Good News : November 29, 2009
First Sunday of Advent
Jer 33:14-16/
1 Thes 3:12 -4:2 /
Lk 21:28, 34-36
How do we measure time? How do we mark important events, the starts and finishes of times that matter? What we measure is revealed by ho we measure it.
At work we might be clock - watchers trying to make time move more quickly. At play, we might want to stretch time. With the clock ticking, if we down a few points and have the ball, can we make the game last a bit longer?
Two experience of the same time can differ greatly. Mother and father have the same nine months to anticipate the birth of their child. During the last weeks, mom will have a much different time of it.
Time connect us to the Earth. The seasons can be felt as harvest or planting times even by those of us who never work a field-but deeply and richly by those who do. We learn who we are in rhythms. Then again, both teachers and students check off the days that stand between them and school vacations - time off!
Large stretches of time can make us feel small. The psalmist says, “Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty, if we are strong” (Psalm 90:10). Can we dip our finite lives even the fraction below the surface of time to see fourteen billion years unfolding since the start of creation?
Too many times we’re pulled in so many directions we feel pulled apart. Modern tools help us cut and categorize, use and dispose, push and drain our packages of time. More than ever, we need time to stop so we can reflect, catch our breath, and wait long enough to catch up with ourselves.
Advent begins a new liturgical year. For Emmanuel, The God who is with us - we wait again for the coming of the lord.
THOUGH FOR TODAY: It is said that “time flies”. True, but not so fast that we fail to know long in advance the coming of Christmas. The name so familiar to all of us is ADVENT. It is the “coming”, not of Santa, but of Christ. Our preparation begins today…in prayer, good deeds and, perhaps, a bit of penance. Giving and receiving presents is important. Giving to and receiving from Christ is also important.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM: To you, O lord, I lift my soul (year C)