Shadow

As Sure As Dawn

Today, the Church begins its new liturgical calendar with the season of Advent. The word advent means coming; hence the theme is one of waiting and expectation. During Advent, we look back to the time when man awaited the coming of the long-promised Messiah, and we look forward to his coming again in glory at the end of time.

Meanwhile, as we stand in between these two great advents, what are we to do? The Church invites us to learn to wait because the Lord comes even today in many ways. As the people of Israel missed the Messiah when he finally came two thousand years ago, we too can miss him when he comes today, or at the end of time.

Hence, the need for vigilance. How do we remain vigilant? From today’s readings, I find three things particularly helpful to make us vigilant: having a lively hope, being ready to change and praying.

A Lively Hope
Advent begins with hope, with a sure hope that Christ will come. As sure as dawn comes after darkness, even more so is the coming of Christ. In the first reading, Paul assures us, “For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand.” Although Christ will surely come, we do not know when and how. Hence, true hope is not only lively but patient.

Readiness to Change
Being vigilant does not mean passive waiting. It calls for active preparation for the coming of the King. In the same letter, Paul reminds us, “It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep… Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” In the days following, we will be hearing St. John the Baptist telling us to prepare the way of the Lord by straightening the crooked path, filling in the valleys…

By now we are familiar with the apocalyptic description of the end times. Will the stars actually fall from the skies and the planets spin off their orbit? Will God just crush and crumple the beautiful creation that came from his hand? We know that apocalyptic language is highly symbolical and not meant to be taken literally. The point is that to establish the new order, the old order must first pass away. For the kingdom of God to come, the kingdom of Satan must first be vanquished and destroyed. This is the basic dynamic of the paschal mystery: in order to live the new life in Christ, I must first die to self and my old life of sin. This is the heart of the spirituality of St. John of the Cross. For God to take complete possession of me, I must be willing to be reduced to nada, nada, nada…

Prayer
The first reading exhorts us “to climb the Lord’s mountain,” where he himself will teach us his ways of peace. And then, “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” Is this not a picture of the kingdom of God? To climb the Lord’s mountain is to enter into his presence – in prayer. Indeed, we can hasten the coming of God and his kingdom when we pray, as Jesus taught us, “Our Father… thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”

Last week, our priests gathered again in Mambucal for our Pastoral and Financial Assessment. Among other things, we met to decide whether to adopt a standard living allowance (SLA). What we anticipated would be a bloody battle (it is always so when money is discussed) turned out to be not only a smooth deliberation, but also an edifying experience. Not only did the presbyterium unanimously approve the SLA. They committed to go all the way to adopt the All-In Scheme after six months of transitioning from the SLA. This may seem banal and insignificant. But for those who are familiar with our presbyterium, this is nothing short of a miracle. It is a new advent for our diocese, indeed, the coming of God’s kingdom among us.

The SLA has been mandated by our Second Diocesan Synod since 2005. It is only now after 17 years that it is finally implemented. Why the long wait? Because to die to the old culture of entitlement and false appropriation and to transition to a culture of stewardship and true sacramental brotherhood is hard and painful. Thankfully, with God’s grace, our gradual change of heart (personal conversion) has brought us to our gradual change of culture (pastoral conversion). But I think what finally brought us to our crucial decision for the SLA was prayer. I know the SLA was the hope and prayer of many priests for a long time. And it is also significant to note that each of the four days we spent in Mambucal began with the Holy Hour.

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