Vatican City, Nov 27, 2016 / 08:33 am
The season of Advent is a reminder to us to open our horizons and have concern for more than just material things, the Pope said Sunday during his Angelus address.
Advent is an invitation "to sobriety, to not be dominated by the things of this world, to material reality, but rather to govern them," Pope Francis said Nov. 27 in St. Peter's Square. "If, on the contrary, we are conditioned and overpowered by them, it is not possible to perceive that which is much more important: our final encounter with the Lord: and this is important. That, that encounter."
He pointed to the three comings of Christ, tto which Advent point us: his Incarnation; his daily walking with us and his consoling presence; and his "coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead."
The day's Gospel reading "brings out the contrast between the normal unfolding of things, the daily routine, and the sudden coming of the Lord," Francis reflected.