A reflection on Mark 13:33-37 for the 1st Sunday of Advent Year B.
The Church is asking us to look further ahead than Christmas. At Mass, we say that we await “the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” We say those words every Sunday. What are we asking to happen?
Doesn’t Christ already come to us in the Eucharist?
Yes. Catholics believe Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. We receive Him while the world around us remains wounded and we ourselves still need forgiveness. When we pray for His return, we are asking for the fulfillment of His promise. Receiving Communion does not mean everything we hope for has already happened.
I find Christ’s return harder to picture than His birth. A child needs holding and feeding. We can imagine the cold, the worry, the relief of a safe delivery. Christ’s return takes us beyond familiar experience. The Creed says He will judge the living and the dead.
Jesus’ birth began something whose completion we await. Christ is risen, yet death still takes people from us. When Christians pray for His return, we are asking for the resurrection He has promised. We are still waiting for that. Christians have good reason to ask, “How much longer?” Advent gives that question a place in worship.
Mark does not give details or a timetable in this gospel. Jesus tells His disciples that they do not know when the master is coming. He gives the servants work, though. They have responsibilities in the house while they wait.
We pray for Christ to come while doing what He has already asked of us, often without knowing whether our efforts will accomplish much.
When I pray those words at Mass this Advent, I want to think about what I am asking, for Jesus to finish what we cannot finish ourselves.
Lord Jesus, come to a world weary of violence and death. Keep us faithful in the work before us, and help us trust Your promise when the waiting is hard. Amen.