovered over him with love and compassion, he invoked the Lord with tears in his eyes:  "Dear, Lord!  Please come and take me with you."  Shortly after his Advent invocation, the Lord came to end his paschal suffering.  The moment my father breathed his last, we lit a candle at his bedside and in that kindly light, commended his soul to God.  The Lord's coming was an experience of liberation and a moment of salvation.  My father's own paschal mystery was complete.

 

Like a sick and moribund person waiting for the Lord's definitive coming, Christians are called to be in a state of vigil.  Our life is a long Advent expectation as we wait for the Lord to be revealed in all his glory.  In the Gospel reading of today's liturgy, the Lord Jesus exhorts his revealed in all his glory.  In the Gospel reading of today's liturgy, the Lord Jesus exhorts his disciples:  "Be watchful!  Be alert!  You do not know when the time will come."  (Cf. Mk 13:33)  According to one author:  "Keeping watch is one of the most important activities of the human heart, a focusing of energy that endeavors to rid the night of the evil spirits that hold back the dawn in the world.  Watching in prayer gives our full attention to God and to others...   The great vigil of Advent prefigures the vigil of Easter, and the splendid dawn of the new time."  (Cf. Days of the Lord:  The Liturgical Year, vol. 1. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1991, pp.48-49).

 

The Advent expectation of the Church for the definitive revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the end time (eschaton) is filled with grace.  According to St. Paul in the second reading (I Cor1:3-9), we are not lacking in any spiritual gift for we have been enriched in every way.  He will keep us firm to the end and irreproachable on the great day of the Lord.  The expressions "the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" and "the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" which St. Paul used are allusions to the final time of judgment and salvation.  In our loving vigil for the final advent of the Lord, we are encouraged to trust in God who is faithful.  While waiting, we are to imitate the patience of God who is like a gardener.  He does not tug at a sapling in order to make it grow, but rather, allows the roots to grow deep in the ground of grace that they may hold fast to the end.

 

The fist reading (Is63:16b-17; 64:2-7) presents the Advent invocation of the people of Israel:  "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down...  Return for the sake of your servants."  Israel's plea for the advent of the Lord is marked with a spirit of repentance and a desire for conversion:  "Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful...  we have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind... would that you might meet us doing right, that we are mindful of you in our ways."  The dominant note of their prayer of intercession is a great trust in the Lord whom they acknowledge as their father and redeemer.  Indeed, the people of Israel are the work of God's hands.  He is the potter and they are the people he has shaped according to his divine plan.

As a Christian community gathered together for the dawning of day, -the day of the Lord-, our awareness of Advent grows in the soil of the revelation of the God of the Covenant.  According to Pope John Paul II:  "So it is fitting that we pause for a moment, at the beginning of Advent, to rediscover God's plan, to make a generous effort of establishing our identity as God's elect by the life we live.  Each has received for the common good from the Spirit."

 

II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART

  1. At the beginning of Advent, do we try to rediscover God's loving plan for us?  Is the life we live compatible with his call to holiness?  Are we docile to his divine plan as a lump of obedient clay in the potter's creative hands?

  2. Is our life a long vigil focused on the coming of the Lord?  Do we use the energy and resources given us by the Lord to fight the structuralized violence and injustices of today's world in order to hasten the dawning of joy and peace upon us all?

  3. In our long vigil for the final advent of the Lord, do we trust in the faithful God who fills us with spiritual gifts and blessings?  Do we rest assured that our whole life is under the protection of Christ and is charged by the power of the Holy Spirit?

 

III. PRAYING WITH THE WORD

 

·         Leader: Lord Jesus, because of our sins, we have all withered like leaves.  Our guilt carries us away like the wind.

o        Assembly: We pray you, come and save us!

·         Leader: That we may creatively use the graces and gifts bestowed on us by the Holy Spirit as we await for the day of final revelation.

Assembly:  Lord Jesus, Redeemer of the world, come and save us!

·         Leader: That our life-long Advent vigil for the coming of the Lord be graced with the splendid dawn of the new times.

o        Assembly: Lord Jesus, the Dawn of day, come and save us!

 

IV. INTERIORIZATION OF THE WORD

 

The following sacred text is a living word to accompany us through the week.  Please memorize it.

"Jesus said to his disciples:  Be watchful!  Be alert!  You do not know when the time will come." (Mk 13:33)

 

V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION

 

1.      ACTION PLAN: In preparation for a more meaningful celebration of the Sunday liturgy this Advent season, invite family member(s) and/or friend(s) for a session on LECTIO DIVINA, that is, a prayerful reading of God's Word.  The outline given here in the BREAKING OF THE WORD may be used as guide.

 

2.      ACTION PLAN: Visit a sick friend and/or a sick person who has no friend and be for that person an instrument of the coming of the Lord.

 

 

 

Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang  PDDM

 

 

 

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SISTER DISCIPLES OF THE DIVINE MASTER

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