Reflection on the Readings at Mass for The First Sunday of Advent (Year A). The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray.
The Four Holy Desires the Liturgy Teaches Us
The magisterium and the theologians of our Catholic Church have spent nearly two millennia making ontological arguments about the effects that the original sin has on our nature. Some common terms used to explain how the sin against God committed by Adam and Eve still affects those who this sin has been propagated to include ‘a weakened human nature’, ‘a nature subject to ignorance’, ‘a nature suffering from the domination of death’. It also includes frequently used words such as wounded and fallen. If I may add another idea into our considerations of thinking about the consequences of the original sin, I would say that what the human nature suffers from is a strong desire to yearn from something less than God. We want less for ourselves than what God desires for us, and we fight for less, yearn for less, wake up for less, go to sleep for less, hope for less, and pray for less what God desires for us. So, there is longstanding conflict between the Creator and the creature in this regard, and therefore we find ourselves always wrestling with God, tugging with God, running away from God. Yet, the good news is that no matter the fact that we desire that which harms us or that which is below par for us, God never changes His desires for us. Inasmuch as we desire the least for ourselves, God will always want to share with us His best, and there is nothing we can do to make God desire less for us than what He knows we need.
In today’s first reading from Isaiah 2:1-5, what the prophet “saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in days to come” was that very thing. A day when it was not man who set himself up as king; a king only able to divide the people of God, but rather, a day when the “LORD’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say: “Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” Although man is in his weakened human nature is inclined towards division, hatred, and war, the prophet Isaiah saw the day of true peace, where men “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.” We do not have to imagine a day when the liturgical kiss of peace or the sign of peace will come; for it shall come on that day the prophet saw.
Moreover, it benefits us greatly to accept the fact that the number of days we still have in the flesh are very short and our personal judgement day can be upon after the next breath we take. For, if we were to accept the fact that death and judgement is coming upon us, as the Apostle Paul says in today’s second reading from Romans 13:11-14, we would “throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” and “conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” Similarly, in the Gospel reading from Matthew 24:37-44, our Lord Jesus recapitulated the events around the time of Noah, when the people thought time was on their side and did not heed the warnings. “So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come . . . So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Sonz of Man will come.”
I love that the readings for this Year A of the First Sunday of Advent are not shy at all in their intentions. Yes, the Christ Mass is coming. Baby Jesus is about to be born of the Virgin. Yes, prepare your gifts around the table. Enjoy your time around the table eating with family. But how would your life be different right now if the Christ Mass that was coming was one of judgement? What our Lord and the Apostle is saying is not harsh or radical or impossible at all once we consider the habits that the liturgy is forming in us and the work it is doing to elevate our human nature to a supernature in Him who was elevated on the Cross of Sacrifice and is elevated before us today on the altar of sacrifice.
Truly, the Holy Eucharist itself is an image of a dead thing becoming a living thing. Therefore, how much more can God do in us, what He has deigned to do to mere bread and wine? In this way, the liturgy is forming in us proper desires. Yes, we struggle to always desire the good of God. Yes, we want less for ourselves sometimes than what God wants for us. Yet, if we just pay attention to the liturgy, it is teaching us through its four movements (Rite of Penance, Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist, and Rite of Sending (Ite, Missa Est – the Concluding Rite), the only four holy desires that God wants us to have: 1) Contrition, Repentance, and Confession 2) Hearing and Responding to His Word; 3) Worthily Receiving our Daily Bread, and 4) Be Missionaries of Christ in the World.
This is not the space to deeply elaborate upon these four holy desires or the freedom we all have to organize various subcategories beneath them, but it suffices to ask for now, if these four holy desires given to us from the liturgy are the foundation of our life, what would God have hold against us? So, let us work on the fostering in our hearts this Advent the desires that the liturgy of the Church has tried to form in us all our Catholic life.
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the liturgy and how the liturgy is forming us how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the liturgy.
