OMELIE / Omelie EN

26/6/2016

3/12/2017 1st Sunday of Advent- B

3/12/2017 1^st Sunday of Advent- B

Reading 1, Isaiah 63,16-17.19;64,1-7 * Psalm 79 * Reading 2, First Corinthians 1,3-9 * Gospel, Mark 13,33-37

We are at the beginning of a new Liturgical Year with the humility of whom is repenting of his past mistakes and with great confidence in a new visit of our God! Today’s readings help us and spur us to follow this path of continuous conversion. The prophet Isaiah puts in our ears and on our lips a prayer: it is the prayer of whoever remembers many benefits already received in the past from a God who is good, a God who has the heart of a Father! It is the prayer of who is suffering because the benefits have now stopped and is asking himself why, and he finds the answer while considering his own disobedient and ungrateful life. It is the prayer of whoever has a renewed hope, because such an attentive and generous God cannot hyde his face for too long and “has” to remind himself of his children and go back to them! We have no problems in saying this prayer of ours, because we are suffering as well and we must too, sadly, admit that we have forgotten to invoke His name and to hold on to Him. We, fallen this low, do not have the strength to get back on our feet without the strength that God Himself will give us: we call Him “our Father” in order to remind ourselves and Him that true life has no other source. We will look at Him and he will feel committed and “obliged” to lavish again on us the benefits of His love!

The apostle Paul, at the beginning of the letter to the Corinthians, tells us exactly about the gifts of grace that God has given us. All the possible gifts have been given to us “in Christ Jesus”! He is the sign of the Father’s benevolence, the certainty of His forgiveness, the security of His eye turned on us. Jesus is the guarantee of the presence of God at our side. When He is within us and among us, we do not want anything more! We are enriched with all the gifts coming from grace: we have the Word of God and we have His knowledge. The only thing we are awaiting for is “for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed”! When He will be revealed, this will become fullness of life for us, it will be the end of all ephemeral things, the beginning of eternity! We are eagerly waiting for Him, but we need to be patient! We cannot wait for Him to come, but, in the meantime, we have to demonstrate our faithfulness!

Indeed, in the passage from the Gospel Jesus urges us to “be on your guard”! The behaviour he is advising us to adopt with these words is a way of living that is constantly centered on Himself. Be on guard means never forget that we are awaiting for Him, and, then, that we need to live always as if we will meet Him at any point. Now we cannot see Him, but He will come. He will come without failing, even if He will make us wait for a while, even if the hour we planned is not the right one, even if there is the risk for us to become weary of waiting: He will arrive at some point during the night. While we await, we are determined to keep being faithful to the task we received. When Jesus left, ascending into heaven, He has given work to do and charges in order to complete it. The charges we received will only be wield in order to accomplish the works we were given. To be on guard is exactly to keep faithfully serving Him, being aware that the Lord will come back: our heart and our mind will always be busy for Him and with Him!

These weeks during Advent are a period that is designed to train us in awaiting for the Lord, even better, designed to help us never forget His coming at the end of time, and not to forget then to be faithful to our task! We want then to go back with our mind to the past year in order to repent of all the times we forgot, in order to discover again the certainty of our faith and confidently start again calling the name of the Lord wile we hold on to Him: these words of Isaiah’s will help us not only pray, but also keep our resolution fresh.

Our lord Jesus Christ, you who will come in order to take time to perfection, fill again my heart with your Holy Spirit, in order for me to be able to wait for you patiently, and to be able to serve you with humility! The tasks you have given to me are in preparation for your kingdom among men: give me strength to use the gifts of the word and of the knowledge to give testimony among my brothers and among all the men that still ignore you. You deserve every honor and glory, Lord Jesus! Even if you are delaying your coming, I live only for you!