First Sunday of Advent - Year C

Jeremiah 33:14-16
1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2
Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Bishop Untener's Homily

The human race has different ways of reckoning the year. There is the Chinese calendar which has its own system of determining when a year starts and when it ends. There is the Muslim calendar, the Jewish calendar. And, of course, the Gregorian calendar, which is the one most commonly used.

The Liturgical Calendar

The calendar that affects us today is the Catholic liturgical calendar. In that calendar, the New Year begins on the first Sunday of Advent, which we are celebrating today.    

Our liturgical calendar revolves entirely around Jesus Christ. Every single year, we celebrate the whole story of Jesus Christ. We begin with the Advent and Christmas seasons, which revolve around his birth. The Christmas seasons ends with the baptism of the Lord by John the Baptist, and we begin his public ministry.  So we start listening to Gospels telling us about the early days of his ministry. After that comes Lent, when we begin looking toward his arrest, his suffering, his death. Lent leads up to the three-day Holy Triduum, when we meditate on his passion, death, and resurrection. Then we have the fifty day Easter season when we celebrate the truth of his resurrection, leading up to Pentecost when we celebrate his pouring of the Spirit upon us. Finally, we spend the rest of the year proclaiming all that he did and said.

We do that every liturgical year, the same sequence. Then when it ends, we start over.

So here we are at the very beginning of another liturgical year - the first Sunday of Advent. There's an interesting thing about our beginning. Every year, on the first Sunday of Advent, the Gospel is about the end of the world. At first that might seem strange - to begin with the ending. On the other hand, that's the way we map out a trip. If we're trying to figure out how to get somewhere, we start with the ending - our destination. Then we figure out how to get there.

So, on this first Sunday of Advent, we look to the end of the world. It helps to put everything - the whole year, our whole life - in perspective.

An Imaginary Scenario

We're familiar with these end-of-the-world passages in Scripture. They tell of earthquakes, and great signs in the sky - the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light... and the stars will be falling from the sky. An imaginary scenario occurred to me. Physicists say that, in terms of what we know, the end of our solar system - the sun and its planets - will happen long before the end of the universe. The universe will ultimately end, at least as it now exists, but the solar system will break up and burn up long before that.   

So here's my imaginary scenario. It's something that could happen. Maybe it will, maybe it won't... but thinking about it can help give us some perspective. Let's say that some day - thousands and thousands of years from now - some people see that things here are coming to an end, so they leave the earth and migrate to a planet that is far from our solar system. (By that time they will have found ways to do that.) The planet is somewhat primitive, but it's habitable, and it's safe - at least for a few thousand years more.

There they are, looking back at the earth through long-distance television - they would have brought some of their technology with them. Then it happens. Today's Gospel passage starts to come true before their eyes. They watch this Gospel happen - something like what we did a month or so ago when we watched on television and saw those fires in California swallow up magnificent homes. Well, in my imaginary scenario, these people are watching a magnificent earth being destroyed by fire and earthquake. Imagine what they would see.

  • The Statue of Liberty topples over.
  • The Golden Gate Bridge collapses.
  • Disney World goes up in smoke.
  • The whole land mass of the state of Michigan is swallowed up by the Great Lakes.
  • The Louvre in Paris, with all its valuable paintings, is gone
  • The New York Stock Exchange is consumed in flames.
  • St. Peter's church in Rome implodes, and the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo's great ceiling falls to the ground.
  • After a while, the whole earth is engulfed in flame. Everything - including all the money and gold and jewels anywhere on earth - is destroyed.
  • They watch it all on television. They watch all the places and things that were part of their lives go up in flames or fall into the sea.

I think that, watching the whole earth go to pieces while we're still alive to see it, would have a tremendous effect on us. We should put ourselves in their shoes. As we watched, we would begin to realize what is really important to us - what we really treasure. It would bring a new perspective. As we sat there and watched this happen, what would we truly hold dear? Think about it. What would we hold dear? Certainly our family - our extended family. We'd realize, more than before, how important they really are to us. 

Our relationship to God... that would be very important.  

We'd be glad for good things we did for people ... for poor people, for hurt people, for lonely people, for sick people, for people who made some big mistakes and needed help, for people who are losers and have hardly any friends. We'd be glad for whatever forgiveness we gave to others... and received from others.We'd be glad for whatever we did to improve ourselves - not financially, but personally - whatever we did to make ourselves a better person – that lasts. And that's just the beginning. We'd think of a lot more things that we hold dear, and some may surprise us.

Take some time to do this yourself. Imagine that you are watching all the places and things on earth go up in flames or fall into the sea. It can bring a new perspective. 

Which is why Advent starts with a Gospel like the one we just heard. That's why we begin our new liturgical year by looking at the ending. It puts things in perspective.

Originally given on November 30, 2003