Homily
for the First Sunday of Advent (Cycle A)
Based
on Mt 24:37-44 (Gospel),
Is 2:1-5
(First Reading) and Rom 13:11-14 (Second Reading)
From
the Series: “Reflections and Teachings of the Desert”
STAY AWAKE
“Therefore,
stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” (Mt 24:42)
The Gospel for this 1st
Sunday of Advent (Cycle A) is Mt 24:37-44.
Verses 37 and 38 say: For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be
at the coming of the Son of Man.
In [those] days before the flood, they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark.
Footnote
Parallel texts are:
1.
Lk 17:26-27 - As it was in the days of Noah, so
it will be in the days of the Son of Man (v. 26); they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and
the flood came and destroyed them all (v. 27).
2.
Gn 6:5 - When the LORD saw how great the
wickedness of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their heart
conceived was always nothing but evil,
3.
Heb 11:7 - By faith Noah, warned about what was
not yet seen, with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household.
Through this he condemned the world and inherited the righteousness that comes
through faith
Verses 39, 40 and 41 say: They did not know until
the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be [also] at the coming of
the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one
will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and
one will be left.
Parallel texts are:
1. Gn
7:11-23 - In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the
seventeenth day of the month: on that day All the fountains of the great abyss
burst forth, and the floodgates of the sky were opened (v. 11).For forty days
and forty nights heavy rain poured down on the earth (v. 12). On the very same
day, Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife, and the three
wives of Noah’s sons had entered the ark,(v. 13). together with every kind of
wild animal, every kind of tame animal, every kind of crawling thing that
crawls on the earth, and every kind of bird (v. 14). Pairs of all creatures in
which there was the breath of life came to Noah into the ark (v. 15). Those
that entered were male and female; of all creatures they came, as God had
commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in (v. 16). The flood continued upon the
earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark, so that it
rose above the earth (v. 17). The waters swelled and increased greatly on the
earth, but the ark floated on the surface of the waters (v. 18). Higher and
higher on the earth the waters swelled, until all the highest mountains under
the heavens were submerged (v. 19). The waters swelled fifteen cubits higher
than the submerged mountains (v. 20). All creatures that moved on earth
perished: birds, tame animals, wild animals, and all that teemed on the earth,
as well as all humankind(v. 21). Everything on dry land with the breath of life
in its nostrils died (v. 22). The LORD wiped out every being on earth: human
beings and animals, the crawling things and the birds of the air; all were
wiped out from the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left (v.
23).
2. 2
P 3:6 -
3. 1
Th 5:3 - When people are saying, “Peace and security,” then sudden disaster
comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not
escape.
Verse 42 says: Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day
your Lord will come.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Mt 25:13 - Therefore, stay awake, for you know
neither the day nor the hour.
2.
Rv 3:3 - Remember then how you accepted and
heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not watchful, I will come like a thief,
and you will never know at what hour I will come upon you.
Verse 43 says: Be sure of this: if the master of the
house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have
stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Lk 12:39-40 - Be sure of this: if the master of
the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let
his house be broken into (v. 39). You also must be prepared, for at an hour you
do not expect, the Son of Man will come (v. 40).”
2. 1
Th 5:1 - Concerning times and seasons, brothers, you have no need for anything
to be written to you.
Verse 44 says: So too,
you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man
will come.
Parallel texts are:
1. 1
Th 5:2-6 - For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come
like a thief at night (v. 2). When people are saying, “Peace and security,”
then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman,
and they will not escape (v. 3) But you, brothers, are not in darkness, for
that day to overtake you like a thief (v. 4). For all of you are children of
the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness (v.
5) Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober
(v. 6).
2. 2
P 3:10 - But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens
will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire,
and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.
The First Reading is from Is 2:1-5. The title is “Everlasting
Peacea”. Footnote
Verses 1 and 2 say:
This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz,
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In
days to come, The mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the
highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it.
Parallel texts are:
1. Mi
4:13 - Arise and thresh, O daughter Zion; your horn I will make iron And your
hoofs I will make bronze, that you may crush many peoples; You shall devote
their spoils to the Lord, their riches to the Lord of the whole earth.
2. Ac
2:17 - It will come to pass in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour out
a portion of my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.
3. Is
56:6-8 - And foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, To
love the name of the LORD, to become his servants—All who keep the sabbath
without profaning it and hold fast to my covenant (v. 6) Them I will bring to
my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; Their burnt
offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, For my house
shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. (v. 7). ORACLE of the Lord
GOD, who gathers the dispersed of Israel— Others will I gather to them besides
those already gathered (v. 8).
4. Is
60:11-14 - Your gates shall stand open constantly; day and night they shall not
be closed So that they may bring you the wealth of nations, with their kings in
the vanguard. (v. 11). For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you shall
perish; such nations shall be utterly destroyed! (v. 12). The glory of Lebanon
shall come to you— the juniper, the fir, and the cypress all together— To bring
beauty to my sanctuary, and glory to the place where I stand (v. 13). The
children of your oppressors shall come, bowing before you; All those who
despised you, shall bow low at your feet. They shall call you “City of the
LORD,” “Zion of the Holy One of Israel
(v. 14).”
5. 1
K 8:41 - “To the foreigners, likewise,
who are not of your people Israel, but who come from a distant land for the
sake of your name…
6. Tb
13:11 - A bright light will shine to the limits of the earth. Many nations will
come to you from afar, And inhabitants of all the ends of the earth to your
holy name, Bearing in their hands gifts for the King of heaven. Generation
after generation will offer joyful worship in you; your name will be great
forever and ever.
Verse 4 says: Many peoples shall come and say: “Come,
let us go up to the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he
may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall
go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Ps 47:9; 87 - God rules over the nations; God
sits upon his holy throne (v. 9).
2.
Ws 18:4 - For they deserved to be deprived of
light and imprisoned by darkness, they had kept your children confined, through
whom the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world.
3.
Zc 8:20 - Thus says the LORD of hosts: There
will yet come peoples and inhabitants of many cities;
4.
Zc 14:16 - Everyone who is left of all the
nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to bow down to
the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of Booths.
5.
Lk 24:47 - and that repentance, for the
forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations,
beginning from Jerusalem.
6.
Jn 4:22 - You people worship what you do not
understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews
Verse 4 says: He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many
peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall
they train for war again.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Is 9:6 - His dominion is vast and forever
peaceful, Upon David’s throne, and over his kingdom, which he confirms and
sustains By judgment and justice, both now and forever. The zeal of the LORD of
hosts will do this!
2.
Is 11:6-9 - Then the wolf shall be a guest of
the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat; The calf and the
young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them (v. 6). The
cow and the bear shall graze, together their young shall lie down; the lion
shall eat hay like the ox (v. 7). The baby shall play by the viper’s den, and
the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair (v. 8). They shall not harm or
destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge
of the LORD, as water covers the sea (v. 9).
3.
Ps 46:9 - Come and see the works of the LORD, who
has done fearsome deeds on earth;
4.
Ho 2:20 - I will make a covenant for them on
that day, with the wild animals, With the birds of the air, and with the things
that crawl on the ground. Bow and sword and warfare I will destroy from the
land, and I will give them rest in safety.
5.
Jl 4:9-11 - Announce this to the nations:
Proclaim a holy war! Alert the warriors! Let all the soldiers report and march!
(v. 9). Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning knives into spears;
let the weakling boast, “I am a warrior!” (v. 10). Hurry and come, all you
neighboring peoples, assemble there! Bring down, LORD, your warriors! (v. 11).
6.
Zc 9:9-10 - Exult greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! Behold: your king* is coming to you, a
just savior is he, Humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a
donkey (v. 9). He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from
Jerusalem; The warrior’s bow will be banished, and he will proclaim peace to
the nations. His dominion will be from sea to sea, and from the River* to the
ends of the earth (v. 10).
Verse 5 says: O House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of Yahweh.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Is 60:1-3 - Arise! Shine, for your light has
come, the glory of the LORD has dawned upon you (v. 1). Though darkness covers
the earth, and thick clouds, the peoples, Upon you the LORD will dawn, and over
you his glory will be seen (v. 2). Nations shall walk by your light, kings by
the radiance of your dawning (v. 3).
2.
Ws 18:4 - For they deserved to be deprived of
light and imprisoned by darkness, they had kept your children confined, through
whom the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world.
3.
Mi 4:5 - Though all the peoples walk, each in
the name of its god, We will walk in the name of the Lord, our God, forever and
ever.
The Second Reading is from Rom 13:11-14.
Verses 11 and 12 says: And do this because you know
the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is
nearer now than when we first believed the night is advanced, the day is at
hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness [and] put on the armor of
light;
Parallel texts are:
1. 1
Co 7:26, 29-31 - So this is what I think best because of the present distress:
that it is a good thing for a person to remain as he is (v. 26). I tell you,
brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as
not having them (v. 29), those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not
rejoicing, those buying as not owning (v. 30). those using the world as not
using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away (v. 31).
2. Ep
5:8-16 - For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as
children of light (v. 8), for light produces every kind of goodness and
righteousness and truth (v. 9). Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord (v.
10). Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, (v.
11). for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret (v.
12); but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, (v. 13),for
everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says: “Awake, O
sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” (v. 14).
Watch carefully then how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, (v.15).
making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil (v. 16).
3. Col
4:5 - Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the
opportunity.
4. 1
Jn 2:8 - And yet I do write a new commandment to you, which holds true in him
and among you, for the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already
shining.
5. Jn
8:12 - Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
6. Ep
6:11 - Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against
the tactics of the devil.
Verse 13 says: let us conduct ourselves properly as
in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and
licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy.
Parallel text is Rm 1:29 that says: They are filled with every form of
wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery,
and spite. They are gossips…
Verse 14 says: Let your armor be the Lord Jesus
Christ; forget about satisfying your bodies with all its cravings.
Parallel texts are:
1. Ga
3:27 - For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves
with Christ.
2.
Ep 4:24 - and put on the new self, created in
God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth.
