Advent Reflections for December 2 Week 1: First Sunday of Advent Opening Prayer
Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, Prayer for the Advent Wreath
Lord, our God, we praise You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, for He is Emmanuel, the
Hope of all people. Waiting We light a candle today, a small dim light against a world that often seems forbidding and dark. But we light it because we are a people of hope, a people whose faith is marked by an expectation that we should always be ready for the coming of the Master. The joy and anticipation of this season is captured beautifully in the antiphons of hope from the monastic liturgies:
See! The ruler of the earth shall come, the Lord who will take from us the heavy
burden of our exile Gospel Reading and Reflection:
Gospel: Luke 21:25-28,34-36
25 "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth
distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, 'Radical Perseverance' In today's reading, Jesus talks about the coming of the Son of God, the end of the world, and the great judgment. The whole point of Advent is to help nudge us out of a kind of apathy as we go about our day to day things, while forgetting that life is going to end for us individually. Sometimes we forget that the whole point of everything we do is to lead the world toward the kingdom of God. The kingdom may be millions of years away – who knows? It seems so distant that there would be a world at long last transformed where there is no war, no sickness, no tears, no fights, and no arguments – a perfect world. It's a long haul. That's why I need what some call a "radical perseverance". It's hard to have. To persevere and try to build peace in the world and know that when I die, there will still be war. To persevere and try to build love in society and know that it is a seed planted, but one I'll never see the harvest of in a lifetime. To persevere in trying to shape myself into the kind of person I know God made me to be…and to realize that I will never be that person until some day God wonderfully transforms me through death.
That kind of radical perseverance – sustaining a conscious effort and hope even
though I'm not going to reach the goal in my lifetime – that's the kind of
perseverance I need to have. |
See Also:
Next Day (December 3) | Previous Day (December 1)
MW Advent Supplement | MW Christmas Supplement | Sermons Home | Malankara World Journal | Library - Home
-------
Malankara World
A service of St. Basil's Syriac Orthodox
Church, Ohio
Copyright © 2009-2020 - ICBS Group. All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer
Website designed, built, and hosted by
International Cyber Business Services, Inc., Hudson, Ohio