Advent-1 (B)

First Advent-B
Good morning every one, today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates a new liturgical season called ‘Advent’. Advent simply means ‘coming’. We are celebrating the coming of Christ the Lord. We are anxiously waiting for His coming. As He promised to His apostles and all the people, He would come again. He will be coming to judge and give us life that will never end.
Today’s gospel invites us to keep awake. 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 said to the priest and said, “wake him up yourself. You put him to sleep”.
Keep awake the Lord is coming. Keeping awake is a process. we keep awake ourselves by prayer, fasting and works of mercy. Yes, we not only come to church to pray but we continue our prayers throughout our life. We Catholics do our daily prayers, family prayers, individual prayer and recite rosary and novenas and different prayers and intercessions. We ask Blessed Virgin Mary and other saints to intercede for our needs.
Keeping awake is a process and we keep ourselves awake by living according to our call.
We are all called to different sacrament life. Some are called to consecrated life such as priests, religious and others are called matrimonial life. The sacrament of matrimony takes you closer to Christ our Lord. As we live according to our call, we keep ourselves awake.
keep awake the Lord is coming. Keeping awake is a process. we keep ourselves awake by helping other, I mean, putting our faith into practice.
Once during a battle between Christians and Muslims, a Christian soldier was giving water to wounded Muslim soldiers as they were 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.
Keep awake. Keeping ourselves awake is a process. Why should we keep awake because the Lord is coming not as an appointed time but in an unexpected time. It could be today or tomorrow or some day. But He is coming as he promised. So let us keep awake and welcome the Lord. On that day, we will be judged and be given life that will never end.

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.