CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - The first Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of a new liturgical year.  It is interesting to note how the liturgical year ends with the theme of the Second Coming, while at the same time, the new liturgical year also focuses on the same theme. Since we are about to celebrate Christmas, we would suppose that the new liturgical year would begin chronologically with a reflection on the Incarnation.  However, that is not the case. The reason why the liturgical year ends and begins with the same theme is clear: if we have already embraced Jesus in his first coming, we will have no fear of his second coming. 

It is also interesting to note that the new liturgical year begins with a penitential season; i.e. the season of Advent.  The priest and deacon now use purple colored vestments.  As the world around us prepares for Christmas with an ever increasing emphasis on material things, the Church directs our gaze toward the spiritual.  The liturgical calendar begins differently from the secular calendar precisely because the Church, while in the world, is not of the world.  Advent is a penitential season because Christmas is about our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, not about external celebrations.  In this Sunday's reading St. Paul exhorts us to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ".  The external celebrations should be seen as a visible manifestation of our joy of being disciples of Jesus Christ. 

Advent, as a penitential season, prepares us to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord's first coming as the incarnate God of love.  As a penitential time, Advent helps us to examine the condition of our soul which is an abode of the Lord's presence through sanctifying grace.  Advent helps us prepare for the Lord's second coming as judge which takes place first at death and then again at the end of the world.  If we are already living out our discipleship with Jesus, we will be ready for his second coming.

"Therefore, stay awake!  For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.  Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into.  So too, you also must be prepared for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come" (Matthew 24: 42-44).

As disciples of the Lord we have so many ways to become distracted and lose our focus. The commercialization of Christmas can become a terrible distraction for those who really desire to celebrate Christmas correctly.  We can become distracted by putting off the Sacrament of Confession. We can lose focus by not committing ourselves to a life of prayer. We can give in to the temptations of materialism.  We can lose the intensity of our spiritual life. We can become spiritually lazy by being satisfied with being "good people" rather than striving for sanctity. We can end up rationalizing our own sloth and laziness.  We can even live with a dull conscience.

Advent is a time to wake up.  "You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.  For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand" (Romans 13: 11-12).

Most of the world did not notice Jesus' first coming.  We need to stay awake and notice how he comes to us each day.  What about those special graces that come to us each day?  What about those amazing opportunities that he gives us each day to love him more and more.  When we are inattentive, when we are lazy, when we are indifferent, we miss out on so much.  Advent is a time to wake up and to leave aside our laziness and tepidity.  "Therefore, stay awake!  For you do not know on which day your Lord will come" (Matthew 24: 42). 

Once upon a time, there was a man who looked upon Christmas as a lot of humbug. He wasn't a scrooge. He was a kind and decent person, generous to his family, upright in all his dealings with other men. But he did not believe in the mystery of the Incarnation.

"I am truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, who was a faithful churchgoer. "But I simply cannot understand this claim that God became man. It doesn't make any sense to me." On Christmas Eve, his wife and children went to church. He declined to accompany them. "I'd feel like a hypocrite," he explained. "I'd rather stay at home. But I will wait up for you."

Shortly after his family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window and watched the flurries getting heavier and heavier. "If we must have Christmas," he thought, "It's nice to have a white one." He went back to his chair by the ...