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The Catholic Telegraph
December 1, 2000Every well-considered beginning looks toward a well-planned conclusion. That’s why, as we begin another liturgical year, the Church directs our attention to the conclusion toward which we are headed, the ending that God had in mind when He began to implement the plan of our salvation.
One of the purposes of the Church’s liturgical year is to keep us aware that God works in time, that God is involved with the passage of one year into another. Every year involves beginning again and repeating the same events and seasons. Each year constitutes a cycle. But God’s fundamental involvement in time is linear, that is, it moves in one direction only, forward to the final stage of His plans for us and our world. God is not forever beginning over, starting new projects, rejecting what He had been involved in before. No, there is one plan for salvation, an unchanging one that starts at a definite beginning and is directed toward a definite end. That’s part of what we recall when we come to the end of one year and launch into another. Well-considered beginnings always have to be seen in the context of the end toward which they are directed.
The readings for the first Sunday of Advent in each of the three yearly cycles are about the conclusion, the fulfillment of our salvation. They deal with the second coming of Christ at the end of time. This, of course, is the same theme that was dealt with last Sunday when we celebrated the ending of the Church’s year with the feast of Christ the King. The final reign of Christ is both the final goal and original purpose of God’s whole plan for salvation.
Our live letter for this first Sunday of cycle C is from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, the earliest book of the New Testament. It was probably chosen for this Sunday because it mentions the final coming of the Lord, a theme in which the Thessalonians seem to have been particularly interested. Our passage straddles the two parts of the letter, the first of which is concerned with encouraging the new Christians to remain faithful, the second with providing practical directives for Christian living.
Paul tells his readers that, if they want to be holy and without reproach when Jesus comes at the end of time, they have to be strong in their love for one another. Paul prays that their love may be strengthened so they can love each other as he loves them. He then proceeds to encourage them to be observant of the directions he had given them for their day to day living. He is sure that they are behaving as God desires, but he urges them to be even more careful about pleasing God. (In the part of First Thessalonians that follows our reading, Paul gives instructions about sexual conduct, mutual charity, hope for those who have died, and vigilance in their faith.)
The context of what Paul teaches the Thessalonians in this reading is the second coming of Christ. That’s the ending they have to keep their eye on, the conclusion toward which their Christian life and faith is to be directed.
But their attention to the final fulfillment of creation and salvation is not to be mere passive waiting. They are not like people standing on a street corner waiting for something to happen. No, they have a role to play in this interim time between the beginning and the end of salvation. That role is to extend the life and love of Christ to each other and to the world around them. By their observance of the moral norms that Paul had outlined for them their participation in the life and holiness of Christ would grow so they would be ready to fit in with all the holy ones of Christ when He finally comes.
What Paul says to the Thessalonians applies to us, too. We have to be attentive to what God has in store for us in the final fulfillment of the world and its history in the coming of Christ. But this attention is not just speculative. We have an agenda to deal with as we wait, and the agenda is the agenda of the Lord Jesus. We are called to help get ourselves ready to meet the Lord. We are called to help others get ready to meet the Lord through the love of Christ that we extend to them. We are called to help the world become ever more attuned to the final state to which Christ will finally bring it. We may not think that our individual human existence has spiritually cosmic potential, but it does, not because of what we bring to our life, but because of what Christ has brought to it. We are all part of His plan, His process, His initiative, His final purpose.
Often people make new year’s resolutions at the beginning of a civil year . The beginning of a new liturgical year is a good time for resolutions, too. We each have elements in our life that could use improvement. But maybe we all need to try to be a little more aware of where we are headed as this new year begins and how each of us shares responsibility for helping all of us get to where God wants us to be.
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Conversation Questions
What can I do to "increase and abound in love?"
Is there a sense of direction in my life? How is it expressed?
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