Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25; 1Thes 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-28,34-36 – Fr. Cristiano Pinheiro, Shalom Catholic Community
Today we begin the season of Advent. It’s a time that marks the start of a new year in the Liturgical calendar of the Church. It’s the beginning of a new time, a new chapter which is a time of waiting, because life itself is, in many ways, a kind of ‘waiting’, right? And the key question is: what do we fill this ‘waiting time’ of life with?
What do we choose to focus on as we journey through life? Do we follow a specific direction? Do we know where we’re headed? Is there a HOPE or a PROMISE lighting our way ahead? Actually, that’s what the First Reading talks about: the best is yet to come.
The prophet Jeremiah announces a time of fulfillment! And he urges us to trust that these ‘better days’, of justice, peace, these amazing promises will be fulfilled in our lives. You know, our culture, nowadays, is very skeptical about ‘promises’. There’s a contemporary songwriter who came up with this line in a song:
‘You call me up again just to break me like a promise; so casually cruel in the name of being honest’. (So, deep down we all assume that promises are there to be broken, lies get told by the minute, promises are never truly kept, right!? Wrong!) Advent—our hope—is actually countercultural!
I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. It’s a book bursting with promises, visions and images that point to world being completely transformed. Sometimes we pay too much attention to the catastrophic part of this book, and then we don’t really grasp what’s behind all this.
And towards the end of the book there’s a promise from God: THE CREATION OF A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH! The old order will pass away! / God will wipe away all our tears, and death and sadness will be gone forever. He promises and delivers!
That’s what God holds in store for us! A few years ago, I was still living in Rome, I went on a mission trip to China. And because of the regime there, we had to be super discreet, especially as a missionary, since ‘openly evangelizing’ is prohibited.
So, one evening, we were at the apartment where the Shalom Community missionaries lived, and we were having a kind of Praise & Worship night. And as I sang songs in different languages, I was really praying, worshiping, and asking God to let that simple moment touch the hearts of everyone (especially those young Chinese people who didn’t yet know Him)
At the end, one of them, a guy named Tristan, came up to me and said, ‘Cristiano, I noticed something. While you were singing, sometimes you closed your eyes, and I felt like you were talking to someone! And while you were in that ‘conversation’, I felt something different—like hand reached into my chest and started massaging my heart. Who were you talking to?’ – I said, “I was talking to God.” / His eyes, like, lit up! Then I asked, ‘And that massage you felt—was it good?’- “Yes, absolutely amazing!”
So, I explained that what he was feeling was a ‘dash’ of God’s love for him—a love that reaches the deepest parts of our hearts. I told him that I had been praying for him to feel God’s love that night. / And he shared with me that, like so many others in China, he didn’t believe in God. Actually, he believed in work, the state, money, family… To him, that was God.
So, I started talking about the One ‘God’ who has a personal love for him and has promises of fulfillment for his life. But then he lowered his head and said, ‘It’s really hard believe that God loves me like this. The only person I have now is my mom, and she’s battling terminal cancer. She’s in so much pain, and doesn’t have much time left! That
being said… How can I believe in a loving God?’
So, I took a deep breath—I didn’t see that coming! In my heart, I asked the Holy Spirit to guide me. I said, ‘Tristan, when we’re born, there’s a painful / traumatic process. The contractions and labor pains are intense for the mother, and for the baby, it’s a huge shock. The umbilical cord gets cut, all the safety and comfort of the womb is gone, and there’s the pain of feeling air fill the lungs for the very first time.
But the thing is that: all that pain is just a doorway to something far greater and more beautiful: LIFE! We come into this world through this gate of pain, but soon, such pain is forgotten because life is so much bigger than the trauma!
Now, Tristan, your mom is getting ready to be born again—into a new life. And in that new life, with God, she’ll never suffer again, she’ll never feel pain, every tear will be wipe away, and she’ll live forever in the loving and peaceful embrace of God. That good feeling you had in your chest? It’s nothing compared to the joy she’ll experience forever. And there’s more: one day, you will live with her / in that peaceful place!
So, Tristan jumped up, wide-eyed, and said, ‘If a place like that exists, with a promise like that, there’s no doubt that this God is truly a God of love!’ / Two weeks later, I got a message on my phone: ‘Cristiano, today my mom went into the embrace of God. Thank you so much for telling me that such a wonderful place exists!’
My friends, if the Gospel today talks about all those ‘signs in the sun, moon and stars… the roaring of the sea and waves”, it’s because this world of ours is going through labor pains, like a ‘childbirth’, to make way for a New World. There’s a promise of newness for us! But don’t worry! Don’t be afraid with this ‘end of the world’!
The Psalm today says that the Lord comes to ‘show sinners the way’! And this is spot on! Because Advent is a time of Conversion! Our old world, our former sinful life, passes away to give way to a new world, a new heart! That’s why Jesus says: stand up straight, raise your heads, because your redemption is near!
He’s inviting us to stand tall, with our eyes lifted up, waiting for what only God can give us! Stop looking down here for what can satisfy you. The Lord is calling us to look up to a higher life—a holier life! So, watch and pray! That is: Step away from this world for a moment and believe in the promises of Eternity made to you. Go beyond the sun and the moon and walk toward that holy life that surpasses the limits of this world.
When you come to the end of your journey in this world, how would you like to be found by Christ? Are you living the life you wish you were living on your last day? How do you expect to meet God face to face!? My friends, watch and pray! Advent is timely for our conversion! We won’t be ready if we don’t get ready!
