From the Latin “adventus”, the word ADVENT means arrival. We await no less than the arrival of the Holy One of God. The Church gives us a the gift of this special time to prepare ourselves, to get ourselves ready so that when the Lord Jesus arrives at Christmas everything will be in order and our soul will be fit to receive Him.
Baruch 5:1-9
In the First Reading harkens God’s promise of a new time of deliverance and salvation for God’s People. The return from Babylonian exile was no triumphal march. The promised glory will be fulfilled later with the arrival of the Christ. We know this glory is no earthly luster but rather the blazing divine radiance for us to recognize and experience. For this to occur, we must “wake up” (from self-absorption) and “look to the east” – that is, to live each day in expectation of God to fulfill His Word.
Luke 3:1-6
In the Gospel Reading places the fulfillment of God’s Promise in the framework of world history. We are given precise facts and verifiable events. God’s Word comes to John (the Baptist) who is called and sent as the final prophet. John fulfills of the great promises uttered 800 years earlier by Isaiah and makes clear that God’s definitive moment nears; a most magnificent moment that God mercifully makes our moment.
