Sunday the 30th of November 2025 - First Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 2:1-5/ Ps 122(121)/ Romans 13:11-14a/ Matthew 24:37-44

Today we light the first candle on the Advent Wreath. This first candle, which is purple, symbolizes hope. It is sometimes called the “Prophecy Candle” in remembrance of the prophets, especially Isaiah, who foretold the birth of Christ. It represents the expectation felt in anticipation of the coming Messiah.

Every year at this time the Church starts a new liturgical year. It is a fresh start, a new beginning, a time for quiet reflection to reassess our relationship with God and each other. As we look around our world today we see many places where God has been driven out from peoples lives and hearts. This leads to conflict between people and nations, selfishness, greed, hate, and war. We need a time to stop and reflect on where Jesus is in our lives. God came into his creation in the person of Jesus that first Christmas, although he was driven out and put to death on a cross he rose again and remained with us through the Church he founded, the Holy Spirit, and through the Eucharist. We hope and pray for his personal and promised return which ever since he ascended into heaven has been imminent, in as much as it will happen and could occur at any moment. The early church felt a strong anticipation of the return of Jesus. As time passed this anticipation faded, and we need to capture it in our lives remembering that the return of Jesus is no less certain even though to us it may seem delayed. We must also not forget that our personal meeting with Christ is also imminent because we do not know when it will happen but we can be certain that it will.

At the heart of the Advent season is the reminder that Jesus has come, is still with us, and will return again in a glorious way. Preparing for Christmas must be more than eating, drinking, and celebrating for it’s own sake. What we are actually doing is preparing for the celebration of God coming to us in the person of Jesus, his continued presence to us through the Church and the sacraments, and his final return in Glory at the end of time as we know it. Three Christmases in one, wonderful reasons to celebrate, a real purpose for feasting, rather than the bland excuse the world now tries to give us through the commercialism of a secular festive season. In order to celebrate well the blessing of Christmas we need to prepare. Advent gives us the opportunity to do this, a time of prayerful anticipation, a time of hope, peace, joy, and love.

How do we use this time of preparation? It should be a time of personal and communal spiritual renewal and reflection similar to the time of Lent, a time of penance and preparation. The liturgical colour of purple helps us to remember this. The beginning of a new calendar year gives us a fresh start with resolutions on how to live better lives. The start of the Church year has a similar purpose, giving us a new beginning, raising our hope in the coming of Jesus into our lives, a time of vigilance, active preparation and waiting, looking for Jesus not only historically but in our daily lives today, in the people we come across, and to look forward preparing for his imminent glorious return in the future. It is a time for us to recognise that our world, our lives, are broken by sin and death, but the hope we have in the resurrection will fill us with the joy that the promise Christmas brings will mend everything. The first reading today reminds us that hope is possible even in times of despair, the weapons of war can be turned into instruments of renewal. We need to pray for and work towards a world in which the massive resources used for wars and the preparation for wars are used instead to clothe the poor, house the homeless, feed the starving, and care for the sick.

We are called today to be watchful and ready, to keep awake as the second reading puts it. This is more than simply waiting, it means actively preparing our lives and souls to welcome Christ wherever he may be found. We find Jesus today in the words of scripture, in the sacraments, especially Holy Communion, and in others, particularly the sick, poor, and suffering in the world around us. Staying awake means being attentive to those suffering hardship, it is through active compassionate engagement that we bring Jesus into our lives today. The candles of the Advent Wreath remind us that we are light bearers, bringing the light of hope, peace, joy, and love into the dark shadows of our lives and the lives of others. Simple acts of kindness, charity, a smile, a kind word, and an apology when needed can all help to shine the light of Christ in the darkness around us.

The world, guided by evil, seeks to reduce us to frenzied consumers, pursuers of empty entertainment, angry and intolerant of others, obsessed by our own ambitions. Advent calls us in a different direction, to be something far better than the world would have us be. We are created to be temples of the Lord, places that God can reside, bringing God to those around us in desperate need of true purpose in their lives.

This Advent may we bring the hope, peace, joy, and love, of Christmas into the world.

God Bless Brendan.