Jesus said to his disciples: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. …Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at the cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” (Mk 13:33, 36-37).
With these words, our Lord calls us to prepare us for his coming; he comes to bring us to God’s kingdom. As we begin a new liturgical year today, the First Sunday of Advent, allow me to reflect on the season of Advent and the Gospel of Mark (from which we will hear extensively during this liturgical year).
We all know that Christmas is coming. All you have to do is look at the street lampposts or in the stores and you will see all the Christmas decorations; they seem to appear earlier and earlier every year. As the days shorten and darkness comes sooner and lingers longer every night, we are looking for some color and light to cheer us up. And, for us – we who believe in Jesus Christ – there is a much deeper awareness of something very special happening that offers us even greater cheer. And so, we first enter into the season of Advent as we anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ and look forward to his return in glory.
Christmas is the time, every year, when we have the graced opportunity to reflect on God’s love for us. He has shown us his love in person through the coming of his Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. We should reflect often on this great mystery of our faith: that God, the infinite creator of the universe, would humble himself to become a man to save us.
And, we need to ask ourselves why God would come among us. As we hear proclaimed so clearly in today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah, God is our loving Father and we, who have hardened our hearts to him, need him to return. Our readings remind us that, as of today, we are not simply getting into the commercial Christmas season but entering into a season of conversion. Isaiah’s prayer calls on God to be the potter forming the clay of our lives. Jesus calls us to be alert to God’s unexpected appearances in our lives.
Traditionally, we talk about Advent as a time of waiting. But this week’s readings emphasize watching — watching for the signs of God’s presence, watching for the ways in which God desires to act as the potter to reform our lives according to his will. Jesus told the disciples that the master could show up at any hour — when we should be at our task or in moments of well-deserved rest. The task of discipleship then is not so much to be busy as it is to stay alert.
Beginning this Sunday, we will begin to hear from the Gospel of Mark throughout the Sundays of this liturgical year. Each of the years in the Church’s three-year Sunday cycle features one of the three Synoptic Gospels. Year A – which just ended – features the Gospel of Matthew, year B, which begins today, features the Gospel of Mark, and year C features the Gospel of Luke. This cycle allows us to hear each gospel, which presents our Lord’s teachings in slightly different ways since each gospel was written to different audiences at different times under different circumstances and for different reasons. The Gospel of John is also featured on certain Sundays throughout the year as well as on the first Sundays of Lent and during the Easter season.
The Gospel of Mark is generally thought to be written between 65AD (when Nero began his persecution in Rome) and 70AD (when Jerusalem was destroyed) and probably in Syria. Like the other gospels, the text does not identify the author. Although it was traditionally thought to be John Mark, a cousin of Barnabas and companion to Paul (as identified in the Acts of the Apostles), now it is proposed that he was an unknown Hellenistic Jewish Christian, that is, a Jew who was influenced by the Greek culture so prevalent in the Middle East at that time and who had come to accept Jesus as the Messiah. Originally intended for Gentile (that is, non-Jewish) converts to Christianity, it sought to encourage them as they faced persecution from both the Romans and the Jews.
As we begin this new liturgical year, let us listen carefully to all the readings – and especially the Gospel of Mark; they are proclaimed to prepare us for the Kingdom of God!