“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27).  

 

As we enter the Advent Season and begin a new liturgical year in the Church, the major theme for this first Sunday of Advent invites us to prepare for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into our hearts, lives and world. Advent is a time of preparation and waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ, allowing Him to be reborn in our lives. It is also a time for purifying our hearts by repenting our sins and renewing our lives, by reflecting on and experiencing the several comings of Jesus Christ into our lives. 

 

Besides His first coming at his birth, assuming completely our humanity except sin, Jesus comes to our lives through the Sacraments (especially through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist), through the preaching of the Word of God, through the worshipping community gathered together to praise God and at the moment of our death, finally in his Second Coming to judge the world. 

 

At the beginning of a new liturgical year, each Advent signals a return to the beginning of another year of our faith journey, but it is always a new beginning. Communities of faith start all over again each Advent. In the midst of a world where God is seldom felt, we yearn to experience God over and over again as if for the first time. As we read and listen to our ancestors in the faith during Advent, we trust that memory and hope will come alive again; this trust is not misplaced because the Word, as it is proclaimed, is a living entity, speaking a new message, in a new manner, in a new year, to a people who long to be new again. Each Sunday of Advent (as well as each Sunday of the year) the Word calls the gathered faith assembly to reach beyond rote and routine and to move from cyclical rehearsal to personal breakthrough. 

 

God does not want us holding a relationship of Transaction but Transformation. Therefore, Dynamic Christian disciples are those who (1) BELIEVE, (2) GROW, (3) SERVE, (4) LOVE and (5) LEAD others to Jesus. Today’s topics want us to prepare for the coming of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

 

How can we prepare ourselves for Jesus Christ’s second coming?  

 

Wishing everyone a blessed week in the Lord.