Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 1 December 2013

Flicker - Elizabeth Augusta

First Sunday of Advent year A

The long dark nights in our northern hemisphere are broken during this month of December by the glimmering of lights; there are a number of religious festivals during the month that catch the warmth, comfort and excitement of illuminating the night. We are already into the festival time of Chanukkah, the Jewish feast of Lights which began on the eve of the 27th November and ends on the 5th December. St Nicholas shows up with joy and gifts especially in the Netherlands on December 6th and in the darker corners of Northern Europe on her feast day December 13th, Saint Lucy brings her crown of flickering candles to bring blessing and hope.

But for those of us who celebrate Advent, this first Sunday comes as the beginning of the western Church year and the season that heralds the coming of the Christ-child in those wonderful feasts of the Christmas season.

Unlike Lent, the four weeks preceding the great feasts of Christ’s birth and Epiphany are not times of great penance. We are asked to prepare ourselves to welcome these feasts, but more in prayerful anticipation and silent prayer, it is the season for wakefulness, being attentive to the call of God right in our daily lives. It is also a reminder that we anticipate not only the festivals of light and joy but look beyond the limits of our world into that dark winter sky and see in the twinkling of those so far distant stars a hint of the glory and majesty of Christ our God who one day will come again.

Perhaps in our security of life we might feel that this is a long way off, we have another Christmas to get through, plenty to do, friends to contact, relations to visit. It is a season of giving! And yet, the insistent voice of scripture tells us that we have been promised that the Son of Man will come. Matthew in his direct way prepares us for that second coming, reminding us to stand ready and be prepared. That is very much the message of Advent; that He will come again as surely as He came into the world as a little child. This is why Isaiah tells us to walk in the light of the Lord, why Paul tells us that the night is nearly over and the day is at hand!