Christ the Cornerstone
Stay awake! Have faith in the coming of the Lord
This Sunday, Nov. 30, is the first Sunday of Advent. During this holy season, we are invited to begin the new Church year with eyes wide open. We are waiting for the Blessed Hope, Jesus Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, who first came to Earth 2,000 years ago and was born of the Virgin Mary. He is present among us now, especially in the Eucharist, and he will come again in glory at the end of time.
Our job is to stay awake and have faith in the Lord’s coming. This is what the readings for the First Sunday of Advent tell us: Stay awake! You must be prepared. Do not allow the world’s darkness to overshadow you or lull you into indifference. Pay attention to what is happening in your own life and in the world around you. Be steadfast and place your hope in the Lord who will not disappoint you.
A year ago, Pope Francis declared a Holy Year dedicated to the Pilgrimage of Hope that all of us who are missionary disciples of Jesus Christ are making. In his Bull of Indiction for the 2025 Jubilee Year, the Holy Father offered these words of hope:
Hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life” (Rom 5:10). That life becomes manifest in our own life of faith, which begins with Baptism, develops in openness to God’s grace and is enlivened by a hope constantly renewed and confirmed by the working of the Holy Spirit.
By his perennial presence in the life of the pilgrim Church, the Holy Spirit illumines all believers with the light of hope. He keeps that light burning, like an ever-burning lamp, to sustain and invigorate our lives. Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love.
While the Holy Spirit keeps the light of hope burning “like an ever-burning lamp,” we are commanded to stay awake, be alert, and never allow the flame of hope to be extinguished in our hearts. That’s why Jesus tells us in the Gospel reading for this Sunday (Mt 24:37-44): “Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come” (Mt 24:42).
In this Sunday’s second reading (Rom 13:11-14), St. Paul strongly emphasizes this Advent theme:
Brothers and sisters: 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. (Rom 13:11-12)
The light of Christ overcomes the world’s darkness. It penetrates the shadows of despair and brings hope to our troubled hearts and minds.
The recent apostolic exhortation “Dilexi Te” (“I Have Loved You”), which was begun by Pope Francis and completed by Pope Leo XIV, offers us some penetrating insights into Jesus, “the poor Messiah” who is our Blessed Hope:
By his Incarnation, he “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness” (Phil 2:7), and in that form he brought us salvation. His was a radical poverty, grounded in his mission to reveal fully God’s love for us (cf. Jn 1:18; 1 Jn 4:9). As St. Paul puts it in his customarily brief but striking manner: “You know well the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). (#18)
The season of hope-filled expectation that we are entering into this Advent calls our attention to the paradox of the poor Messiah whose coming blesses all of us, but especially the poor and vulnerable among us, with the riches of his heavenly grace. We wait for this great gift of God’s love because we trust that the Lord’s promise to return in glory will be fulfilled.
But first we must be awake and attentive. We dare not nod off, giving way to indifference or to the heaviness that comes from self-indulgence or hardness of heart. Instead, we must live in the moment with our eyes wide open.
As we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent this weekend, let’s ask the Lord of Hope, the poor Messiah, to help us stay awake and prepare for his coming again. †