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Today, Catholic Christians celebrate the First Sunday of Advent, the first day of the new Church Year. In this new year, most of the Sunday Gospel readings will be from St. Mark.
Advent is a season of “joyful expectation.” The One we are expecting is, of course, Jesus. During the first two weeks of Advent, we are waiting for Jesus at the end of time, and in the second two weeks of Advent, we are waiting for Jesus to come on Christmas as the Christ Child.
In today’s Gospel reading, for example, we hear Jesus warns us, “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” (Mark 13: 33-37).
The moral of the Gospel story is clear: we need to live our lives in such a way that we are always ready for the day we are called by the Lord to be with Him in the next world. It means having our earthly affairs in order for those for whom we have obligations, and living our vocations as best we can.
During Advent, many people have Advent Wreaths. The traditional Catholic Advent wreath has 4 candles: 3 purple and 1 pink. On the first Sunday of Advent, we light one of the purple ones.
In Honduras, the people use different colors for their wreaths, but I don’t know the history of why this is.
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Yes, I use it in Lent and Advent, but during the pandemic, I don’t use it because I don’t have public Masses.
Take care Father and Flock. You are in my prayers. Please keep me in yours.
Do you still wear the purple chasuble?