Collect for the Day
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away
the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this
mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility;
that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge
both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Reflections: The theme of advent,
waiting in hope, is clear in this collect, as the continuity between the End
Times and the Incarnation. Life is on a continuum between the Beginning and the
End, the already and the not yet—a tension never clearer, perhaps, than in
Advent.
Epistle: I Corinthians 1:3-9
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you
because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in
every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind—just
as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you—so that you are not
lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into
the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Reflections: In the verse just
prior to this passage, St. Paul says that the Christians in Corinth are “called
to be saints.” Here, he affirms that they have already received every spiritual
gift. Nevertheless, they wait for the “revealing of . . . Christ.”
We, too, who find ourselves at the
beginning of Advent, wait for the revealing of Emmanuel: God-With-Us. And we,
too, have received every spiritual gift. We wait for the fulfillment of the
promise, the fulfillment of human history—and at the same time, God is already
with us. We sense the divine presence in the hope for which we are waiting, and
in the hope in which we are waiting. The
very desire for God is itself a testament to God’s presence. May God grace our
waiting with the patient knowledge of God’s love.
Gospel: Mark 13:24-37
Jesus said to his disciples, In
those days, after that suffering,the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its
light,
and the stars will be falling from
heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will
be shaken.
Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great
power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from
the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender
and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see
these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I
tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken
place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven,
nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when
the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home
and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper
to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake-- for you do not know when the master
of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at
dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to
you I say to all: Keep awake.
Reflections: The opening passage
reminds us of Daniel 7, Revelations, and other apocalyptic texts. We sense the
continuity between the readings from the end of the liturgical year and those
of Advent. However, the imagery of the past few weeks has been the Coming of
Christ, the Judgment, and the submission of the whole creation and all powers—even
death itself—to God. Whereas now at the beginning of Advent, and we await what a
quite different coming.
Or is it? Are we going forwards, or backwards? Full
circle? Does such a distinction hold outside human experience and the domain of
space and time? In what ways are the Coming of Christ at the End Times similar
to the birth of God as an infant into the world? And how are they different?
Do we wait for judgment, or blessing? As isolated
individuals, or surrounded by a cloud of witnesses? Distanced—or already
embraced by the God of our longing? What if these categories are merely tools
and constructs, given us by God as a means of groping toward a Truth so much
greater than we are, but Who is our ultimate purpose and destiny?
Whatever the answers,
whatever image we have of God, of Christ, of ourselves, we are called to wakefulness,
called to cultivate an awakened heart, to discern the One Who Comes.
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