November 29/First Sunday of Advent
Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. ~ Mark 13.33
For many of us, the pandemic has scrambled our sense of time. The lockdowns, the straitjacket of routine, the monotony of Zoom meetings, all make it difficult to distinguish one week from another. The absence of so-called “boundary events” that normally give pattern to our time has played havoc with chronology, as there is very little to differentiate Saturday from Wednesday or 9 a.m. from 3 p.m. There are only so many jigsaw puzzles or new dishes one can try, after all. Many of us, our spirits dulled by the unrelenting sameness of our lives, are feeling discouraged. We sit and wait, we wait and sit, but the longed-for change, the new world we await, does not come — neither in the evening, nor at midnight, nor at cockcrow, nor at dawn, as today’s Gospel has it. But the message that launches a new church year today is that the master of the house will come. Christ is not bound by Chronos, or COVID-time, or the human calendar, but operates within Kairos, time that transcends passing human hours, time that carries profound meaning, time that British literary critic Frank Kermode describes as “the season, a point in time filled with significance.” Yes, the master of the house is coming — not in the majestic garb of deliverance, swooping in and rescuing us, but in the form of a small and seemingly ordinary human infant born of love, bearing love. At this moment, our job is to rouse ourselves from our pandemic-induced passivity and resignation and to keep our eyes trained on the horizon — actively, alertly, and lovingly. Because make no mistake: Christ is on the way. Readiness is all.
Loving Lord God, May I shake off the dullness of my spirit and and watch eagerly for your coming. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112920.cfm
To hear the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, sing “Wake, O wake!” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImMXmLoYO5Q
