Read­ing Time: 3 minutes

Introduction  

Dear cher­ished read­er! Wel­come to the new litur­gic­al year! This is the first Sunday in the Church’s new litur­gic­al year. Accord­ing to the Cath­ol­ic Church’s sys­tem of com­put­ing, this is Year III or Year C. This is also the First Sunday of Advent and the first Sunday in the month of Decem­ber. We thank God for guid­ing and bless­ing us dur­ing the last month. Always be grate­ful to God and to those who wish you well. On this note, I wish to thank you for fol­low­ing me through­out last year and for read­ing my posts on https://www.uchennabiblia.com. Thanks and God bless you. This is the month of spe­cial joy because it marks the birth of Jesus, the Christ, the saviour of man­kind. It is a month char­ac­ter­ized by series of joy­ful activ­it­ies to cel­eb­rate the nativ­ity of Jesus. The Lord is really good! Once more, wel­come to the new litur­gic­al year and to the month of Decem­ber! Jesus dis­closes everything about.…

Why be Watchful?

An Igbo adage has it that nkwụcha abughị ụjọ (care­ful­ness does not imply fear­ful­ness). 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 in Luke 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 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. Matt 24:42).

Conclusion – Standing with confidence

As a con­clu­sion of his admon­i­tion, Jesus advised the dis­ciples to “be alert at all times, pray­ing that you may have the strength to sur­vive all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36). Which things is Jesus refer­ring to? Cer­tainly, Jesus is allud­ing to everything recor­ded in Luke 19:28–21:38. It is a long sec­tion which ends with Jesus’ warn­ing and call to watch­ful­ness (cf. Luke 21:34–36) and a con­clu­sion (cf. Luke 21:37–38). Chris­ti­ans should be alert, seek­ing the face of God always so as to be able to escape and sur­vive the events of the eschat­on. They should be right­eous, just and avoid sin. To be in sin is to be pass­ive in rela­tion to God. It is spir­itu­al care­less­ness and slum­ber. Con­versely, to be in the state of grace is to be act­ive, alert, watch­ful, care­ful and awake. To watch one­self and being awake mean being spir­itu­ally pre­pared and faith­ful­ness (cf. Luke 12:35–48; 1Thess 5:2–4).

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE: SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 1^st Sunday of Advent © is found in vol. III pages 02–11. 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.

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