“There will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the wave. …And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud. …When these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand” (Lk 21:25ff).
With these words, our Lord helps to prepare us for his coming. 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 Luke (from which we will hear extensively during this liturgical year).
We human beings cannot live without hope. Unlike the rest of the animals in this world, we are blessed with the ability to recognize the future and to realize that our actions have some effect in shaping it. This is such an essential element of humanity that we cannot live without it. We must have something to live for, something to which we look forward. Once there is nothing to live for, we give up and die. But, we can find all sorts of things to live for and we can hope for so many different things that will give us reason to live. Whether it be as close to us as living for our children and grandchildren or as global as trying to make the world a little better or as simple as eagerly anticipating our next vacation, these all give us a reason to live, something for which we can hope.
One of the reasons we Christians read the Old Testament during the Advent season is to learn where we should place our hope as followers of Christ. The people of the Old Testament times had great hopes. As we hear in today’s first reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, they believed that the “days are coming” when the Lord would fulfill the promise he had made to the house of Israel, when “Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem shall dwell secure” (Jer 33:16). They were looking for that day when God would come and save them from their earthly suffering, pain and misery at the hands of the Babylonians who were besieging them.
And yet, our hope is very different from the hope of the people of the Old Testament since we live in the age of fulfillment. The coming of Jesus in history has brought about the beginning of the Kingdom of God. So, our hope is for its complete fulfillment as Jesus prepares to come again. As we celebrate the Season of Advent, let us turn our hope to the fulfillment of God’s plan, which will bring peace to our lives here on earth and endless joy in heaven!
Beginning this Sunday, we will begin to hear from the Gospel of Luke 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 features the Gospel of Matthew, year B – which just ended – features the Gospel of Mark, and year C – which begins today – 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 Luke is generally thought to be written between 80 and 90AD in Syria. Intended for Greek converts to Christianity, it sought to encourage them to be confident that Jesus was, indeed, the Savior and that God’s plan for salvation included them and, in fact, all Gentiles. Like the other gospels, the text does not identify the author. Although it was traditionally thought to be a Syrian physician, modern scripture scholars identify him as a well-educated non-Palestinian Gentile convert – possibly Luke, a companion to Paul. He admits at the very beginning of his gospel that he is not an eye-witness of Jesus but has “decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence…so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received” (Lk 1:3+4).
As we begin this new liturgical year, let us listen carefully to all the readings – and especially the Gospel of Luke – which are proclaimed to give us hope as we prepare for the Kingdom of God!