First Sunday of Advent
“What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘SEE'”. Mark 13:37
One of the most beautiful seasons in the life of the Christian has arrived again, the smell of Christmas begins to be felt in the streets, and everything begins to invite us to great and wonderful family moments.
However, this 2020 that we are about to end, it has been a very complicated period of time for each one of us. Our experiences have changed suddenly and we often see side effects of the pandemic, effects that we were not used to seeing, and have generated in us certain fears.
The Gospel presents us on this First Sunday of Advent a very clear message, and invites us to be alert for the change that is coming. The challenge that JESUS proposes to us calls my attention, which is the act of looking, watching, that is WATCHING; all for a reason: BE READY, as the soldier who always has all his senses put to avoid dying in danger.
And it is that: if we see with courage around us, it is not just a pandemic experience, because the danger is always latent around us. It is about having an attitude of courage to overcome in ourselves everything that takes us away from GOD, removing from us everything that does not allow us to live the life of grace that has been given to us since Baptism.
It is ADVENT. It is different, because it is not the same to change than to transform, since it is necessary to generate in us the authentic transformation of our interior to be ready when THE SON OF GOD arrives.
JESUS OF NAZARETH tells us in the Gospel very often, “DO NOT BE AFRAID, “ and “BE PREPARED,” two key phrases to face these times, in the hope of salvation that will soon bring joy to our world. Let us have faith and we will see with certainty, the miracles of love, the miracles of GOD.
Fr. Alberto Chavez Duran, Associate Pastor
English translation: Jesus Jimenez
Readings for the Week
Monday: Rom 10:9-18; Ps 19:8-11; Mt 4:18-22
Tuesday: Is 11:1-10; Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17; Lk 10:21-24
Wednesday: Is 25:6-10a; Ps 23:1-6; Mt 15:29-37
Thursday: Is 26:1-6; Ps 118:1, 8-9, 19-21, 25-27a; Mt 7:21, 24-27
Friday: Is 29:17-24; Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14; Mt 9:27-31
Saturday: Is 30:19-21, 23-26; Ps 147:1-6; Mt 9:35 — 10:1, 5a, 6-8
Sunday: Is 40:1-5, 9-11; Ps 85:9-14; 2 Pt 3:8-14;Mk 1:1-8