1st Sunday of Advent, Dec.2, 2012 (Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-28.

34-36) Jeremiahs prophecy speaks of the Lord fulfilling the promise made to the house of Israel and Judah. In these verses there are many similar sounds surrounding the thrice repeated coming days (or variations of that expression) in the Hebrew text. These verses (actually verses 14-26) are thought to have been an addition to the original text of Jeremiah, probably borrowing from Jeremiah 23:5-6. They express hope for better days when the exile into Babylonia has ended. Those hopes for the future will ultimately never be realized, because they will return from exile as people subject to the Persians. Two hundred years after the Persians the Greeks will take over their rule. Except for a brief span of about one hundred years from 165 BC to 63 BC, in terms of national politics, their fate was sealed. When Rome took over in 63 BC their brief independence ended. Their identity as a country ended in 70 AD when the Romans began to destroy the Holy Land and its institutions, beginning with the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD and ending by forbidding Jews to live in the Holy Land in about 135 AD. Thus the scribe who wrote these lines would have been grief stricken if he could have seen the future unfold as it did. If the Gospel seems familiar, it is because we had a similar account from Mark, two weeks ago. Luke tells us to stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. Contrary to popular belief that one should shy away from such manifestations of divine power, lest they look at the face of God and die, Luke tells us that we should look because our redemption is at hand. At the same time Luke says dont be caught off guard. Do not let your hearts become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life. Luke was aware of the delay of the coming of the Son of Man which had begun to bother the second and third

generation of Christians who were expecting Jesus to return. Thus, Luke adds these words of warning to account for the delay. He also says Be on the alert and pray at all times to be able to survive whatever is going to happen and so be able to stand before the Son of Man. The first piece of New Testament literature is the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, a part of which is todays second reading. In that letter, which was written in the summer of 51 AD, most Christians still believed that the Lord was going to return soon. Certainly the Thessalonians believed that because Paul elsewhere in that letter will specifically address this concern. The problem was not for those still living. The problem was for those Christians who had begun to die off, believing that Jesus was going to return and raise them to glory. They were worried about those who had died and had been dead for some years by this time. What was going to happen to them? Maybe our faith is misguided? These were the questions Paul would have to answer to satisfy their concerns. For the First Sunday of Advent these are important questions still. We live in a time when 2000 years have passed since those events and have grown used to the idea that God is never going to meet our time frame. Therefore, Be on the alert and pray always. Wise words at any time of the year, but especially during Advent! Fr. Lawrence Hummer