2025 - Cycle A - The First Sunday of Advent

Readings

The First Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122:1-9; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44

Homily Theme

He Is Coming

Advent marks the beginning of a new spiritual year — a sacred season of waiting, watching, and preparing. The Church gives us these weeks as a time to turn our hearts toward what is yet to come. In the first part of Advent, we are invited to look forward — to contemplate the promised return of Christ in glory. As we draw nearer to Christmas, our gaze shifts backward, to that holy night when God entered our world as a child. The very word Advent means “that which is to come,” and so we live in the tension between what has already been fulfilled and what we are still awaiting.

The Prophet Isaiah, in this Sunday’s reading, speaks of a time when all nations will stream toward the mountain of the Lord, seeking His ways and His peace. Saint Paul reminds the Romans — and us — that the hour has come to awaken from sleep, to cast off darkness, and to clothe ourselves with the light of Christ. His words echo across centuries, still urgent today. For while the world around us prepares with noise, parties, and glittering lights, we are called to prepare with silence, prayer, and repentance.  He is coming.

In the Gospel, Jesus warns that His coming will be sudden — like a thief in the night. No one knows the day or the hour. He asks not for fear, but for readiness. Advent is therefore not a countdown to a holiday; it is an invitation to prepare our souls for an encounter with the living God. If we truly watch and wait for His coming in glory, we will find ourselves more deeply ready to celebrate His humble coming in Bethlehem.

Many of us, as we grow older, sense that Christmas no longer feels as it once did. The sparkle fades; the excitement wanes. Perhaps this is because we have forgotten how to wait. We fill the weeks of Advent with busyness rather than stillness, and so we lose the sacred anticipation that once filled our hearts.  Let us ask God to help us not forget He is coming.

This year, let us reclaim Advent as a time of spiritual renewal. Go to confession; let grace clear the path for the Lord to enter your heart. Gather with your family each evening to light the Advent wreath and to pray together. Reflect on the words of the Advent liturgy: “Now we watch for the day, hoping that the salvation promised us will be ours when Christ our Lord will come again in His glory.”

He is coming — not only at the end of time, but into the present moment, into the quiet corners of our lives, if only we are ready to receive Him.

Are you ready to meet Him when He comes?