1°" SUNDAY OF ADVENT CYCLE C Today we enter Advent, a new liturgical season, it is a time of preparation. Scholars trace the season of Advent back to the fifth century. It was placed in the liturgical calendar of the Church so that we may purify out all that is wrong in our lives. The scriptures that we will encounter during these 4 Sundays will give us the opportunity to renew ourselves. They proclaim hope, and a call to live Christian lives. The gospels all point to Jesus. He is the one who will come at the end of time, the one for whom John the Baptist prepares a way. ‘The First readings are prophetic passages, especially from Isaiah, about the messiah and the messianic times. They express the call to conversion. And we see that the second readings are in harmony with the gospels and the first readings, for they present to us the revelation of the mystery of God’s saving plan for us. In today’s gospel Jesus uses apocalyptic language to make us sit up and take stock of our lives, to be ready to meet him when he comes. This earth and everything about it will one day be no more. God gives us this lifetime to discover him and come to know him, in the love we show to others and the concern that we have for our world. Everyday of our lives is an Advent of hope, expectation and preparation. This is not a good time to let our spiritual lives lapse! It is a time to seek the way of God in all things. Aday will come, and sooner than we expect when we must stand before the ‘son of Man, coming in gin power 1 ‘There will be no turning back. No second chances, No retakes. lives are over, they will be over. We won't be able to have a second chance, like you see on the television or in the movies of people coming back to earth to correct their mistakes. We will simply find ourselves standing before Jesus face to face. It will be the same Jesus whom we receive so many times in the Eucharist. It will be the same one we profess our faith in every Sunday when we say the creed,and the very name we took on in baptism. Maybe contrary to the images we have, Jesus won’t have a big record book in front of him, or have scales of justice in his hands. Maybe Jesus will not say much when that day comes for our judgement. He knows us in the deepest recesses of our hearts. He will read there that we tried our best. He will see that we listened to Pauls advice which we heard in our second reading: “May the Lord be generous in increasing your love and make you love one another and the whole human race, confirming your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless in the sight of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his saints If this is so, he will embrace us and welcome us into his eternal love. If he reads in our hearts that the basic attitude of our lives is that of selfishness, and rejection of his loving ways, then he will see that just as we refused his love in this world, we will not be able to bear it in the next. Advent is a time to prepare. The finishing line should not be seen to stop on the 25" December. The finishing line is the end of our lives or the end of the world, whichever comes first. We must be ready to stand before the Lord. With hearts and minds bright with the light of Christ.