FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT - CYCLE A – NOVEMBER 27, 2016 

• We begin a new liturgical cycle and with it the reading of a new Gospel, the Gospel of Matthew.  
• During this year Matthew will present   Jesus as the  Emmanuel.  
• The Emmanuel who is where two or three gather in his name.   
• The Emmanuel who receives as done to him our loving and our unloving actions.  
• The Emmanuel who will be with us until the end of time.  
• Today the three readings will speak to us about the coming of the Lord at the end of times, we have to be ready and watchful because,  with the Lord,  will come the restoration of everything and the destruction of all evil.   

FIRST READING  Is 2:1-5

ü  The prophet sees in the future a time of peace and good which comes from mount Zion where Jerusalem is build. 

ü  Jerusalem the holy city which, in the book of Revelation, will be the model city which comes down from heaven, the bride adorned for her spouse.     

ü  The peoples will walk toward this city because in it they will find the house of God.  

ü  The prophet gives an idyllic  and quasi heavenly description of  society when it will be built according to the model of the holy city.  

ü  Their swords and spears will be transformed from tools  of death into tools   of life.   

ü  Nations will be sisters to each other and, none will trained its inhabitants for war.   

ü  The text ends with an invitation to walk toward the light of the Lord.  

ü  All of it is a foreshadow of what happens in each man or woman who accepts the Lord in his or her life; in each nation that decides to acknowledge that God is God and thus decides to eliminate the idols of oppression. 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  122,1-2.3-4.4-5,6-7,8-9

LET US GO REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

I rejoiced because they said to me

We will go up to the house of the Lord

And now we have set foot

within your gates,  Jerusalem.

LET US GO REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

Jerusalem, built as a city

with compact unity

To it the tribes go up

the tribes of the Lord

LET US GO REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

According to the decree for Israel

to give thanks to the name of the Lord

In it are set up judgment seats,

seats for the house of David

LET US GO REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

May those who love you prosper

May peace be within your walls

prosperity in your buildings

LET US GO REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

Because of my brothers and friends

I will say "Peace be within you"

Because of the house of the Lord our God

I will pray for your good.

LET US GO REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

ü  Last Sunday, Solemnity of Christ King of the Universe, we read this same psalm.   

ü  The holy city whose external beauty in its buildings and other constructions, captivates the eyes and the heart of those who see her,  

ü  has also an internal beauty given by the peace her dwellers enjoy, and the justice which is administered at her doors.   

ü  The psalmist ends in the last stanza speaking about friends and brothers, he does not  speak about enemies as other psalms do.   

ü  Finally the members of the human race we have realized that we are all brothers and sisters, children of the one and only God, and Father, creator of all.   

GOSPEL  Mt 24:37-44   

      On the XXXIII Sunday in Ordinary Time Jesus said to his disciples not to be troubled by those who announce the end of times to be near, because it will not happen so soon.  

      The author of the Second letter to the Thessalonians was saying the same thing to his community.   

      What the Lord tells us is to be prepared to welcome him, and he gives some examples taken from the flood. When it came everyone was doing his or her own thing, without worrying about other things and they were surprised by the flood,  like it happens to us with the hurricanes and earthquakes

      The Lord says also that when he comes everyone will be doing their normal tasks, some will be working, and among them some will be ready and some not. 

      To help us understand his teaching he gives the example of the man who has many possessions, if he knew when the thief was coming he will be ready to protect his house.   

      Thus it should be with us who are waiting not for a thief but, for the Lord of our life, who  presumably we are waiting for.

      At the end of the reading the Lord says again more clearly BE PREPARED, because you do not know when I will come to you.    

      And this preparation is neither to neglect our responsibilities, nor  to repeat prayers like the pagans, nor kneel hours and hours in the church to "please the Lord" so that he will not be angry with us. No, this preparation is described by Matthew in chapter 25 of his gospel: I was hungry, I was thirsty.... each time you did to one of my brothers you did unto me.  

SECOND READING  Rm 13:11-14

v  Paul, like Jesus,  invites us to be vigilant  

v  He uses images of night and day   

v  When day comes we prepare ourselves for the day.  

v  When we realize that the Lord is present and wants to be part of our life, we leave our negative and sinful actions and we begin a new journey of life "let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the our working clothes.   

v  Paul gives a list of these works of darkness, of the night clothing which we have to cast off: drunkenness, unlawful and dehumanizing sexual relations, rivalries and jealousy.  

v  Then he invites us to change our night clothing and put on the clothing of light which is Jesus the Lord.    

v  At our baptism we were given a white clothe and we were told to put it on, use it, and keep it until  the day the Lord will call us.   

v  This white clothe is the symbol of Jesus our Lord, of the life of grace, the life of God which is offered to us so that we may be able to live as  children of the Father. 

POST-SYNODAL  APOSTOLIC  EXHORTATION AMORIS  LÆTITIA

OF  POPE FRANCIS 

The next word that Paul uses is chrestéuetai.  The word is used only here in the entire Bible.  It is derived from chrestós: a good person, one who shows his goodness by his deeds.  Here, in strict parallelism with the preceding verb, it serves as a complement.  Paul wants to make it clear that “patience” is not a completely passive attitude, but one accompanied by activity, by a dynamic and creative interaction with others.  The word indicates that love benefits and helps others.  For this reason it is translated as “kind”; love is ever ready to be of assistance.

94. Throughout the text, it is clear that Paul wants to stress that love is more than a mere feeling.  Rather, it should be understood along the lines of the Hebrew verb “to love”; it is “to do good”.  As Saint Ignatius of Loyola said, “Love is shown more by deeds than by words”.106  It thus shows its fruitfulness and allows us to experience the happiness of giving, the nobility and grandeur of spending ourselves unstintingly, without asking to be repaid, purely for the  pleasure of giving and serving. (93-94) 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012

 POPE FRANCIS,    APOSTOLIC  EXHORTATION AMORIS  LÆTITIA

 .