Weekend Wisdom, 1st Sunday of Advent 2024
Happy December! Today we begin a new liturgical year and the holy season of Advent. The word Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, which means a ‘coming.’ In prayer and refection, we await the coming of Jesus… born of the Virgin Mary… in a stable in Bethlehem. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” What a gift! What a miracle! But first we wait… anticipating the birth of the newborn King on Christmas. Each of the four Sundays of Advent has a theme, and we begin this Advent season with the theme of hope, sometimes called the Prophecy Candle.
There is also a new beginning for our Sunday Gospel readings. This new liturgical year features the Gospel of Luke, one of my favorites! As you may know, St. Luke’s account of the life of Jesus and the early church was divided into two powerful books in the New Testament… Luke’s Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. If anyone ever asks me a good way to start reading the Bible, I usually recommend that they start by reading these two books written by St. Luke.
St. Luke was a Gentile (a non-Jew) from Antioch. He was a physician, a man of culture, and well-versed in the Greek language. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, he became a disciple of St. Paul and converted to Christianity around the year 40. It is estimated that St. Luke wrote his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles in the early 60’s A.D.
At the very beginning of his Gospel, Luke tells us… “I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus (means "beloved of God"), so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.” Although Luke was not an eyewitness to the life of Christ, he excelled at collecting the facts from those disciples who were.
In next Sunday’s Gospel, Luke is very specific about the exact time in history that John the Baptist began proclaiming a baptism of repentance. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea…”. The clear message is that the people he is writing about are real, and these events really happened at a specific time in history.
With each new liturgical year, we are called to grow in our faith and grow closer to Jesus, our Lord and Savior. As a suggestion, you could give yourself an early Christmas present by reading all 24 chapters of Luke’s Gospel. If you’d rather listen to Luke’s Gospel, search out "The Bible in a Year" podcast by Fr. Mike Schmitz. (Listen to days 313–321)
I pray that throughout this holy season of Advent, each of us will prepare our hearts and our homes for the coming of the Lord, who is called Emmanuel…God with us!!
May God bless you and your family!
Deacon Mark
