PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD

 

PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD

We begin the 2024 liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent.  The Collect, or Opening Prayer of the Mass, is meant to set the tone of the season for all the faithful: 

Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,

the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ

with righteous deeds at his coming,

so that gathered at his right hand,

they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom.

 

You may remember that there are two liturgical themes of Advent; a preparation for the Second Coming of Christ in glory at the end of time, and a preparation to celebrate in a holy way the Nativity of Our Lord on Christmas.  The first two weeks of Advent emphasize the first theme while the last two weeks focus more on the second theme. 

 

At the beginning of Mass today we ask the Father to help us “resolve to run forth to meet your Christ.”  In the Christian life we are running a race to heaven.  In the first reading we hear Isaiah pray, “Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways!” (Isaiah 64:4).  In the holiday season there are so many things to distract us and slow our run.  Consider the professional runner who keeps his eyes focused on the race track.  He crouches at the start line, waiting for the signal to begin the race.  All his attention is on the finish line, and he looks straight ahead, neither to the right nor to the left.  The sacred author of Hebrews tells us, “Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:1-2).  As the runner looks to the finish line, so we look to Christ who is the goal of our lives.  We will meet him at the finish line.

 

The runner in a race may carry a baton, but nothing else.  What are we to carry in our race to meet the Lord?  We prayed to the Father that we “may run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming.”  Such righteous deeds as are celebrated in the Book of Revelation: “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the Saints” (Rev 19:7-8).  The Bride is the Church and the Saints are her members.  What deeds clothe them in righteousness?  They heard, proclaimed, and kept God’s word, even at the cost of their lives.  Whenever in faith, by the grace of God, we do good deeds, we dress ourselves in fine clothing – a linen bright and pure which pleases God and makes us worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom.     

 

Saving faith is expressed in righteous deeds.  The Epistle of St. James teaches that “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead…You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:17,23).  Without righteous deeds our celebration of Advent will be empty and without meaning.  Now is a good time to examine our lives and resolve to run forth with righteous deeds to meet the Savior – on Christmas morning, and – alleluia! – in the sky when he comes in glory.