BE PREPARED FOR YOU DO NOT KNOW THE TIME THE SON OF MAN WILL COME: My Response on the season of Advent.
Advent is a season of preparation. The name advent was adopted from Latin adventus “coming; arrival”, translating Greek parousia. In the New Testament, advent is the term used for the Second Coming. It means the coming of Jesus into the world. We Christians use the four Sundays and weeks of Advent to prepare and remember the real meaning of Christmas. In advent, we prepare for the two-fold coming of Jesus Christ. According to the catechesis of St Cyril of Jerusalem ” We preach not one coming of Christ, but a second also, far more glorious than the first. The first revealed the meaning of his patient endurance; the second brings with it the crown of the divine kingdom.” Thus, according to the pastoral letter of St Charles Borromeo, the season of advent is of great importance. It is a sacred season. As the Holy Spirit says, it is the time of the Lord’s favour, the day of salvation, peace and reconciliation. St Charles pointed on how fortunate we are to experience this great coming thus ”
The Patriarchs and prophets longed and prayed and yearned with all their hearts for this time” This yearning by the prophets was made obvious by the joys of that just man Simeon in “Nunc dimittis” Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: My own eyes have seen the salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of every people: a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel. Therefore the coming of Christ should instill in us a great joy that should be able to transform us into being thankful to God always.On the second coming of Christ, for which we also prepare in advent, one common and reoccurring statement is that “we do not know the time”. This statement continues to reappear throughout the readings of advent. “For this reason, you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.” Mt 24:16.The questions one may ask are ” Are we to be ready merely because we do not know the time?, or are we to be ready because there will be the second coming? In any case, I think that the central message is the need to be “prepared” for the coming of the son of man. Remember that the scriptures made it obvious that we do not know the time, the hour. It even applied a figurative speech “Simile” where it states that it will come “like a thief”. The problem of time becomes, therefore, a bit problematic because it is not always easy for one to prepare for an event he does not know the date it will happen. But I think that not knowing the time should help us make a holistic preparation.Moreover, I think we would be making a serious mistake if we conceive “Time” in the chronological manner that we are conversant with. That was why St Augustine in his definition of time, explains that time is not a feature or property of the world, but a property of the mind. He arrived at this when he tries to explain how difficult it is to define time. Augustine states that on earth, time is difficult to define. He writes that all creation seems to exist in time: the past, present, and future are how time is knowable to human beings. However, he argues that the past and the future, regardless of the presence of memory, do not exist: all we have is the present moment. He breaks that moment down into the smallest instance, and he cannot define what the present moment means. This present moment cannot have space (for it is time), nor can it have duration, for once it has happened it is gone into the past. From this, he posits that time does not truly exist, even though it seems to (because it can be discussed and measured). What a seemingly hopeless negative argument?
The point is that in other to prevent the disciples from further questioning about the time of his coming, Christ said “however, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” St Ephrem, in his commentary on the (Diatessaron) stated that ” He hid the time from us so that we would be on the watch and so that each of us might think that the coming will happen in his lifetime” If he had revealed when he was to come again, his coming would have been made pointless and the peoples and ages in which it will take place would no longer yearn for it. Hence all generations must live in eager expectation. That is why the church in her wisdom provided us with this great opportunity every year to reflect and prepare ourselves for the coming of the Messiah in a double capacity. The church loves all her children like a loving mother, and she cares for all and protects with special affection those who are within the Church as she continues her missionary mandate. This is the duty that Christ himself entrusted to the entire Christian community as a whole. Aware of this, the Church is especially vigilant in protecting all her children against the pursuit of frivolities and trivial things that make us forget that the coming of the son of man is at hand. She does that through the provision of a great season of advent. In a homily, Pope Francis said that the two key phrases for the Advent season are “God’s closeness” and “people’s vigilance against indifference and mediocrity”. Advent reminds people that God came down “to dwell in our midst” and that they must always call for his assistance, he said. The first step of faith is to tell God that we need him” and to ask that he “comes close to us once more,” the pope said. “God wants to draw close to us, but he will not impose himself; it is up to us to keep saying to him, ‘Come!’. Maranatha!The message of Pope Francis calls to mind the hymn of the 6th-century singer Tr E Caswell: “Hear the herald voice resounding: Christ is near, it seems to say, Cast away the dreams of darkness, Welcome Christ, the light of day!”. This hymn presents both the first and second coming of our Lord which was made obvious in the last stanza which goes thus: “So when next he comes with glory, Shrouding all the earth in fear, May he then as our defender On the cloud of heaven appear”Therefore Pope Francis, in a nutshell, explains that advent “is a continuous call to hope: it reminds us that God is present in history to lead it to its ultimate goal and to its fullness, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.” The period of advent allows us to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. The church urges her children to prepare herself very well in anticipation for this great coming both that of parousia and incarnation. One way of preparing is by reaching out to the less privilege in the society in line with the teachings of Christ as the yardstick for judgment. Visiting the sick, those in prison, clothing the naked are all required from us this period. We are also called on the Christmas octave to associate with our family members, to have a reunion that will in all form express the love of God to humanity. Also, we are expected to join in Christmas masses which will help us to appreciate the message of Christmas. Moreover, I wish to advise all those who will gather in one so call crusade or unnecessary gathering in the name of prayer should try and help the people enjoy the festive mood which the coming of Christ has brought for us. In as much as we need to pray in and out of season, we should also not lose the sight of the joyful mystery we celebrate in Christmas. My emphasis on this stems from the experiences we gain in Nigeria, where people fix crusades, revivals and all sorts of prayer gathering on Christmas octave. I think that the period of advent is a nice time to do all those praying and fasting and vigils, crusades. The pastors of souls should be able to lead the faithful through the necessary preparation for the coming of our lord. Remember that when the bridegroom is with us, we need not to fast. I pray that this period of advent may bring us all the necessary good things, and May God bless our unpretentious efforts of an authentic preparation.
BE PREPARED FOR YOU DO NOT KNOW THE TIME THE SON OF MAN WILL COME: My Response on the season of Advent.
Advent is a season of preparation. The name advent was adopted from Latin adventus “coming; arrival”, translating Greek parousia. In the New Testament, advent is the term used for the Second Coming. It means the coming of Jesus into the world. We Christians use the four Sundays and weeks of Advent to prepare and remember the real meaning of Christmas. In advent, we prepare for the two-fold coming of Jesus Christ. According to the catechesis of St Cyril of Jerusalem ” We preach not one coming of Christ, but a second also, far more glorious than the first. The first revealed the meaning of his patient endurance; the second brings with it the crown of the divine kingdom.” Thus, according to the pastoral letter of St Charles Borromeo, the season of advent is of great importance. It is a sacred season. As the Holy Spirit says, it is the time of the Lord’s favour, the day of salvation, peace and reconciliation. St Charles pointed on how fortunate we are to experience this great coming thus ”
The Patriarchs and prophets longed and prayed and yearned with all their hearts for this time” This yearning by the prophets was made obvious by the joys of that just man Simeon in “Nunc dimittis” Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: My own eyes have seen the salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of every people: a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel. Therefore the coming of Christ should instill in us a great joy that should be able to transform us into being thankful to God always.On the second coming of Christ, for which we also prepare in advent, one common and reoccurring statement is that “we do not know the time”. This statement continues to reappear throughout the readings of advent. “For this reason, you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.” Mt 24:16.The questions one may ask are ” Are we to be ready merely because we do not know the time?, or are we to be ready because there will be the second coming? In any case, I think that the central message is the need to be “prepared” for the coming of the son of man. Remember that the scriptures made it obvious that we do not know the time, the hour. It even applied a figurative speech “Simile” where it states that it will come “like a thief”. The problem of time becomes, therefore, a bit problematic because it is not always easy for one to prepare for an event he does not know the date it will happen. But I think that not knowing the time should help us make a holistic preparation.Moreover, I think we would be making a serious mistake if we conceive “Time” in the chronological manner that we are conversant with. That was why St Augustine in his definition of time, explains that time is not a feature or property of the world, but a property of the mind. He arrived at this when he tries to explain how difficult it is to define time. Augustine states that on earth, time is difficult to define. He writes that all creation seems to exist in time: the past, present, and future are how time is knowable to human beings. However, he argues that the past and the future, regardless of the presence of memory, do not exist: all we have is the present moment. He breaks that moment down into the smallest instance, and he cannot define what the present moment means. This present moment cannot have space (for it is time), nor can it have duration, for once it has happened it is gone into the past. From this, he posits that time does not truly exist, even though it seems to (because it can be discussed and measured). What a seemingly hopeless negative argument?
The point is that in other to prevent the disciples from further questioning about the time of his coming, Christ said “however, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” St Ephrem, in his commentary on the (Diatessaron) stated that ” He hid the time from us so that we would be on the watch and so that each of us might think that the coming will happen in his lifetime” If he had revealed when he was to come again, his coming would have been made pointless and the peoples and ages in which it will take place would no longer yearn for it. Hence all generations must live in eager expectation. That is why the church in her wisdom provided us with this great opportunity every year to reflect and prepare ourselves for the coming of the Messiah in a double capacity. The church loves all her children like a loving mother, and she cares for all and protects with special affection those who are within the Church as she continues her missionary mandate. This is the duty that Christ himself entrusted to the entire Christian community as a whole. Aware of this, the Church is especially vigilant in protecting all her children against the pursuit of frivolities and trivial things that make us forget that the coming of the son of man is at hand. She does that through the provision of a great season of advent. In a homily, Pope Francis said that the two key phrases for the Advent season are “God’s closeness” and “people’s vigilance against indifference and mediocrity”. Advent reminds people that God came down “to dwell in our midst” and that they must always call for his assistance, he said. The first step of faith is to tell God that we need him” and to ask that he “comes close to us once more,” the pope said. “God wants to draw close to us, but he will not impose himself; it is up to us to keep saying to him, ‘Come!’. Maranatha!The message of Pope Francis calls to mind the hymn of the 6th-century singer Tr E Caswell: “Hear the herald voice resounding: Christ is near, it seems to say, Cast away the dreams of darkness, Welcome Christ, the light of day!”. This hymn presents both the first and second coming of our Lord which was made obvious in the last stanza which goes thus: “So when next he comes with glory, Shrouding all the earth in fear, May he then as our defender On the cloud of heaven appear”Therefore Pope Francis, in a nutshell, explains that advent “is a continuous call to hope: it reminds us that God is present in history to lead it to its ultimate goal and to its fullness, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.” The period of advent allows us to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. The church urges her children to prepare herself very well in anticipation for this great coming both that of parousia and incarnation. One way of preparing is by reaching out to the less privilege in the society in line with the teachings of Christ as the yardstick for judgment. Visiting the sick, those in prison, clothing the naked are all required from us this period. We are also called on the Christmas octave to associate with our family members, to have a reunion that will in all form express the love of God to humanity. Also, we are expected to join in Christmas masses which will help us to appreciate the message of Christmas. Moreover, I wish to advise all those who will gather in one so call crusade or unnecessary gathering in the name of prayer should try and help the people enjoy the festive mood which the coming of Christ has brought for us. In as much as we need to pray in and out of season, we should also not lose the sight of the joyful mystery we celebrate in Christmas. My emphasis on this stems from the experiences we gain in Nigeria, where people fix crusades, revivals and all sorts of prayer gathering on Christmas octave. I think that the period of advent is a nice time to do all those praying and fasting and vigils, crusades. The pastors of souls should be able to lead the faithful through the necessary preparation for the coming of our lord. Remember that when the bridegroom is with us, we need not to fast. I pray that this period of advent may bring us all the necessary good things, and May God bless our unpretentious efforts of an authentic preparation.
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