Gospel Lectio Divina for The First Sunday of Advent - November 27, 2022
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
Jesus said to his disciples: "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."
MEDITATE
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man
The people in the days of Noah did not know the Flood was coming, even though Noah told them it was coming. They could have known, if they simply believed Noah. But who would believe such an outlandish thing? The world will be immersed in water after a great flood and all who do not get on the ark will die? I would have probably laughed at such a crazy prediction as well. Perhaps if they had radar in Noah’s time, more people would have seen the storm coming, but they didn’t and so they had no reason to believe him.
What if a neighbor said the greatest hurricanes the world has ever seen are about to destroy all of the world’s biggest cities, leaving them all in rubble? And what if there were no signs that such hurricanes were coming, nothing in the weather reports, nothing in the skies? I would say, “Sure, whatever, crazy man.” In other words, I probably would have been among those who refused to listen to Noah, despite his persistence. The number of times he said it wouldn’t have changed my position. I would just start telling him to shut up, probably. I also would have had no reason to believe him.
We do not believe in likely things. Our hope is not based on things that probably will happen. That is why faith and hope are necessary in order to accept the Catholic faith. For some people it may be different, but I did not arrive at my faith through reason. I did not reason my way into believing the Catholic faith. I had to scrutinize what I was taught. I had to challenge my faith and seek a deeper understanding of it. This is the journey for most cradle Catholics who care and dare to hold onto the faith system in which they were brought up.
So this portent by Jesus is a reminder that Christianity, and Catholicism even moreso, calls us to believe in crazy stuff just like Noah urged people to believe him that the Flood was coming. So many unexpected catastrophes have happened throughout history that we owe it to ourselves to give credence to even the most preposterous claims, until reason proves them to be false. Just because something has never happened before doesn’t mean it will never happen.
In the Gospel for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus tells us, “There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.” Does this mean that these disasters will happen more frequently when the End Times are near, or was he just providing a general reminder that we do not know when our own lives will end? When he says we will also be persecuted before all these disasters, was he saying the End Times will see greater persecution of Christians than ever before, or was he just telling us that if we follow him properly we will be persecuted before we die–and that our death will quite possibly occur at a time we do not expect? Much ink has been spilled on this topic, but we must remember that Jesus said not even the Son of Man knows when the end will come. To try and predict it will keep us from observing the truth of God’s word. The key is to always be ready. The end will surely come some day. Jesus will definitely return. We are living in a linear history, not a cyclical one, so it has a destination. There will be an ending to this story.
at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
At an hour I least expected, God renewed my faith. At an hour when my faith was at its lowest, he intervened and strengthened it. I believe God does this for a reason. It’s to wake me up and remind me that it will be similar when Jesus comes back. He has given me all the chances I need to acknowledge his truth and his presence, so the burden of proof is on me if I claim to have faith but slack off in believing when he returns on the last day, the day of judgment. He has lived up to his end of the bargain, even though he didn’t have to. He doesn’t have to prove himself to us. Truth remains true whether we are convinced of it or not, and thank God for that. Otherwise our stubbornness would get in the way.
Yet we live in an age where we believe the truth can be catered to our own wills. Relativism has become so prevalent that it has become acceptable to believe that we can control what the truth is. Jesus’ keen advice strikes at the very core of relativism. He is saying no matter what we choose to believe, no matter what we say the truth is, at the end of time truth will have the last word. Universal truth cannot be defeated, no matter how powerful I think my own personal truth is. In the end, all of the chaff will burn down to the core and the truth established by God will prevail. The story will end with his will being fulfilled. This is true for my own life and the world.
PRAY
Lord,
I am grateful that you have revealed to me and all Christians the plot of the story we are in. Thank you for telling us to get ready for the end. Help us to prepare with every word and deed in our daily lives. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
LISTEN
I can see in my own life the foreshadowing of the way it’s going to end. There have been times when I had to let go of a loved one, a habit, a favorite possession, or something else. These occasions reminded me that everything is ephemeral. While it always hurts, it also always resonates with truth because I know it can be no other way, since everything in this world is just passing us by. So it is wise to learn from these occasions, when I lose something, or when something I love ends, or when something I cherish is taken from me. It is in these occasions when God is teaching me to prepare for the very end of everything. And hopefully I was listening enough so it doesn’t hit too hard. Everything in this world was designed to fade away, so we can learn to disconnect ourselves from it all and fix our eyes on heaven.
Kilby is a freelance writer from New Jersey and managing editor of Catholic World Report. He received his undergrad degree in humanities and Catholic culture from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. In addition to working with the Knights of the Holy Eucharist (knights.org), he has served as a journalist for Princeton Packet Publications, and the Trenton Monitor, the magazine for the Diocese of Trenton. Some of his published work can also be found in St. Anthony Messenger, Catholic Herald (UK), and Catholic World Report. For the latter he is managing editor. Find more of his writing at ramblingspirit.com.