Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Advent begins this Sunday. It
is a very evocative religious season because it is interwoven with hope and
spiritual expectation: every time the Christian community prepares to
commemorate the Redeemer’s birth, it feels a quiver of joy which to a certain
extent it communicates to the whole of society. In Advent, Christians relive a
dual impulse of the spirit: on the one hand, they raise their eyes towards the
final destination of their pilgrimage through history, which is the glorious
return of the Lord Jesus; on the other, remembering with emotion his birth in
Bethlehem, they kneel before the Crib.
The hope of Christians is turned
to the future but remains firmly rooted in an event of the past. In the
fullness of time, the Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary: “Born of a woman,
born under the law”, as the Apostle Paul writes (Gal 4:4).
Today’s Gospel invites us to
stay on guard as we await the final coming of Christ. “Look around you!”, Jesus
says. “You do not know when the master of the house is coming” (Mk 13:35). The
short parable of the master who went on a journey and the servants responsible
for acting in his place highlights how important it is to be ready to welcome
the Lord when he suddenly returns. The
Christian community waits anxiously for his “manifestation”, and the Apostle
Paul, writing to the Corinthians, urges them to trust in God’s fidelity and to
live so as to be found “blameless” (see 1 Cor 1:7-9) on the day of the Lord.
Most appropriately, therefore, the liturgy at the beginning of Advent puts on
our lips the Psalm: “Show us, O Lord, your kindness, and grant us your
salvation” (see Ps 85[84]:8).
“We are taught that God is preparing a new
dwelling and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (see 2 Cor 5:2; II Pt
3:13).... Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the
expectancy of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a
new human family grows”. Indeed, we will find the good fruits of our hard work
when Christ delivers to the Father his eternal and universal Kingdom. May Mary
Most Holy, Virgin of Advent, obtain that we live this time of grace in a
watchful and hardworking way while we await the Lord.
~ From BENEDICT XVI ANGELUS 1st Sunday of Advent, Nov. 27, 2005
