Bishop Glen John Provost
Bishop of Lake Charles
Homily for the First Sunday of Advent
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." Matthew 24:37
The key admonition of the Gospel today is "stay awake" (Matthew 24:42). We begin the Advent Season and are told to "stay awake". And what is the object of our watchfulness? It is nothing less than the Incarnation of the Word of God. We are preparing for Christmas.
Consider for a moment what the Incarnation means. The Incarnation is the belief, proclaimed by the Gospels and the Church, that the eternal Word of God came from heaven, took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and became man. We read in the prologue of the Gospel of St. John that will be the reading for Christmas Day itself, "And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father¹s only Son, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). That mystery of the Incarnation was first made known to the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation. The virgin of Nazareth heard the angel Gabriel say, "Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus" (Luke 1:31). "The holy Spirit will come upon you," Gabriel explained to Mary, "and the power of the Most High will overshadow you" (Luke 1:35). Salvation is coming and has come into the world. God has entered time with His timelessness and brought the definitive statement of Himself to us so that we can be saved.
Have you ever been in the presence of someone who said something really important? Words are so cheap today that this experience can be rare, but it does happen at times. When a parent teaches a lesson to a child, when a counselor or respected advisor gives us advice, when a boy and girl tell each other that they are in love, when someone announces a tragic death to us - the world seems to stop, and we listen with undivided attention. We do not fall asleep. The words are too important. The message has too much meaning.
So it is with Advent. God is saying to us, "I have a message for you. That message is that I love you so much that I sent my Word made flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. That Word made flesh shows you how to live. That Word made flesh invites you to life with me." What is our reaction to this message? As St. Paul will write in advice to the Romans, "Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light" (Romans 13:12). The message will not catch us by surprise, if we are awake and listening for it. This is Advent's job, to remind us of our watchfulness.
This is, I think, the meaning of the image of the two men in the field and two women at the mill. One is taken and another is left. Jesus is emphasizing that two people can be at the same task but one is aware and the other is not. The task is not what keeps them awake or makes them aware. Being alert and awake comes from an internal awareness that "the Son of Man will come" (Matthew 24:44).
I am struck at times with how numb people are today about spiritual things. An awareness of the transcendent and the spiritual is foreign to them. They are so rooted in the world, so consumed with their own pleasures and pre-occupations, that even when the message is proclaimed to them, they remain oblivious and closed to its meaning.
Advent is a spiritual "wake-up call." It is time to awaken to the reality of the spiritual in our lives, the importance of prayer, the need for redemption. The Word of God was made Man, and before such a profound mystery, I wish to be awake.