Advent: A Preparation For Revolution

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the First Sunday of Advent

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, November 29, 2020

Today is the First Sunday of Advent and the beginning of a new liturgical year in the Church. The first reading taken from the book of Isaiah is the prophet’s prayer for restoration on behalf of his people, Israel. In 587 BC, the Babylonians invaded Israel, destroyed its capital city Jerusalem, brought down the Temple, and carried the brightest and the best Israelites into exile. The experience was like 9/11 multiplied by a thousand times for ancient Israel. After the remnant exiled returned to Israel 75 years later, Prophet Isaiah saw their return as a great victory for the King of Israel, Yahweh, for he, Yahweh, has proven himself stronger than the king of Babylon. But their joyful return to the land of their ancestors was short-lived, because upon their return, they found their Temple in ruins and their lands desolated and destroyed. Although they considered the destruction of Jerusalem as a political defeat, what profoundly agonized them the most was the demolition and pulling down of the Temple. For the Jews, the Temple was much more than a shrine to Yahweh, it was Yahweh’s home on earth with his people. With Yahweh’s dwelling place on earth destroyed, the Jews began to face their biggest theological dilemma ever— how could Yahweh the Lord, the Creator of the universe be defeated? With heart laden with sorrow and yet full of confidence in Yahweh, Isaiah calls out to God with questions: “Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?” After that, he pleaded with God to return to his people. 

Advent is the period of preparation for the coming and returning of the Lord to his people. One of the temptations we should strive to avoid is the tendency to reduce Advent to a cozy and sentimental season. In reality, Advent is a preparation for revolution. It is a revolution proclaimed by Isaiah, announced by John the Baptist, which reached its momentum in Christ Jesus. How did it happen? About 500 years after the Israelites returned from exile, there appeared in Judean desert a strange figure who dressed in animal skins, and ate locust and honey— John the Baptist. When people who came to listen to him asked him, “Who are you? (Jn. 1:22) John replied in the words of prophet Isaiah, “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord” (Jn. 1:23). Five centuries ago, Isaiah had said that a voice of one is calling in the wilderness and asking people to make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Is. 40:3). Now, John the Baptist is saying that he is that voice. Later John said, “I must decrease and he must increase.” Who was he pointing at? He was pointing at a young Galilean rabbi whose message was very simple and unambiguous: “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” With those declaration, Jesus is saying that in him, and in his own person, Yahweh is emerging definitively and victoriously as King. He has now come to rule the world and to supplant the kings of the world. To demonstrate that this is actually the reign of God, Jesus engaged in open table fellowship, invited the outsiders, the insiders, the healthy, the sick, the acceptable, the unacceptable. He also forgave sins. To the paralyzed man Jesus said, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” With those words he called from exile those who have been estranged by sin. In his own person and through his teaching about love, compassion, peace, non-violence, he exemplifies what it looks like for Yahweh to be King.

This is why Advent is a preparation for a revolution. Many of us, consciously and unconsciously fall and submit our allegiance to the kings of this world, and this submission has brought about hatred, violence, oppression, domination etc. But Mark and other gospels say that the true way is the way of the King of Israel, the way of Jesus, the Son of God, the crucified and risen Jesus. So, be alert in the spirit. Wake up from your spiritual slumber. Change and repent. Jesus’ opening declaration is “Repent for the Kingdom of God is close at hand.”Yes, a kingdom is at hand and a new King has emerged. Change and live under his lordship. This is the permanent and revolutionary message of Advent.