year- B Advent-1

Keep Awake the Lord is coming

Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Mass and my special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today. I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends, every time we come to Church we celebrate Advent, yes we celebrate the coming of Christ in our midst. Every time we come to church we celebrate Christ who is already with us and every time we come to church we celebrate the presence of Christ in our brothers and sisters.
Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates a new liturgical season called Advent. Advent means coming of the Lord. Christ is coming and we have to keep awake to welcome Him.
Once while a priest was preaching his homily noticed a man sound asleep. As the priest preached louder and louder, the sounder the man slept and at point the priest stopped preaching and looked at the man next to him and said, ‘would you please wake him up” The man looked at the priest and said, “wake him up yourself. You put him to sleep”.

Keep awake the Lord is coming. Today’s gospel invites us to keep awake because the Lord is coming in an unexpected time. All we have to do is keep awake to welcome him. Once while a man was sleeping, he had a terrible dream in which he was being chased by a lion and when he was running, there came running in front of him a tiger and then he realized that he was being surrounded by so many ferocious animals, so what should he do to escape? All he should do is just wake up. Yes, waking up means getting ready to welcome the Lord.
There is a revealing story of a monk who lived in a desert. He was so tormented by temptation that he could not bear it any longer. So he decided to abandon his monk life and go somewhere else. As he was putting on his sandals to get out from there, he saw another monk was also putting on his sandals. “Who are you?’ he asked the stranger. “I am yourself” was the reply. “ I am going to go with you wherever you go. Just learn to deal with yourself. Keep awake and you fill find Christ in everything and that will give you strength to deal with anything.
The unexpected time of His coming brings deeper meaning to our life and faith. As we struggle to predict the exact time of His coming, we develop a deep sense of hope in what we do. We begin to expect each and every day for the coming of the Lord by keeping His loving commandments.
We who believe in Him know that He never left us and He is always with us. Then why are we talking about His second coming? Now at present, those who believe in Him and practice their faith see Him face to face but on the last day, not only believers but also every one, good and bad, faithful and unfaithful will see Him face to face. Yes, everyone will see Christ our Lord on the last day.
As He promised he would come in an unexpected time, until then we should continue to practice our faith.

Once during a battle between Christians and Muslims, a Christian soldier was giving water to wounded Muslim soldiers as they lay suffering without water under the hot sun. And he was brought before the king and accused of being a traitor. The king heard the charges and looked at the soldier for explanation. The soldier then looked at the king and said, “when I was walking through the battlefields, I saw no Muslims and no Christians, only the face of Christ in every man”. The king then calmly said, ‘Continue what you are doing”. Dear friends, the Lord is coming and with hope we should continue to help those who are in need.

Conclusion: The season of Advent invites us to keep awake and welcome the Lord who is going to come in an unexpected time. So let us keep awake by putting our faith into practice. Amen.