First Sunday of Advent - Cycle B

Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7
1 Cor 1:3-9
Mk 13:33-37

The beginning of the Advent season focuses our attention on the future coming of Christ in glory, and echoes a theme of repentance as a preparation for that coming. Christ’s coming ushers in the final triumph of life over death. The preparation for that coming, therefore, includes repentance from the works of death, including abortion. Not only individuals but nations likewise need to repent.

When we battle against the Culture of Death in its various forms, we may often pray as in today’s First Reading, “Lord, rend the heavens and come down!” Why, for example, does the Lord just not appear from the sky to stop the abortions from happening? The fact is that he did come down in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, and through the Lord’s clear teachings continues to put the truth in our minds, and the grace in our hearts, so that we can be the ones who bear witness to life amid the Culture of Death, work tirelessly to transform that culture, and intervene to save the helpless.