Road to Emmaus First Sunday of Advent (Cycle B)

Nov 26, 2008

First Reading – Is. 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7

Responsorial Psalm – Ps. 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19

Second Reading – 1 Cor. 1:3-9

Gospel Reading – Mk. 13:33-37

 

The Meaning of Advent

“This month shall stand at the head of your calendar; you shall reckon it the first month of the year” (Ex. 12:2). The Lord God spoke these words to Moses and Aaron in the context of the institution of the Passover. With this is established a new year based on Israel’s liturgical celebration.

With the First Sunday of Advent we, as Catholics, begin a new year -- a new liturgical year, to be more precise. So, November 30^th is New Year’s Day.

But why do we call the first season of the new liturgical year “Advent”?  The word “advent” is an English rendering of the Latin word adventus. Adventus is a translation of the Greek word parousia. Adventus means coming, or arrival. However, a careful study of the Greek usage shows us that parousia primarily means real presence.

Most of us know that Advent is a time of preparation for the worthy celebration of the anniversary of Jesus’ birth of a humble virgin of Nazareth. Hence, we have the real presence of God arriving in Bethlehem of Judea.

Many do not realize that Advent is also a time for us to re-orient our focus in terms of preparing for Christ’s coming in the real presence of the Eucharist.

 

In addition, Advent is a time to focus our attention, and make preparation for Jesus’ final coming -- as judge of the living and the dead at the end of time when everyone will experience the real presence of Christ and “every knee will bow” (Phil. 2:10).

 

Commentary

Advent, being a preparation for Christ’s coming at the end of time, is made perfectly clear in this Sunday’s Gospel reading from Mark (13:33-37). We are told by Christ to “Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming…” (v. 35). Let’s go a little deeper to see what the scriptures for the First Sunday of Advent tell us.

The book of the prophet Isaiah is divided into two major sections: the Book of Woe (chaps. 1-39) and the Book of Consolation (chaps. 40-66). The Book of Woe contains prophecies of unremitting gloom and doom should the Kingdom of Judah not repent of their ways. The Book of Consolation contains prophecies that give words of comfort. Our reading is taken from chapters 63-64. The portion of the Book of Isaiah from which the first reading is taken, comes on the heels of a long and complicated history for the people of God. They have wandered far from the Lord in many different ways, but particularly through idolatry.

Here is a little bit of a background:

In 930 B.C., King Solomon’s reign over the 12 tribes of Israel would end in utter disgrace because his heart was turned to the gods of his 700 foreign wives (cf. 1 Kgs. 11:1-10). After this, the united twelve tribes would divide, ten tribes to the north (now called the Kingdom of Israel) and two tribes to the south (now called the Kingdom of Judah).

The Northern Kingdom of Israel was profoundly idolatrous from the start. God had warned them to change their wicked ways through prophets such as Hosea and Amos, but to no avail. God would deal with their wickedness in 722 B.C. by allowing the Assyrians to overtake the Northern Kingdom. The Assyrians deported many of the northern Israelites to other nations and repopulated the land with foreigners.

The Southern Kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah, was not much more faithful to the Lord and also abandoned Him through idolatry. Through the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel and Micah, God warned them to change their evil ways and eventually allowed the Babylonians to overtake the Kingdom of Judah. The Babylonians began to exile those in the southern kingdom beginning in 605 B.C., and later, dealt Judah a deadly blow by taking Jerusalem, destroying the city, its walls, and most importantly it’s Temple.

The Kingdom of Judah would return from exile seventy years later and build a new temple, but spiritually they were still distant from the Lord. This is indicated by the prophet Daniel who is told by God that even though they would physically come back after seventy years, they would still be spiritually in exile. Daniel says, “Seventy weeks of years have been decreed concerning your people and your holy city” (Dn. 9:24). This basically means four hundred and ninety years. He also mentions how “an anointed one shall be cut off…” (Dn. 9:26). It is not by coincidence that when Jesus comes he proclaims “liberty to captives” (Lk. 4:18). Most scholars believe that it is within the above context that the passage from our first reading is taken.

The line that stands out most from this passage in the reading from Isaiah is, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down…” (v. 64:1). The prophet goes on to pray that things might be set right. But he realizes that “…we are sinful” (v. 64:5). He also recognizes what it takes to be ready for the Lord when he comes, “Would that you would meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways!” (v. 64:5).

With this background we are led to the passage of Mark in this Sunday’s Gospel. Of course, God did come. God came in judgment upon Israel and Judah in 722 B.C. and 587 B.C. respectively. He would also come, not exactly rending the heavens, but in humility, with the coming of Jesus in the Incarnation. But did Jesus “meet us doing right?” No! Jesus would call his generation “evil and unfaithful [adulterous]” (Mt. 12:39). This indicates they are still spiritually in exile.

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So, Jesus too would have to administer words and deeds of judgment. What does the larger context of our passage from Mark tell us? In chapter 11, Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem and one of the first things he does is to mete out a preliminary judgment upon his generation through his cleansing of the temple. This is a foreshadowing of things to come.

In chapter 13, Jesus, as he makes his way out of the temple, foretells of its destruction, “There will not be one stone left upon another that will not be thrown down” (v. 2).

In v. 24-27, he once again foretells the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple with a bit different language, “But in those days after the tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” This points ahead to the end of time, but, first and foremost, it is a reference to Jerusalem, and the temple in particular. How so?

The type of language used by Jesus is not new. It is used by the prophets in order to foretell the destruction of a nation. For example, Isaiah prophecies the destruction of Babylon with these words: “Lo, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and burning anger; to lay waste the land and destroy its sinners within it! The stars and constellations of the heavens send forth no light; the sun is dark when it rises, and the light of the moon does not shine” (13:9-10). The sun, moon and stars were the way the ancients told time. This prophetic way of speaking is a way of saying, your time is up.

Jesus was foretelling the destruction of the temple. Among many important things that can be said of the temple is that it represented the cosmos; it was the universe in miniature. As well, the cosmos was seen to be a macro-temple, that is, the whole of the universe was seen to be a temple. So, with the language of the sun, moon and stars, this was a way of saying that the old temple will be destroyed in judgment, to make way for the new temple, Jesus and his body, the Church.

As foretold, the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed this second temple. Jesus had said, “Amen, I say to you, this generation, will not pass away until all these things have taken place” (Mt. 24:32). Forty years was considered to be a generation in Jesus’ day. The year was 70 A.D., within a generation, when all these things had taken place under the Romans.

This Sunday’s Gospel reading comes in this context. Jesus is telling his followers to be ready, to be prepared, and to be watchful because they would not know when this would take place. However, they were called to read the signs of the times. Jesus said that when the many things he predicted would begin to take place, his followers (Christians), who are in Judea and Jerusalem, should “flee to the mountains” (Mt. 24:16). We are told by the first century Jewish historian, Josephus that one million Jews perished in the siege of Judea and Jerusalem under the Romans, but that he cannot account for the death of one Christian.

However, as mentioned earlier, all of this also points ahead to the end of time when we will all undergo judgment at the resurrection of the dead. We, too, do not know when the Lord will come in glory. We do know that we must be on watch, and to be on watch we must be alert, and we must certainly not be caught spiritually asleep. We can prepare for Jesus’ real presence at the end of time by being in a state of grace and receiving his real presence in the Eucharist here and now.

Every day, especially during Advent we must “wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”