THE LAST WORD • ADVENT

BY FR JOSE LORENZO GUZMAN JIMENEZ | DIOCESAN VICAR OF CIUDAD GUZMAN, JALISCO, MEXICO
EDITED BY FR RAFAEL ARMADA MCCJ

WE BEGIN Advent, a time of preparation for the celebration of Christmas. It is a time to think about one’s own life, the life of the community, to enter into a process of conversion and to nourish our hope.

In the face of situations of suffering, discouragement, meaninglessness, God has a promise: that of a better life, which he offers us in his Son Jesus. This hope is His gift, but it is also our responsibility and we nourish it with the Eucharist.

In the Gospel, to describe the end of suffering, Jesus speaks of the wondrous signs in the stars and the roaring of the waves of the sea. The reality of suffering and domination is not forever, and Jesus gives us this hope. When this is over, He will come with great power and majesty, referring it to His second coming, with which liberation will come. It is what we wait for and anticipate with the celebration of Advent and affirm in every Eucharist, when we say: Come, Lord Jesus!

This gift of God—hope—demands an attitude from us. We cannot wait for it idly, with our arms folded, but in an active way and in this lies our personal and community responsibility. Jesus shows us how to sustain this hope. He asks his disciples to be alert, to read the signs of the times, to lift up their heads, to watch and to pray continually. We will be reminded of this throughout the four weeks of Advent.

A new attitude, which does not dull our minds or blind our hearts, is needed to banish injustice, greed, corruption in the world. The growing sensitivity towards the care of creation and the planet, our common home, and of her inhabitants, are signs of the times, as well as the call to an ecological conversion that Pope Francis speaks of in Laudato Si’ (LS 217). Consumerism, as we have lived it in the last decades, has caused devastating damage on our common home. Nature has rebelled herself against human greed in the form of droughts, fires and floods, preventing
especially the most vulnerable populations of the planet from developing their lives in a dignified way. A new lifestyle is needed, one that respects the sustainability of the Earth and guarantees in the future the basic needs for the whole of humanity.

This is God’s invitation to us through his Word. It is up to us to seek and find ways to sustain ourselves in the hope of new life. The way to sustain ourselves in the struggle against these destructive desires is to watch and pray constantly. May this commitment accompany our preparation to celebrate the Birth of Jesus, along with the lights, Christmas decorations, celebrations and family gatherings.

Let us ask God for the light of his Spirit to keep us alert, attentive, vigilant and prayerful, not only during this Advent that we are beginning, but also throughout our lives.