First Sunday in Advent "year c"

"Two different Days"

1. "Please turn off your beepers and cellphones" - this announcement is made before each Mass on the weekends. The only exception being Patrick. During the first reading, his beeper went off. Very calmly, he moved his oxygen tubes to the side and moved to the telephone. Patrick waits for the Day. The beeper is from the Hospital. Either they have a transplant for him or it is a false alarm. We say a small pray as Patrick heads off for the telephone.

The call from the Hospital is no guarantee. The transplant might work, which means he has the gift of a new life or it might not, which could mean death and eternal life where he sees God face to face. Patrick is prepared for both as he awaits that Day.

We all admire Patrick's faith and patience. He carries on his normal life, carrying his oxygen tank. He goes to the bank, the library, the grocery store. But he is alert and the Day will not catch him unexpectedly like a trap.

2. The Day is Coming. There are two different types of Days in our readings today. The first from the Prophet Jeremiah. Actually he likes that phrase - a very rough count shows that he uses it 28 times in the 52 chapters of the book named after him. The day that is coming according to Jeremiah is a day of Hope. Jeremiah is speaking to the people who are in captivity in Babylon.  Babylon is in what is present day Iraq and the people of Iraq must definitely be feeling what the Israelites were feeling some three thousand years ago. There was war, uncertainty, a shortage of food - and for many people in dire distress it also meant there was no place where they could pray and offer their sacrifices. And so, for these people, the Lord promises  "that the day is coming" -The Lord has not forgotten them. The Lord has made a promise and the Lord will keep that promise.

We have received a similar promise from Jesus in the Beatitudes.... they are called Blessed:

• Blessed are the peacemakers
• Blessed the poor in spirit
• Blessed those who hunger and thirst for Justice and elsewhere
• Blessed are you who have been faithful in small things... you will be put in charge...

Our world is so much like the Israelites of Jeremiah's time. We too are concerned about the Kingdom of God. And we look at it in a different way:
for some it is a constant struggle for life : our own and those of the unborn
for others, they are a voice for those who are frightened and marginalized
for others, they work for the stranger and those victimized by wheeler dealers and con artists of our world.  For others they work to keep their families together with all the family values, traditions and culture.

And to each of these God has made a promise that God will not revoke or go back on the word given. For all of us who strive and struggle in this manner "that  day that is coming"is a day of Hope and Expectation.

3. THE SECOND DAY: On the surface the Day that Jesus is speaking of is a Day of Judgment and condemnation. Be alert that the day will not come unexpectedly and catch you like a trap. Many people - especially the elderly and homebound relate to this day. These have paid their dues. They have made sacrifices. They have said their prayers. They have worked hard and put in a honest day's work. Now they await THE DAY. And yet, quite a few are afraid - mainly because of that was taught them and preached to them in the early part of the last century.

They wonder have I overlooked anything? Have I any more debts to pay? Have I confessed everything in confession? Have I forgotten anything?

4. Be alert. For most seniors and homebound, they are always alert. Before my dad passed away at 94, he was very alert in more senses than one. He was constantly talking or thinking of God. As his body failed, his mind remained clear and he often asked: Has God forgotten me? He was definitely looking anxiously for that day. For him and for all like him - the Day would not catch them unexpectedly like a trap. It was a day not to fear, but a day to expect with joy and gladness. And in that sense it was very much like the Day of Jeremiah's preaching. It was a Day when God would fulfil his promises. It was a Day when they would hear the words of God, "Well done good and faithful servant enter into the Kingdom prepared for you since the beginning of time."

5. As we begin Advent, we too await the Day - the Day of the Lord's coming. Christmas Day is not just a celebration of an event that happened 2000 years ago - rather it is One when God is Emmanuel - with us in the midst of all these times of distress and floods and famines and earthquakes and natural disasters. It is a day when we can stand once again erect - and face God as a little child faces a father who is good and benevolent.

Appendix:
This week we are starting the Parish Mission and it has an ecological slant. We are called to be responsible for the earth on which and in which we live. In our Gospel  Jesus tells us "to stand up and raise our heads".
Whether we accept literally the Story of Creation or follow the Scientific theory of Evolution - it was only when we stopped shuffling on all fours and stood up on our two feet that God gave us charge of the Earth - be masters of the birds of the air, the animals of the earth, the fish in the water. Standing upright is a sign of our human dignity. However, as burdens wear us down, as pressures mount, our shoulders droop and we seem to want to get back to shuffling on all fours again. Often when we are under these pressures we fit the description of the Gospel and are "'weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life'

When we read of human right violations - either during wars or in repressive countries - prisoners are kept in cells where they cannot stand upright. Without even knowing it these torturers try to reduce the human being back to the animal - and thus break their spirits.

Our Gospel invites us to stand up right and await the day. We can do that because we are not only fully human - but we are invited to share in the Divine Life by Emmanuel - "God with us". Ironically it was in the Cross that Jesus who was looked on as a worm and not even a Man - it was in the Cross when Jesus was lifted up high - that Jesus drew all men to himself. And so in all our pain, all our distress, all the worries of life, - we can and should stand up and raise our face up to God.