The First Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of the Christian Church’s liturgical cycle. The Scripture readings for this Sunday are usually a reflection on the End Time and the need to stay awake, to watch and pray, to keep oneself uncontaminated by the world, and to remain steadfast in the face of persecution and the terrible catastrophes that must precede the second coming of Christ. In Luke 21:25-28, Jesus warns his disciples that there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars. On the earth nations shall be in agony. Men and women shall be bewildered by the turmoil of the ocean and its waves. Many shall faint away with terror and fear at what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But he says “When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.”

It is rather ironical that these instructions which constitute the last segment of the teaching of Christ should feature at the very beginning of the Church’s calendar. In the very preamble to the annual celebration of the Christ narrative is to be found a discussion of the last things that will happen before the world as we know it passes away. Perhaps the point to be made by this arrangement is that the End of the World so graphically and frightfully described by Christ, is at the same time the dawn of a new beginning – the appearance of the Son of Man in glory and the final inauguration of the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus speaks about the end of the world, he presents it to us not as an event that should frighten us. Rather, he presents the “Day of the Lord” as a glorious day that the faithful should look forward to with joyous expectation, because that day shall mark the end of their suffering. That day shall mark the end of the regime of greed and corruption, hatred and wickedness, violence and war. That day shall mark the end of the period in-between the first and second coming of Christ, the period that is characterised by struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. The Day of the Lord shall witness the disappearance of the imperfect world of sinful men and women and the emergence of a new world where righteousness shall be at home.

The End Time story is good news for the faithful, because, after the catastrophe, there shall emerge that great day when the Lord shall appear in glory to wipe away the tears of the faithful, to right all wrongs and fulfill all the aspirations of the faithful who remain steadfast through the period of tribulation. When the Lord does come, the prophesies of Isaiah and Jeremiah shall be fulfilled, namely, that the lion shall lie down with the lamb, and the small child shall play into the cobra’s hole. On that day, righteousness shall descend like the rain, and peace like an overflowing stream.

Thus in speaking about the end of this world of darkness and sin, Jesus is foretelling the coming of a new world, where everyone and everything shall be changed, a new world given to us by the Spirit, a new world recreated by God in the Spirit, a better world that is totally attuned to the Kingdom of God, where love joy and peace reign, and where hatred, wickedness and violence are forever dislodged. Christian hope indeed enables us to envision this new world as an on-coming reality.

The picture of the End Time as presented by the prophets and by Jesus on the surface looks like a bleak one, but there is another side to it. After the horror story, there is the good news of individual redemption and cosmic rejuvenation. The terrible things that will occur are signs that something else is about to happen, that is, the saving visit of the Son of Man which will transform, purify and perfect everything. The End Time may signify disaster, but out of that disaster shall come the final liberation, when the faithful shall see their God as he really is, and every tear shall be wiped away. The End Time events are a true manifestation (epiphany) of God. They are terrible and alarming events, yet they are the sign that God is in control of the elements, for in the midst of all these cataclysmic phenomena, the Son of Man shall come in the clouds.

Within the context of the widespread violence and corruption in the world, Jesus’ prophesy seeks to reassure believers that history has not escaped from God’s dominion. God is still the Lord of history. He will overturn the evil dispensation, and the long hoped-for reign of peace shall be established. God’s word shall be the last word of history. These shattering events therefore are only the beginning of another world and the starting point of a new history, not the end of everything. They herald an encounter with the Son of God who will be coming in full glory. For those who remain faithful to him, this coming, albeit accompanied by catastrophes, should be good news. With his coming, right shall triumph over wrong, and good shall overcome evil. That is why the Lord says: “when these things begin to happen, stand erect, hold your heads high, for your liberation is near at hand.”

Thus in foretelling these End Time disasters, Jesus does not seek to paralyse people with fear. Instead the on-coming events are meant to stimulate the faithful to action. He speaks so forcefully about the future, in order that the faithful may do something decisive about the present. The idea is that the future is going to be shaped in some measure by what the faithful do today. In this way the vision of terrifying events at the End Time (Apocalyse), is in fact a reflection on hope. The apparent catastrophes are matched by the glorious coming of Jesus Christ, and the panic of the non-believers is matched by the confidence of the faithful, who at that moment will stand erect and hold their heads high. When approached from this perspective, what many people see as failure and destruction – such as the death of Jesus on the cross, the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of each person at his or her death, the end of human civilisation as we know it, and the end of every mortal event, is actually (for Christ and his faithful followers), the beginning of salvation.

There is hope for the future, to the extent that we are part of God’s action in the present. When we are so convinced of a liberating future, then we shall be inspired, energised, and spurred on to practice righteousness in the present. Jesus’ own life is the most powerful lesson in this radical hope in the future that energises the present. Advent is the time to celebrate our imminent rescue, after a protracted nightmare in the world of darkness and sin. Advent is the period of joyful expectation of God’s powerful intervention in our lives as individuals, and in the universe as a whole. Advent is also a time to take seriously the admonition of Christ that we should stay awake and watch and pray.

As the Master delays to come, many hearts run the risk of being weighed down by the worries and anxieties of life; as he delays to come, many people will get too preoccupied with temporal and material goods. But the message of Advent is clear: Don’t get too engrossed in a world that is passing away; don’t let too many silly things clutter your mind and your heart; don’t let too many earthly securities bind you in chains; don’t let too many vanities take up your attention; don’t get too heavy; stay light and be ever ready to move; you have no lasting city here below, so don’t get too attached. Isn’t this an invaluable admonition for the men and women of our generation who are enslaved to materialism and consumerism? Isn’t this a most needed exhortation for many professed Christians in our country today who see Christian salvation as consonant with material prosperity?

St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they do not live in the dark for that Day to overtake them like a thief in the night. No, he says, “you are children of light and children of the day: we do not belong to the night or to darkness, so we should not go on sleeping, as everyone else does, but stay wide awake and sober” (I Thess. 5:4-6). Christians are to ever remain watchful and attentive. We cannot allow ourselves to be taken unawares. Our ignorance of the day of the Lord’s coming should not make us relax or settle down to sin, corruption, falsehood or lazy passivity. Instead we should stand up at all times for the values of the kingdom. We should live each day as the day of the Lord’s coming. We should watch through a life of prayer. We should watch through our consistent rejection of hatred and violence. We should watch through the practice of purity and piety. We should watch through our dedication to the pursuit of justice. We should watch through our love and compassion for the poor and the weak. Above all, we should watch through our commitment to the emergence of Christ’s civilisation of love. In this way, we shall be united with the early Christians whose entire life was sustained by the Advent Prayer - MARANATHA, that is “COME LORD JESUS.”