Christ the Cornerstone

This Advent, let’s prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming

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

The Church is renewed each year with the Advent season. The old year—with its sorrows, frustrations and failed attempts to change human hearts and behaviors—is left behind, and a new season of hope is begun.

Expectations are high. The Lord is coming again. He brings with him the promise of peace, and we know that his peace is sorely needed in our divided, war-torn world.

During Advent, we cry for peace—and for the joy of Christ—in our hearts and our world. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus, Prince of Peace! What better time to revive our devotion to the holy Eucharist than during this season of heightened longing and anticipation for Christ our Savior?

This Advent, we renew our efforts to be a synodal Church, a community of believers who listen attentively for God’s will and who pray fervently for the grace to respond to God’s word with generous hearts. This Advent, we also recommit our Church to a eucharistic revival that is intended to draw all of us closer to the Lord Jesus, who is both with us now in the great sacrament of his body and blood, and who is coming again in glory.

The Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Advent (Mk 13:33-37) is a wake-up call. We dare not allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of satisfaction with the status quo. The Lord is coming at a time when we least expect him, and our comfortable, indifferent lives will be greatly disturbed by his presence and by the demands he will make on us. We are advised to be watchful and alert, and we are challenged to take seriously all the things that Christ has told us to observe if we want to be his faithful missionary disciples.

The first reading for this Sunday (Is 63:16b-17, 19b, 64:2-7) gives voice to the cry of God’s people who long for his coming:

Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. … Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you … while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for, such as they had not heard of from of old. No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him. Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways! (Is 63:17, 19; 64:2-4)

The prophet extols the people of Israel (and all of us) to be prepared for the Lord’s coming by “doing right” and by being mindful of God’s ways in our daily lives.

In the second reading (1 Cor 1:3-9), St. Paul expresses his confidence that “you are not lacking in spiritual gifts as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 1:7). By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are given everything we need to ready ourselves for Christ’s coming again. “He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ,” St. Paul assures us. “God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor 1:8-9).

We receive the grace we need to renew our minds and hearts this Advent season by our faithful participation in the Church’s prayer and sacramental life (especially the Eucharist), and by our watchful observance of all God’s commandments—especially the great command to love God and our neighbor as ourselves.

“Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning,” Jesus tells us. “May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’ ” (Mk 13:35-37).

As we begin this new Church year, let’s dedicate ourselves to a renewal of purpose as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ. Let’s draw closer to him in the Eucharist and in our living out of the baptismal promises that define our mission as individual and families, and as a Church.

Together, let us pray the words of Psalm 80:

O shepherd of Israel, hearken, from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth. Rouse your power, and come to save us. (Ps 80:2-3)

Come, Lord Jesus, to save us from our personal sins and from the sins of the world. Help us to be watchful and ready when you come again! †