Advent is a Time of Vigilance and Hope

As we light the candle of Hope on the first day of Advent, we are reminded that our hope comes from Christ. In Jeremiah 33: 14-16, we are told of Christ coming. He came to the world as a child so tiny and vulnerable and set us free from death through His own sacrificial death.

In Luke 21: 25-28, 34-36, Jesus talks of His second coming as a King. He warns us “ Watch yourselves, or hearts will be coarsened by debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will come upon you unexpectedly, like a trap.”  

St. John Henry Newman compares the Second Coming of Christ to the point of our death. Death is imminent and sudden, so we are not to be caught up in our ‘drunkenness and cares of life’. If we are to meet Christ, we need to prepare ourselves by living a life that is pleasing to Him.

In the words of St. Henry Newman, “Advent is a time of waiting, it is a time of joy because the coming of Christ is not only a gift of grace and salvation but it is also a time of commitment because it motivates us to live the present as a time of responsibility and vigilance. This ‘vigilance’ means the necessity, the urgency of an industrious, living ‘wait’.

So, let us just not be caught up with the external celebration of the season but also industriously work towards the internal preparation of our souls to meet our Saviour. How do we prepare ourselves? Henry Newman believed that a heart surrendered to God will prepare us to meet him.  

“God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work…… Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.” St. John Henry Newman