First Sunday of Advent, Cycle A. Today’s readings: Is 2:1-5; Rom 13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44.
On 1st Avenue, across the UN headquarters in New York, is a small park dedicated to Ralphe Bunche, the first African American person to receive the Nobel Prize in 1979. Overlooking the park is a tall wall, known as the Isaiah Wall, on which are inscribed the words we read in today’s first reading, in large bronze lettering: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”
These are the same words we read in today’s first reading, taken from the prophet Isaiah, some seven centuries or so before the birth of Christ. Upon hearing these words, we cry out: “But when will this prophecy be realised?”
Closer to home, Isaiah’s prophecy tells of the tension between Robert and Stephen, even though they do not know each other and have never met. Robert is a construction worker whose livelihood depends on operating heavy machinery used to build high-rises. He knows he will never have the money to enjoy one of the luxurious apartments he works on, and he is well aware that his work permanently spoils the environment for us and for generations to come. Alternative employment is hard to come by. Robert is a reluctant cooperator in a structure of injustice because he feels he cannot do otherwise.
Stephen is an agricultural worker who feels his work is threatened every day. Overdevelopment impinges on natural resources that are vital for him and which are becoming scarcer by the day. This raises the price of his produce, which he finds increasingly difficult to sell because of competitive prices of important fresh produce. Stephen struggles to make ends meet for himself and his family.
As the Church celebrates the first Sunday of Advent this weekend we are invited to inhabit this tension. Isaiah promises that the Messiah will resolve this tension “in the days to come”, to quote the opening verses of the first reading.
In the fullness of time, God sent his son to become part of humanity so that humanity can once again find its fullness in God after having strayed away because of sin.
The days to come will be fulfilled when the Son of Man comes, which is the theme St Luke dwells upon in today’s Gospel. The coming of the Son of Man is not only a historical certainty that will be realised at some point in the future. It is also an existential truth that gives meaning to every moment that leads to this reality.
Through our Christian hope we keep together the seemingly irreconcilable tensions like those between Robert and Stephen, as we are stretched between conflicting realities, between how things actually are and how God wants them to be.
Through our Christian hope we keep together the seemingly irreconcilable tensions… as we are stretched between conflicting realities, between how things actually are and how God wants them to be
This tension impels us to contemplate laws and policies, cultivate communities and cultures where such conflicts are addressed and resolved. Nonetheless we also know that they will only be reconciled completely when the Son of Man comes at the end of time.
The Space Between, by Eric O. Jacobsen.In his book The Space Between, theologian Eric O. Jacobsen insists that “the good news for Christians is the confidence we have in knowing that when Christ returns, he can and will bring all… goals to fulfilment when he takes his rightful place as judge of the universe. In the meantime,” Jacobsen believes, “we do not just sit around and wait for his return, we take up his cause and work for these goals as foretastes of his return.”
In similar vein, with author John Stott we affirm that “Christians are not utopians… Only Christ at his second coming will eradicate evil and enthrone righteousness forever. For that day we wait with eagerness.”
Advent is the time for that active and assiduous waiting.