Advent Preparing For Christ, Cycle A Lesson 1: Wake up! The common theme this week s three readings is Wake up! Get Ready! There is a new day coming; the Day of the Lord! In the Old Testament reading, Isaiah envisions the Day of the Lord to be a Day of Judgment followed by a time of peace. In the New Testament readings, Paul speaks of salvation which is near and urges his readers to wake from sleep. In Matthew s gospel, Jesus speaks about the End Times and describes people more concerned about simple daily tasks rather than the most important thing of all: eternal life. All three readings point to the End of the World and the proper response to this imminent and inevitable event: wake up, be watchful! Maintain your relationship with God so you are ready to meet him when he comes. 3
The Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5 1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD. The New Testament Reading: Romans 13:11-14 11 Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; 12 the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. The Gospel Reading: The Gospel of Matthew 24:37-44 37 As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of man. 40* Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. One of the best ways to meditate upon God s Word is through memorization. A suggested memory is printed in bold within the Biblical text or you may wish to choose a verse of your own. The Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Points to Ponder Isaiah 2:1-5 Isaiah is one the four major prophets (the others are Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel). They are called major because their works are the longest of the twelve prophets. The shorter works are called the minor prophets. It can be argued that Isaiah is the most influential of the prophets. Isaiah is quoted ninety times in the New Testament and many of those quotes were made by Jesus. In Luke 4:16-30 Jesus reads from the Book of Isaiah announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:18-19) 4
Isaiah was an 8th-century BC prophet. We are told in Is. 1:1 that he prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. These kings ruled between 785-698 BC. Isaiah began to prophesy the year King Uzziah died (Is. 6:1) around the year 742 BC. It is clear that Isaiah had a long ministry lasting nearly 50 years. When Isaiah began to prophesy, Judah seemed to be in good shape economically and politically due to the capable leadership of Uzziah, whose reign is described in II Kings 15 and II Chronicles 26. Uzziah expanded the borders of Judah by defeating the surrounding peoples including the Philistines, Arabs, and Ammonites, from whom he extracted tribute. Under Uzziah many people prospered. Yet II Chronicles notes, while Uzzziah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, he became proud, usurped the role of the priest, and was stricken with leprosy. Also, while he tried to be faithful to the true God he was not able to lead his own subjects in right worship. The nation of Judah continually faced the temptation of following the false gods of the tribes and nations that surrounded them and were frequently overcome by this temptation. Furthermore, their prosperity had made them forget the true God, and forget that as followers of God they were required to treat each other with justice. So when Isaiah began his ministry he was facing a situation in which things looked good on the surface but were rotten spiritually, and he prophesied that if the people did not repent, there would be punishment from God. After Uzziah died, Assyria started to regain its political power. Assyrian kings began to march on surrounding countries, and it became apparent to Isaiah that the punishment was going to take the form of Assyrian domination. The Assyrians struck fear and justifiably so, into the hearts of people everywhere since they habitually demanded high tribute and would often deport the citizens of an area and repopulate with other peoples. This is what was done to the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. Assyria eventually attacked Judah in 701 BC during the reign of Hezekiah. During this period of fear Isaiah offers the words of hope that we find in this week s reading. Is. 2:1-5 is part of a larger section of Isaiah (2:1-4;6) in which Isaiah accuses Judah of putting trust in themselves rather than God, of becoming proud, worshipping idols and warns of a coming punishment: because of these sins, Judah will be humbled in the Day of the Lord. Yet Isaiah begins this terrible warning with the wonderful words of hope in this week s reading. There will be a cleansing of Judah but the end result will be marvelous. As he writes these words the inhabitants of Jerusalem are fearful of the convergence of Assyria on their city to destroy it. However, Isaiah has a vision in which the nations converge on Zion not to destroy but to come in peace with a desire to learn from the ways of the Lord. The result of this convergence on Zion will be peace: swords will be beaten into ploughshares, spears into pruning hooks and there will be no more war. There is a glimmer of understanding of the true purpose of God s covenant with the house of Jacob. The ultimate purpose is to establish a covenant with all peoples of the world through Christ and his Church, the New Jerusalem. Thus the salvation of the world is centered on Zion ( Salvation comes from the Jews John 4:22). The result of this massive gathering at Mount Zion will be peace. It is sin, pride and a turning away from God that results in violence and war. A return to God, repentance and submission to his will leads to peace. There is a sense of urgency in the passage. Isaiah exhorts his listeners to come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! because as Isaiah assures them later in the passage (4:2-6) after the tribulation (which he spends several chapters describing) there will be a remnant in Judah cleansed from sin and the glory of the Lord will be over Jerusalem. The remnant will be those faithful to the LORD. These eschatological visions, which bracket the entire section of Isaiah from 2:1 to 4:6 find fulfillment in Christ who ushers in the Kingdom of God, And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:7). Romans 13:11-14 Most readers are familiar with St. Paul. He was born a Jew in Tarsus, a member of the tribe of Benjamin and zealous for the Law (Torah). He was well educated and was trained in Jerusalem very likely by Gamaliel, a prominent rabbi of the times. He was highly offended by the Way that Christ s followers practiced, finding it blasphemous. According to Acts 8:1 he was present at Stephen s martyrdom. He laid waste the church in Jerusalem, and dragged off men and women to prison (Acts 8:3). 5
While on his way to Damascus to round up more followers of the Way and return them to Jerusalem for trial, he encountered Christ in a most dramatic way (Acts 9) and he was immediately converted. He became a zealous teacher, preacher and theologian of the Way, just as he had been zealous for Torah. Paul was a bold and fearless preacher, so bold and fearless that he fomented the wrath of his opponents and they frequently responded to him in a violent manner. (See Acts 13-14). He wrote many letters to different communities during his ministry and from those letters we can gain a better understanding of the doctrine that he taught. He wrote Romans around 58 AD, after he had been preaching and teaching for over 20 years, and in many ways this letter is an outstanding summation of Paul s theology, particularly his understanding of sin and what life is without Christ, salvation, faith, and how to live a life of grace life with Christ. Paul s theology is quite complex, having many different aspects to it, but his message of salvation can be summarized in this way: Salvation is liberation from sin and death. It is merited for us by the passion of Christ and granted to us through Baptism (CCC 2020). Thus without Christ, we are children of wrath (Eph. 2:3) and doomed to sin and death. With Christ, we are given salvation and new life. This week s reading comes near the end of the Epistle, after Paul has spent quite some time on these various themes. In this reading Paul urges his readers to wake from sleep because salvation is near. It seems that the emphasis is on the response to the reality and nearness of salvation rather than the immediacy of the Second Coming itself. The proper response is to wake from sleep. To be asleep spiritually is to forget about God. This is not the time to forget about God, to get caught up in the minutiae of life, thinking that it is Life, when in fact, Christ is Life. How we awake from sleep is this: we cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. This is a process that begins with baptism (when we put on Christ ). Through Baptism we become members of the Church, that is, Christ s body. Yet we are still in constant need of renewal and conversion, lest we fall asleep. By putting on the armor of light, which is Christ, we are able to live a life of grace, no longer reveling in debauchery and licentiousness or quarreling or jealousy. Baptism gives us grace, the life of Christ in our souls. God will continue to shower us with grace as long as we freely accept and respond to it. In that way we can conduct ourselves becomingly, as in the day. Because we are still tempted by sin, and often fall, we continually need assistance to conduct ourselves becomingly. We can find the assistance we need in frequent reception of the Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Penance. Gospel of Matthew 24:37-44 Today s reading is part of a section of Matthew 24 and 25 known as the eschatological discourse. Each synoptic Gospel writer has an eschatological discourse (see Mark 13 and Luke 21 if you would like to compare) and each year the Gospel reading for the First Sunday in Advent is taken from this discourse. Matthew addresses three events in his discourse: the destruction of Jerusalem, (which occurred in 70 AD) the end of the world, and the Second Coming of Christ. It is easy to see why these three are tied together. For the early Christians many of whom were of Jewish background (and it is to these Christians that Matthew addresses his Gospel), the destruction of Jerusalem would have been the end of their world, and after the event occurred the destruction of Jerusalem remained a symbol for the end of the world that will occur at the Second Coming. In the discourse Jesus predicts the terrible tribulations that will occur before the end but he who endures to the end will be saved (Mt. 24:13). The tribulations experienced by the Jews and Christians living in Jerusalem during the rebellion and eventual destruction of the city reflect what it will be like before the Second Coming. Beginning with verse 23 and onward the emphasis is on the Second Coming. While Matthew devotes some time describing the world before the Second Coming, a world filled with tribulation and crisis, this passage highlights how some people will be responding to these times. They will be carrying on as usual, paying no attention at all to God. They will be busy getting married, preparing food, eating, drinking, and preoccupying themselves with the mundane things of everyday life. But the end will come upon them suddenly just like Noah s flood came upon the people who lived in those days. Jesus tells his listeners to be prepared, to be watchful, for the day will come when people least expect it. As in Paul s 6
Letter to the Romans, the emphasis is on the proper response to the End Times. Tying It All Together New Year s Day is a day traditionally associated with resolutions. Today is New Year s Day in the Church, and Isaiah, Paul, and Matthew ask us to make a resolution to get ready for the End Times. Are we just living life, getting caught up in daily affairs? Then it is time to become more intentional. Have we forgotten that Christ is coming again? If we don t wake up we will be left out of the wedding banquet when he comes. We will be like the foolish virgins who fell asleep. (Matt 25: 1-12). Wake up! Stay awake! Get ready! The Day of the Lord, Judgment Day will come when you least expect it. Catechism Connections To learn more about the Liturgy in Advent see CCC 524. To learn more about sanctifying grace and justification see CCC 2017-2029. To learn more about the Last Judgment see CCC 1038. Rome to Home Peace is not merely the absence of war; nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies; nor is it brought about by dictatorship. Instead, it is rightly and appropriately called an enterprise of justice. Peace results from that order structured into human society by its divine Founder, and actualized by men as they thirst after ever greater justice. The common good of humanity finds its ultimate meaning in the eternal law. But since the concrete demands of this common good are constantly changing as time goes on, peace is never attained once and for all, but must be built up ceaselessly. Moreover, since the human will is unsteady and wounded by sin, the achievement of peace requires a constant mastering of passions and the vigilance of lawful authority. But this is not enough. This peace on earth cannot be obtained unless personal well-being is safeguarded and men freely and trustingly share with one another the riches of their inner spirits and their talents. A firm determination to respect other men and peoples and their dignity, as well as the studied practice of brotherhood, is absolutely necessary for the establishment of peace. Hence peace is likewise the fruit of love, which goes beyond what justice can provide. That earthly peace which arises from love of neighbor symbolizes and results from the peace of Christ which radiates from God the Father. For by the cross the incarnate Son, the prince of peace reconciled all men with God. By thus restoring all men to the unity of one people and one body, He slew hatred in His own flesh; and, after being lifted on high by His resurrection, He poured forth the spirit of love into the hearts of men. For this reason, all Christians are urgently summoned to do in love what the truth requires, and to join with all true peacemakers in pleading for peace and bringing it about. Motivated by this same spirit, we cannot fail to praise those who renounce the use of violence in the vindication of their rights and who resort to methods of defense which are otherwise available to weaker parties too, provided this can be done without injury to the rights and duties of others or of the community itself. Insofar as men are sinful, the threat of war hangs over them, and hang over them it will until the return of Christ. But insofar as men vanquish sin by a union of love, they will vanquish violence as well and make these words come true: They shall turn their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into sickles. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more (Isaiah 2:4). Gaudium et Spes, #78 7
Study Questions It s best to read the entire Scripture readings for this lesson and Points to Ponder before responding to the study questions. 1. What were the sins committed by Judah that God was going to punish? (See Is. 1:4; 1:12; 1:17 & 1:21-23) 2. What were the sins of the people that Azariah (Uzziah) failed to uproot from his people? (See II Kings 15: 1-8) 3. How does Isaiah contrast the threat of Assyria invading Jerusalem to the convergence of nations on Jerusalem in his eschatological vision in today s reading? (See Points to Ponder) 4. What is the ultimate purpose of God s covenant with the house of Jacob? ( See Points to Ponder) 8
5. How is Isaiah s prophecy in this reading fulfilled? (See Points to Ponder) 6. According to this week s reading from the book of Romans, what do you think it means to be asleep spiritually? 7. How did the people of Noah s time react to imminent disaster? How does Jesus use the analogy to describe the end times? (See Points to Ponder) 8. What is the connection between right worship, social justice, and peace (see Rome to Home)? 9
Voices of the Saints There are three distinct comings of the Lord of which I know, His coming to men, His coming into men, and His coming against men. St. Bernard, Third Sermon for Advent. Questions for Reflection The following questions are intended to help you reflect upon ways in which the discoveries you ve made in this lesson can be applied to your own life. 1. Isaiah addressed a community that was facing possible destruction from the Assyrians, yet he offered one great hope for the future. When you are in a dark place in your life, how does your relationship with God give you the ability to have hope? 2. Is your own spiritual life passionate or tepid? Wherever you are in your journey, how can you become a more fervent disciple? Notes: 10