Second Sunday in Advent
The Gospel. St. Luke 21. 25.
At that time: Jesus said unto his disciples : And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon, and in the stars ; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity ; the sea and the waves roaring ; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth : for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads : for your redemption draweth nigh. And he spake to them a parable : Behold the fig tree, and all the trees ; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you : This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away : but my words shall not pass away.
I remember when I was growing up in Grand Rapids, that starting right after Thanksgiving, the local newspaper would include a line just above the main headline banner that told of the number of shopping days left until Christmas. Naturally, this information changed each day, providing everyone with a sort of chronological warning that time was growing short; and that we all needed to increase our efforts to prepare for the holiday. In spite of this, people still delayed until the last possible minute, resulting in a mad rush to the shopping malls.
Even though there had been plenty of warning, many still failed to feel any urgency, and they waited until it was almost too late. Of course, we know that this same phenomena continues today; even though we are inundated by commercial advertisements reminding us that Christmas Day is immanent, I’ll bet that many of us have yet to complete our shopping. In other words, even though we know that we are running out of time, we have not fully appreciated the need to prepare.
Now it should be obvious to us that in today’s passage from St. Luke’s Gospel, Our Lord is talking about his Second Coming; “And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon, and in the stars ; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity ; the sea and the waves roaring ; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth : for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory“. What is interesting about this is that whereas we find much of the Gospel account of Jesus life as being a fulfillment of the ancient prophecies, here Christ himself is prophesying about the future.
But he does so in a thought-provoking way; he provides an explanation, a translation, if you will, for this prophecy. In his Divine Wisdom, God Incarnate attempts to illuminate us in terms that we can understand. This is why we are given the parable of the fig tree; “Behold the fig tree, and all the trees ; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand“.
The general idea behind this parable is really quite simple; Our Lord’s audience (1st century Jews, mainly) would have been cognizant of the signs of the changing seasons not only for the purposes of agriculture, but also to signal the coming of numerous religious observances. But the specific purpose can be found in the last portion of this parable; “ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand“, because Christ then gives us his prophetic correlation; “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads : for your redemption draweth nigh“.
Taken in the context of this particular passage, it might be logical to conclude that Our Lord was implying that our Salvation would only be won on the occasion of his Second Coming. But as we contemplate this passage during the Advent Season, we see that our Salvation was actually secured right from the beginning; “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace“. (Isaiah, 9, v 6). “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads : for your redemption draweth nigh“.
In other words, these two passages complete one another; “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given“; “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads : for your redemption draweth nigh“. As Catholic Christians we maintain that our Salvation was ultimately won by the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. But we likewise proclaim that it was only through the miracle of the Incarnation of God that this Sacrifice was possible.
And so, knowing this; knowing that our Redemption is dependent on the Holy Sacrifice, knowing that this Sacrifice is dependent on the presence of the Lamb of God, and knowing that this presence is in reality the Incarnation of God Himself, how can we not make ourselves ready? How can we not prepare?
I hope that by this time, we are all getting the point. We’ve had plenty of warning that time is growing short. Secular society has provided us with any number of reminders that the time for the holiday shopping season is dwindling. The Gospels have likewise provided us with a similar message; one that should inspire within a sense of even greater urgency; “for your redemption draweth nigh“. We are supposed to be preparing for the Birth of Our Lord; and you have only 18 days left before Christmas.
“ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand“; “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads : for your redemption draweth nigh“.