First Sunday of Advent
"People must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants." William Penn
This beautiful melody, Turn to Me, bespeaks deeply, even desperately. God wants us to turn to Him, “Turn and be saved, says the Lord, there is no other.” Turning towards our God destroys any guilt, shame, or regret for, as Isaiah reveals, “You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer” (Is 63:16).
Jesus, our Brother, reveals the Fatherhood of God. Teaching us to pray, say: Our Father. More precise, Jesus teaches, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). Throughout his preaching, Jesus presents God as Father, someone Who loves us with a perfecting love.
Love longs for more than the presence of another. Love wants to behold the other face to face. To look into the eyes of the beloved and enter the very heart and soul of the other.
Love longs to gaze into the eyes knowing that something mystical and supernatural takes place. No longer is the other merely an object, physically present, but becomes a subject, someone whose essence enters my total being. Sons and daughters belong to a father’s heart. Lovers share their hearts with one another. Friends also enjoy the goodness of each other, for they share dreams and make those dreams come true.
Yet, when the other turns away, the heart is torn open. A flood of emotions overwhelms. A sea of sadness surges. The eyes of the other become unsightly. The presence of the other becomes a misery. No longer do we gaze into the heart and soul, rather we blind ourselves, avoiding the other for they have become an obstacle, sometimes an enemy.
Isaiah sees the depravity of his people. They turned their back upon God Our Father. Turned away, his people have become deplorable, unclean, dirty, polluted, filled with guilt and worse without shame or remorse. No one calls upon the Lord. The people turning their backs upon the Lord indulge in appalling deeds, renouncing the love they once had. Disintegrated, hearts harden. The people who lived in the light, now live in darkness.
Isaiah laments, “You have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our guilt” (Is 64:7). Yet, his prayer implores, ”Rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you, while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for, such as they had not heard of from of old” (Is 64:1-2).
Advent, a time of preparation, experiences this, Isaiah’s dismay. We too are lost, filled with guile and guilt yet easily feel no remorse. We too pollute our lives, land, and liberty. We clothe ourselves with riches only to realize they are rags deplorable to Divine Eyes. We experience “the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Th 1:9).
Advent admits we are lost and forsaken. Struck with an incurable wound, but as St. Paul tells us, we are not crushed, despairing, nor destroyed, because Jesus Christ manifests God’s radiant mercy calling us to turn and be saved.
Advent literally means the Parousia: the Coming of the Lord. During Advent, we reflect on Isaiah’s prayer. Jesus, the Son of Our Father, fulfills the prophecy. His coming is called Christmas, Christ’s Mass, in which He truly and substantially is present to us. At his Baptism, the heavens were torn open, and the voice of the Father thundered, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mk: 1:11). Not only is the Father pleased but tells us to listen to Him (Mark 9:7). At his death,
Behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split; the tombs also were opened” (Mt 27:51–52).
Watch, listen and learn (Mark 13:33), the prophecies of Isaiah come true at this first apocalypse, the unveiling of God’s Fatherhood in our lives.
St. Peter, who witnessed this apocalypse, personifies it saying, “Be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Pe 5:8–9). Watch for what? “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Mk 14:38). Every temptation is meant to deceive and to destroy. As St. Paul teaches us, the "Wages of sin is death" (Rm 6:23) and only in through the Father’s love do we return with all our heart.
At his first coming, Jesus came silently, secretly calling his people out of darkness stating, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). People rich in sin, Jesus proclaims repentance. Admitting our sinfulness, knows it does not make us rich but devours us, tearing apart our hearts for they no longer behold the face of the Father. Unrepentant, we behold the face of the father of lies who incites us to turn away from Our Father’s love and embrace the darkness of despair. This darkness deceives, for it seems like a light leading us into love, but this light darkens our eyes, leading us into contradiction. Good becomes evil and evil becomes good in our eyes.
Made for love, our desire for love deceives, making us believe that Our Father’s love limits our liberty. This deception wants us to believe freedom comes when we turn away from the Father, whereas the opposite is true. Freedom comes when we turn towards the Father. He sets us free.
Watch, be alert to love’s deceptions. They twist our thinking, blinding us to true love only to embrace a false love. Watching, we repent of any sin, no matter how small or insignificant for we know that true love seeks beauty. God alone is beautiful and his love makes us beautiful.
As beauty perfects our love, another light appears, the Divine Light of Love that reveals the glory of God’s second coming, the Final Apocalypse. Unlike the fear-mongers declaring that Christ’s next coming destroys, Jesus reveals his second coming restores everything. We return embraced by God’s love. This return is our resurrection:
The stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. They will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. He will send out the angels, and gather his elect” (Mk 13:25–27).
Seeing the resurrection, we turn and are saved from the false loves that deceive us. Jesus came at Christmas revealing He is the true Light radiating the Father’s love through mercy and forgiveness. Resurrected from our sin, we long for his second coming. It will not be silent nor secret but dramatic and vivid. He will come radiating love inviting us, his beloved ones, to behold Him as we too resurrect.