Read­ing Time: 2 minutes

Understanding advent

Ety­mo­lo­gic­ally, the term advent derives from the Lat­in advĕntum, ‘arrival’ and advenīre ‘to arrive.’ Hence, it is a peri­od or moment of expect­a­tion for some­thing moment­ous. In our con­text, that is, in the reli­gious or Chris­ti­an con­text, Advent is a pre-Christ­mas peri­od. It is the peri­od includ­ing the four Sundays before the feast of Christ­mas. In its ori­gin­al mean­ing, the word advent means arrival, com­ing of a thing, an event or of an import­ant per­son­al­ity. Major­ity of Chris­ti­an denom­in­a­tions observe these weeks as time of pray­er, abstin­ence and spir­itu­al renew­al in pre­par­a­tion for the feast of Christ­mas, the arrival of the Anoin­ted One of God – Jesus, the Christ (the Mes­si­ah, the Anoin­ted one of God).…

Why be Watchful?

In keep­ing to the law of cause and effect, we need to under­stand the reas­on for Jesus’ invit­a­tion to be watch­ful. The theme of this Sunday read­ing is a con­tinu­ation of the ini­tial theme of Mat­thew 24, which is presen­ted by Luke in 21:5–19. As I noted in that reflec­tion, “the con­tent of Luke 21:5–19 is also found in Mat­thew 24:1–25 and Mark 13:1–23.” Mat­thew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 are eschat­o­lo­gic­al nar­ra­tions. Con­tinu­ing his explan­a­tions con­cern­ing the end of time, and respond­ing to the dis­ciples’ inter­rog­a­tion “when will these things be” (Matt 24:3), Jesus respon­ded “but of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heav­en, nor the Son, but the Fath­er alone” (Matt 24:36). Yes, it is an exclus­ive know­ledge of the Fath­er. Explain­ing fur­ther on why people should not waste their time pre­dict­ing the end of time, Jesus con­tin­ues “for as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the com­ing of the Son of Man…. before the flood, they were eat­ing and drink­ing, mar­ry­ing and giv­ing in mar­riage…” (Matt 24:37–38). While pre­dict­ing is a sign of pass­ive­ness, watch­ful­ness is a sign of act­ive­ness. To avoid the sur­prise of the days of Noah, Jesus encour­ages his dis­ciples and every believ­er to stay awake because they do not know the day the Lord will come (cf. Mark 13:33.35; Matt 24:42). There­fore, the reas­on for the invit­a­tion to watch­ful­ness and alert­ness is to avoid being taken by sur­prise and to avoid ‘had I known.’ Again, the second reas­on is to avoid being deceived by false proph­ets. Unfor­tu­nately, many have failed to read the writ­ing on the wall.

Conclusion             

The Chris­ti­an advent is a peri­od of great expect­a­tion. Accord­ing to Isai­ah, it is a peri­od of divine con­sol­a­tion and encour­age­ment. Today, we have many reas­ons to thank God. How­ever, we also have many reas­ons to be con­soled and encour­aged, espe­cially in this coun­try called Niger­ia. The expect­a­tion to.…

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE: SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I and II)!! The reflec­tion for the 1^st Sunday of Advent, Year B is found on vols I and II pages 1–10 (vol. I) and 1–6 (vol. II). Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

 Email This Post