WORD FOR MISSION
Missionary reflection  on Sunday Liturgy

I Sunday of Advent

Year A - 2.12.2007

Isaiah  2:1-5

Psalm  121

Romans  13:11-14

Mathew  24:37-44

Reflections

At the beginning of the liturgical season of Advent, the urgent call to be vigilant (Gospel) resounds with force: "So stay awake, then, because you do not know when your master is coming. You must be quite sure of this... stand ready" (v. 42-44). The examples that Jesus uses - the experience of the people in the days of Noah at the time of the flood (v. 37-39) and the thief’s arrival at the most unexpected time (v. 43) - don't have the purpose to arouse terror, but only to encourage vigilance and to instil hope for the encounter with the Saviour. Vigilance is not something speculative, but the spiritual ability to perceive the signs of the salvation of God present in human history. Vigilance is to remain firm in the Word of the Lord, without hesitations and impatience, without surrendering to illusions and to false signs. Vigilance is a concrete attitude, one of waiting and commitment. It is a way of being, living, looking at and facing reality.

We all are equally immersed in the events of human history, yet the understanding of the same changes radically, according to the way one looks at it. Faith, in fact, is the key for reading the human events, enabling us to recognise and to highlight a plan of love and salvation that others, who do not have such a gift, are not able to identify or be aware of it (v. 39). The actions can be the same. but believers and non-believers look at them and experience them differently, even contradictorily. Jesus explains it by speaking of the people in the days of Noah before the flood who were eating, drinking, getting married as well as working in the fields or in the house... (v. 38-41), all ordinary occurrences of daily life which can either be lived absentmindedly, and so remain imprisoned by them, or as events of salvation.

“The difference between a believer and non-believer does not so much (or only) consist in special external behaviours but in the different internal attitude. The non-believer lives as if God didn't exist, as if God were not to arrive in a definitive way for him. He lives as an ignorant and foolish person... The believer instead is vigilant, as he knows that the Lord will not be late in coming. He does not live from day to day, whatever that may be. He is not flattened by daily alienation... The believer does not indeed run away from the present  –rather he is committed like everyone else–  but he does not allow himself to be enslaved by things (Orazio Petrosillo).

St. Paul (II reading) uses a drastic language to describe the two opposite ways to live: either the works of darkness or the weapons of light; either leading a pleasurable and quarrelsome life or one in imitation to the Lord Jesus (12-14). The Christian must choose, without delay, because time is a precious gift for salvation (v. 11). Young Agustin’s conversion was due to his meditating on this famous text. And he discovered true life!

From the very beginning of Advent, we are confronted with the important theme of peace and disarmament (I reading). The small kingdom of Judea is threatened and becoming involved in a rash war against Assyria. The king is terrified and looking for military alliances. Only the prophet "sees beyond and further away" and he invites the king to trust in God, the only arbiter among the peoples, as he launches a disconcerting oracle of peace, namely nothing less than the transformation of weapons into tools of production, work and development: to hammer the swords into ploughshares, to transform the spears into sickles (v. 4). No longer weapons of death, not anymore the art of war! The utopia will be a reality, the prophet says, if we all "walk in the light of the Lord" (v. 5). The Christians have here an extra reason for a definitive, unique and total option for peace and disarmament. The reduction-elimination of weapons, before being a political choice, is a responsibility that is entrusted to us by our faith in Christ. In name of this faith, it is right to protest and to denounce the governments (Italy included!) for their increase in military expenses and in the construction of new weapons of death. It is a shame that the Italian Parliament has just voted such law with the complicity of all the parties and the silence of the media. The poor of the earth have the right to receive something else from the so-called civilised and Christian countries!

Isaiah is also the prophet of the universality of God’s salvation, which is being offered to all peoples (v. 2). A message that is becoming more and more clear since the coming of Jesus. We Christians, who already believe in Christ, know who is the Saviour that has come, that comes and that will come, while the non-Christians – who are the majority of humanity (about two thirds) – are still awaiting for the first announcement of Christ our Saviour. Advent, therefore, is a liturgical time propitious to awake again in the Christians the conscience of missionary responsibility. Pope Pius XII already recommended it 50 years ago, when inviting all to missionary commitment and prayer, especially during the season of Advent, as this is a time of expectation by the human race. (*)

The Pope’s words

(*) “We wish that for this (missionary) intention one prays more and with a more enlightened fervour... We, in particular, think of the season of Advent, which is one of expectation by the human race as well as the providential preparation for salvation... Pray, then, and pray more. Remember the countless spiritual dangers: those who wander far from the way of truth as well as those who stand in such great need of the means of perseverance.”

Pius XII

Encyclical Fidei Donum, 21 April 1957

In the footsteps of Missionaries

- 2/12: Bl. Liduina Meneguzzi (1901-1941), missionary of Salesie di Padova, who died in Ethiopia.

- 2/12: Anniversary of the launching of the missionary media agency ‘Misna’ (1997).

- 3/12: St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552), priest, Jesuit, missionary in India and Japan, who died in the island of Sancián, at the gates of China. He is the main Patron of the Missions.

- 3/12: Pope Gregory XVI condemns (1839) the slave trade and excommunicates anyone taking part in it.

- 4/12: Bl. Adolf Kolping (1813-1865), German priest, “father of craftsmen”.

- 6/12: St. Nicolas (ca. 250-326), bishop of Mira, patron of Bari, popular saint for the Christmas gifts; patron of children, teenagers, pharmacists, merchants, sea travellers, fishermen, perfume makers...

- 6/12: Bl. Peter Pascual (ca. 1225-1300), a Spaniard who was rescuing prisoners, bishop of Jaen, evangeliser in Spain and Portugal; he was martyred by the Muslims at Granada.

- 7/12: St. Ambrose (339-397), bishop of Milan, doctor and organiser of the Church, teacher of St. Augustine.

- 7 e 8/12: Anniversaries of important missionary documents: conciliar decree Ad Gentes (7.12.1965); Evangelii Nuntiandi (Paul VI, 8.12.1975); Redemptoris Missio (John Paul II, 7.12.1990).

- 8/12: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Bl. V. Mary, the Mother of Christ our Saviour.

- 8/12: Bl. Narcisa of Jesus Martillo Morán (1832-1869), who lived in Ecuador and died in Lima (Peru).

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Compiled by Fr. Romeo Ballan, mcci - Comboni Missionaries (Verona)

Translated by Fr. J.M. Troy, mccj

Website:    www.euntes.net    “The Word for Mission”

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