Homily 3.12.23 by Frank Brennan 6

It’s the first Sunday of Advent. We enter into a month of waiting. But it’s not the passive waiting for a bus or a plane. We are waiting with great expectation of a better world, a better life, and better relationships with the coming of the Christ child at Christmas. We’ve all got work to do. This new heaven and new earth isn’t going to be simply laid in our lap. The first injunction is: ‘Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come.’ What is it that we’re waiting for?

Today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah comes from that third part of Isaiah ‘which reflects a time period sometime after 520BCE (the end of the exile) and just prior to the rebuilding of the temple. By this time, the community has returned to its homeland. These last chapters are God’s vision and instruction for a reconstituted people’.

Praying that Patrick Dodson will be restored to good health, committing ourselves to a reconstituted people, and praying for a renewed spirit of reconciliation in our land this Advent we join the psalmist:

Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.