First Sunday of Advent (Year B)

Is 63:16b-17,19b; 64:2-7;
Ps 80;
1Cor 1:3-9;
Mk 13:33-37

BIBLICAL-MISSIONARY COMMENTARY

Keeping watch “until He comes again”

On this first Sunday of Advent, which marks the beginning of a new liturgical year, I would like to emphasize once again the missionary character of every Mass, and then to reflect on the two most important aspects that the Word of God suggests to us today as we await the coming of the Lord.

1. The Missionary and Advent Character of Every Mass

It will be appropriate to take up what we emphasized already last year, from the very beginning of our adventure with the Word of God:

The missionary nature is intrinsic in every mass, because it is the active community witness of the Christian faith of the participants. The link between the mass celebrated and the mission of the Church it is clear from the dismissal that sounds in the original Latin “Ite missa est” (hence the name mass for the Eucharistic celebration). As Pope Benedict XVI teaches us, “[The dismissal ‘Ite, missa est’,] helps us to grasp the relationship between the Mass just celebrated and the mission of Christians in the world. In antiquity, missa simply meant ‘dismissal.’ However, in Christian usage it gradually took on a deeper meaning. The word ‘dismissal’ has come to imply a ‘mission.’ These few words succinctly express the missionary nature of the Church. The People of God might be helped to understand more clearly this essential dimension of the Church’s life, taking the dismissal as a starting-point.” (Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis, n. 51).

The missionary nature of the mass emerges even more clearly and reaches its culmination in the acclamation after the consecration of the bread and the wine into Christ’s body and blood. The priest proclaims Mysterium fidei “The mystery of faith”, and people answer: Mortem tuam annuntiamus, Domine, et tuam resurrectionem confitemur, donec venias “We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection, until You come again.”

This liturgical action highlights the vocation of every Christian in today’s world to be herald/witness of the paschal mysteries of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection, until His second coming.

Indeed, in front of the Eucharistic Jesus, every participant is called to solemnly confirm the mission He Himself has entrusted to the Church, the community of the faithful: “Go and…tell”, “Go… and proclaim the good news”, “you will be my witnesses”. This mission must be carried out until the return of Christ, as recalled by the Second Vatican Council: “And so the time for missionary activity extends between the first coming of the Lord and the second, in which latter the Church will be gathered from the four winds like a harvest into the kingdom of God. For the Gospel must be preached to all nations before the Lord shall come” (AG 9). This means that our present time is always a time of mission, donec venias “until [You] come again”.

This general liturgical-missionary context should be experienced particularly in the Eucharistic celebration of the days and Sundays of Advent, when, through the prayers and readings provided for each Mass, the aspect of waiting for the Lord’s coming is emphasized.

2. “Watch […] Watch […] Watch!”

In the short Gospel passage we have heard, the imperative “watch!” resonates three times, at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. Thus, the verb punctuates the whole message that Jesus wants to convey not only to His intimate disciples, but also to all His listeners, as He states in the conclusion of His teaching: “What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” It is therefore an invitation from Christ, insistent and universal (addressed “to all”), to have a wise attitude in waiting for His return, like that of every servant who awaits the certain return of his master. It is not a passive but an active vigil, as Jesus himself asks by repeating “Be watchful [Take heed]” and “[attention that] may he not come suddenly and find you sleeping”.

Therefore, we have here the central recommendation that Jesus leaves to the disciples not only for today or for this season of Advent, but also for their entire lives. Jesus’ exhortation to watch also resonates elsewhere in the Gospels, in particular in Mt 24:42 and 25:13, at the end of the parable of the ten virgins, which we heard a few weeks ago! This gives a glimpse of the importance of this teaching, which is connected to the recommendation to pray (cf. Lk 21:36: “Be vigilant at all times and pray”) and subsequently transmitted by the apostles to the first Christian communities (cf. Eph 6: 18; Col 4:2; 1Pet 5:8). In this way, Jesus’ triple exhortation “watch, watch, watch” is intrinsically linked to that of “pray, pray, pray” (just like the recommendation of Our Lady of Fatima!). Praying is the concrete and characteristic expression of Christian keeping watch and, consequently, today’s call to the attitude of keeping watch for Christ’s disciples will also be an invitation to intensify and renew their prayer life. This invitation acquires a particular meaning when we are about to move on to the new year 2024, dedicated, at Pope Francis’ decision, to prayer in preparation for the 2025 Jubilee.

3. Watching-praying-witnessing Christ

Finally, it should be noted that in the context of the Christian expectation of Christ’s return, the second reading from the first letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians reminds us of the important perspective of the testimony to Christ with firm faith. In fact, writing to the Christians of Corinth who were waiting for “the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,” the apostle praises them for “the testimony to Christ” established “so firmly that no charisma is no longer lacking” in them. On the other hand, he expresses the hope and conviction that Christ himself will keep you them “firm to the end” on that day of the encounter with Him. Thus, the Corinthians became the living channels who transmitted, with their life of faith, the testimony of Christ that they themselves had received. They become the living witnesses of the Lord in keeping watch, in praying, in living the faith. Furthermore, it should be underlined that Saint Paul himself, regarding keeping watch and praying, wanted to explicitly ask Christians for a particular prayer for the work of evangelization that he was carrying out:

With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit. To that end, be watchful with all perseverance and supplication for all the holy ones and also for me, that speech may be given me to open my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, so that I may have the courage to speak as I must. (Eph 6:18-20)

From this perspective, we Christians today are also called not only to keep vigil and pray in this particular time, but also to bear witness, that is, to transmit the testimony of Christ to all those around us. Furthermore, in our vigil and prayer, we also remember in a special way the missionaries of Christ today, those who, like Saint Paul the Apostle and Saint Francis Xavier, whose feast day we celebrate today, have dedicated their whole lives to the proclamation of Christ throughout the world “to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.” Thus, we support each other in faith and testimony to Christ, and together we form the communion of Christ’s missionary disciples to continue his evangelizing mission in the world donec veniat “until He comes”. Amen. Maranatha!