1st Sunday of Advent, Year A (2025)
1st Sunday of Advent, Year A
Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:37-44
November 30, 2025
The birth of Jesus Christ began something new, our salvation. It was his first coming. Recognizing the new beginning brought in Jesus’ birth, today we begin a new year in the church. Today we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent.
Today’s readings invite us to think about the Second Coming of Jesus and to ask ourselves if we are ready. When the flood came in the days of Noah, no one expected it. “So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man…one will be taken, and one will be left.”
We do not know when the Second Coming will happen. So, now is the hour “for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” We do not know when Jesus will come but we know the day is closer. It could be today. It could be 1,000 years.
The best thing we can do is get ready now. Then, it does not matter when the Second Coming happens.
One could be afraid of the Second Coming but if we get ready now, we have nothing to fear. If we are ready, we can actually look forward with joy to the Second Coming.
So, to get ourselves ready, we need to heed Paul’s words and “conduct ourselves properly.”
This means we need to avoid drunkenness, promiscuity, lust, rivalry, and jealousy. We need to keep God’s commandments and to avoid the seven deadly sins.
It is not easy. Our first reading today from Isaiah was written over 600 years before the birth of Jesus. Yet, what was foretold had not happened by the time of Jesus. It has not all happened even today.
Isaiah foretold that “the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest mountain…and all nations shall stream towards it.” Jesus came to establish a new covenant. The new covenant is open to every nation that streams towards it. Yet, for many, the Lord’s house is still not the highest mountain. The Lord is not the center of many people’s lives.
All are invited to come “to the house the God of Jacob that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” Unfortunately, many have not listened to God’s Word. How well do you listen at Mass? When we embrace God’s Word at Mass, when Mass ends, we go out to the world, glorifying our Lord by the way we live our lives. Do you put what you hear from God’s Word at Mass into action in your life?
The day will come when “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.”
This day has not come. Instead of getting rid of swords, we have built more powerful weapons. We went from fighting with swords to bows and arrows to have weapons that could be used at a short distance. We increased the distance by developing guns. Now, we have missiles and intercontinental missiles that distance us from the horrors of war but they do not end the horrors of the destruction war brings.
We have developed weapons of mass destruction. One would hope that knowing the destruction these weapons would lead us to avoid war and work for peace. Instead, the fear of these weapons puts us in an arms race to make sure we have the most powerful and advanced weapons there are.
War does not bring true and lasting peace and neither does the fear of war. It might pause present attacks but the only thing that brings the true and lasting peace is to make Jesus Christ the center point of our lives.
Here, I think of the words found in today’s collect at the beginning of Mass, “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 be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom.”
If you want peace, then give your heart to Christ.
Peace,
Fr. Jeff