Homily for 1st Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
1st Sunday of Advent

Nov. 27, 1988

Jer 33: 14-16
Luke 21: 25-28, 34-36
St. Theresa, Bronx, N.Y.

We begin a new liturgical season and a new liturgical year this weekend. Despite all that newness, I’m afraid I have to offer an old homily because I had no occasion to preside and preach at Mass; I concelebrated at home. How old? See reference in it to Giants’ QB Phil Simms—and to the Giants winning.

“In those days … I will cause a righteous Branch to spring forth for David; and he shall do what is right and just in the land” (Jer 33: 15).

http://www.cranberryteatime.com/2015/12/third-sunday-of-advent-righteous-branch.html

How often have you wished for justice?  How many times has someone done something to you and you felt helpless to defend yourself?  Some big public utility raises its rates, some authority lays down the law, some careless driver cuts you off.  Maybe the situation has been impersonal—it rains on your picnic, or Phil Simms gets hurt while the Giants are winning.

Obviously you’re not alone in those feelings and those longings.  We have an old proverb:  “There’s no justice in this life.”  We have a more recent one:  “Life is unfair.”  An entire book of the Bible explores the question of justice and fairness.  That’s the book of Job—well worth reading and pondering.

The Jews of Jeremiah’s time felt that life had dumped on them.  Our passage today is addressed to a people in exile, conquered, leaderless, on the edge of hopelessness.  The prophet tells his people:  The Lord will straighten things out.  He will restore your kingdom and your royal line.  He will put everything right and give you lasting security.

The symbol of the wonderful divine promise is the Branch of David, a new, green, vibrant shoot from the royal family tree that seemed so dead and rotten.  David was the great national hero, the father of his country.  David was the ideal king, loyal to God, valiant in battle, just.  God promises a new national savior who will be all that David was, and more.

We’ve begun Advent, the season of waiting, of expectation, of hope.  Someone is coming.  Who?  The Son of David, the messiah, the Lord our King.  Jeremiah’s prophetic words will be fulfilled in a stable at Bethlehem, the city of David.  We prepare in joy and eagerness for Christmas.

But we know that coming of Jesus at Bethlehem did not solve all our problems or firmly establish justice and peace on earth.  His first coming as man we could call Phase I.  Phase II lies ahead.  St. Paul calls it “the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones” (1 Thess 3:13).  Jesus himself says, “Then they will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27).  This is the Second Coming that this Advent season prepares us for, “the day we watch for, hoping that the salvation promised us will be our” (Preface).

Jesus tells us, “Watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things…and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).  We long for justice, and if we have lived justly—at least as justly as is possible for human beings—then we need not fear the justice of the Great Judge “because our redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).  Only the unjust—the cheats and liars, the adulterers and abortionists and racists, the slumlords and warlords and drug lords, those who suck the blood of the poor, those who climb to the top on the bodies of their neighbors and coworkers—only those need fear final, inescapable justice.

Jesus tells us to take heed lest we be caught when the last day snaps on us like a trap (Luke 21:34).  But he also encourages us to look for the great day, to anticipate it eagerly and joyfully (like Christmas), to look up and raise our heads (Luke 21:28) because we are his people and he is our Savior, David’s Son, and “in those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely” (Jer 33:16).