1st Sunday of Advent (Year A) - 27 November
27th November 2022
1st Sunday of Advent (Year A) - 27 November
“The time of Advent is a time of hope. Jesus wants us to love Him. It is His desire that we be holy, very much His own.” - St Josemaria Escriva
A short reflection on today's Gospel reading by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"Not only did Our Lord identify all Truth and Life with Himself, but He put forth His claim to judge the world - something no mere man would ever do. He said that as the Judge of all He would return again seated on a throne of glory and attended by the angels, to judge all men according to their works.
"When He comes to judge it will not be merely the circumscribed area of the earth in which He laboured and revealed Himself; rather it will be all the nations and the empires of the world. The time of His second coming He knows not as man, but only as God. He will not tell it except in warning that it will be sudden, like lightning. He came as a 'Man of Sorrows' then He shall come in His glory. The attributes of His suffering humanity will be necessary for His identification. Hence, after His Resurrection, He kept the scars. With Him will be the angels, and all the nations will be divided into two classes: sheep and goats. As He divided men on earth into two classes, namely, those who hated and those who loved Him, so He would divide them then. 'I am the Good Shepherd,' He said of Himself. The title He would vindicate on the last day by a separation of His flock of sheep from the goats. The sheep will hear themselves commended for loving service to Him, even when it was unconscious service.
"The nearer Christ comes to a heart, the more it becomes conscious of its guilt; it will then either ask for His mercy and find peace, or else it will turn against Him because it is not yet ready to give up its sinfulness. Thus He will separate the good from the bad, the wheat from the chaff. Man’s reaction to this Divine Presence will be the test: either it will call out all the opposition of egotistic natures, or else galvanise them into a regeneration and a resurrection." (Life of Christ)
An Advent Prayer
God of hope, who brought love into this world, be the love that dwells between us. God of hope, who brought peace into this world, be the peace that dwells between us. God of hope, who brought joy into this world, be the joy that dwells between us. God of hope, the rock we stand upon, be the centre, the focus of our lives always and particularly this Advent time. Through Him who is our hope, our joy, our love, our peace in union with the Holy Spirit, one God forever. Amen. 💖🙏💐