PRIMER DOMINGO DE ADVIENTO 2025

Hermanos y hermanas, al comenzar este tiempo de Adviento, permítanme hacerles algunas preguntas: ¿Pueden imaginarse cuánto ha costado la guerra entre Rusia y Ucrania, e Israel y  Gaza? ¿Se han hecho una idea del presupuesto total de todos los ejércitos del mundo? ¿Creen que una nación obtendría más beneficios invirtiendo en guerras o en la salud y la educación de su pueblo? ¿Creen que algún día habrá verdadera paz en este mundo? ¿Creen que es sensato fabricar bombas nucleares capaces de destruir nuestro planeta?

Cambiemos de tema. ¿Decoran ustedes sus casas para Navidad? ¿Saben por qué lo hacen?  ¿Son conscientes de que sería mejor preparar su corazón, en lugar de solo su casa, para dar la bienvenida a Jesucristo? ¿Saben lo que representa la corona de Adviento? ¿Por qué tenemos cuatro velas?

La corona de Adviento hace referencia a Jesucristo. Es un círculo, una figura que no tiene ni principio ni fin. Es una figura geométrica perfecta. Es verde, el color de la esperanza. Simboliza nuestra esperanza en Jesucristo. Tenemos cuatro velas que corresponden a los cuatro domingos de adviento. Tres de ellas son moradas, que es el color que usamos en la Iglesia católica para la Cuaresma, el Adviento y los difuntos, y una es rosa, que representa la alegría. El morado es un color penitencial, pero en Adviento simboliza la expectativa por la segunda venida de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo.

Durante el Adviento, en la Iglesia celebramos un acontecimiento muy importante de nuestra historia de salvación y, al mismo tiempo, nos preparamos para otro gran acontecimiento futuro que nos mantiene en vilo. El primero es la conmemoración del nacimiento de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo y el segundo es la preparación para su Segunda Venida. Por lo tanto, celebramos la alegría de Aquel que ya se ha hecho presente en este mundo y, al mismo tiempo, la expectativa de Aquel que vendrá a salvarnos definitivamente.

El Adviento es, por lo tanto, un tiempo especial para preparar nuestros hogares y nuestras vidas para recibir al Señor en nuestros corazones. Durante este tiempo, es habitual que la gente decore sus hogares para Navidad. Les invito, queridos hermanos y hermanas, a que antes de centrarse en decorar su hogar, intenten arreglar sus corazones, sus vidas, sus familias, sus relaciones con los demás y con Dios. El Adviento debe ser para nosotros un tiempo de esperanza y fe, un tiempo para elevar nuestros corazones y, como dice el apóstol Pablo, para revestirnos de Cristo y evitar así las obras del mal y vivir en la luz que nos trajo el Salvador.

El Adviento es un tiempo para recordar, como nos dice Jesús en el Evangelio de este domingo, que no sabemos cuándo será su segunda venida y que, por lo tanto, debemos estar preparados para su llegada, que puede producirse en cualquier momento. Es un tiempo para soñar, a la luz de la fe, con un mundo mejor, como profetizó el profeta Isaías: un mundo en el que las naciones no se prepararán para la guerra y en el que todas las armas se transformarán en instrumentos de vida y paz. Soñemos en este Adviento con un mundo mejor, donde todas las naciones tengan lo necesario para que todos sus habitantes puedan vivir con dignidad; un mundo donde todos vivamos como hermanos y hermanas y nadie sea rechazado por su origen, su condición social o el color de su piel. Un mundo en el que nadie tenga que emigrar por miedo a la violencia o a la falta de trabajo a otros países donde pueda ser perseguido y maltratado por su condición de indocumentado. Un mundo donde la paz no sea una ilusión, sino una realidad. Un mundo sostenible, reconciliado con el medio ambiente, en el que, por fin, no necesitemos aviones de guerra, ejércitos ni armas nucleares para defender nuestros países.

Pidamos al Señor, al comenzar este tiempo de Adviento, que dispongamos nuestros corazones para revestirnos de las obras de Cristo, cambiando el mal por el bien, los chismes por la oración, la discriminación por la tolerancia, el odio por el amor, la infidelidad por la fidelidad y la incredulidad por la fe. Amén.

P. Luis Segura M.S.C.

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FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2025

Brothers and sisters, as we begin this Advent season, let me ask you a few questions: Can you imagine how much the war between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Gaza, has cost? Have you considered the total budget of all the world's militaries? Do you think a nation would gain more by investing in wars or in the health and education of its people? Do you believe that true peace will ever exist in this world? Do you think it is wise to manufacture nuclear bombs capable of destroying our planet?

Let's change the subject. Do you decorate your homes for Christmas? Do you know why you do it? Are you aware that it would be better to prepare your heart, rather than just your house, to welcome Jesus Christ? Do you know what the Advent wreath represents? Why do we have four candles?

The Advent wreath represents Jesus Christ. It is a circle, a figure without beginning or end. It is a perfect geometric shape. It is green, the color of hope. It symbolizes our hope in Jesus Christ. We have four candles, corresponding to the four Sundays of Advent. Three of them are purple, the color used in the Catholic Church for Lent, Advent, and All Souls' Day, and one is pink, representing joy. Purple is a penitential color, but in Advent it symbolizes our expectation of the second coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

During Advent, the Church celebrates a very important event in our history of salvation and, at the same time, prepares for another great future event that keeps us in suspense. The first is the commemoration of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the second is the preparation for His Second Coming. Therefore, we celebrate the joy of Him who has already made Himself present in this world and, at the same time, the expectation of Him who will come to save us definitively.

Advent is, therefore, a special time to prepare our homes and our lives to receive the Lord into our hearts. During this time, it is customary for people to decorate their homes for Christmas. I invite you, dear brothers and sisters, to try, before focusing on decorating your homes, to mend your hearts, your lives, your families, your relationships with others and with God. Advent should be for us a time of hope and faith, a time to lift up our hearts and, as the Apostle Paul says, to clothe ourselves with Christ and thus avoid the works of evil and live in the light that the Savior brought us.

Advent is a time to remember, as Jesus tells us in this Sunday's Gospel, that we do not know when his second coming will be and that, therefore, we must be prepared for his arrival, which could happen at any moment. It is a time to dream, in the light of faith, of a better world, as the prophet Isaiah prophesied: a world in which nations will not prepare for war and in which all weapons will be transformed into instruments of life and peace. Let us dream this Advent of a better world, where all nations have what is necessary so that all their inhabitants can live with dignity; a world where we all live as brothers and sisters and no one is rejected because of their origin, their social status, or the color of their skin. A world in which no one has to emigrate for fear of violence or lack of work to other countries where they may be persecuted and mistreated because of their undocumented status. A world where peace is not an illusion, but a reality. A sustainable world, reconciled with the environment, in which, at last, we do not need warplanes, armies or nuclear weapons to defend our countries.

As we begin this Advent season, let us ask the Lord to prepare our hearts to be clothed in the works of Christ, replacing evil with good, gossip with prayer, discrimination with tolerance, hatred with love, infidelity with fidelity, and unbelief with faith. Amen.

Fr. Luis Segura, M.S.C.

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The Lord Visits Us…

In the Gospel of today’s Liturgy we hear a beautiful promise that introduces us to the Season of Advent: “Your Lord is coming” (cf. Mt 24:42). This is the foundation of our hope. It is what supports us even in the most difficult and painful moments of our life: God is coming, God is near and is coming. Let us never forget this! The Lord always comes, the Lord visits us, the Lord draws near, and will return at the end of time to welcome us in his embrace. Before this word, we ask ourselves: How will the Lord come? And how will we recognize him and welcome him? Let us dwell briefly on these two questions.

The first question: how will the Lord come ? Very often we hear it said that the Lord is present on our journey, that he accompanies us and speaks to us. But perhaps, distracted as we are by many things, this truth remains merely theoretical for us. Yes, we know that the Lord is coming but we do not live according to this truth, or we imagine that the Lord will come in a spectacular way, perhaps through some miraculous sign. And instead, Jesus says that it will take place as in “the days of Noah” (cf. v. 37). And what did they do in the days of Noah? Just the normal, everyday things of life, as always: “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” (v. 38). Let us bear this in mind: God is hidden in our life, he is always there — he is concealed in the most common and most ordinary situations in our life. He does not come in extraordinary events, but in everyday things. He manifests himself in everyday things. He is there, in our daily work, in a chance encounter, in the face of someone in need, even when we face days that seem grey and monotonous. It is right there that we find the Lord, who calls to us, speaks to us and inspires our actions.

However, there is a second question: how can we recognize and welcome the Lord? We must be awake, alert, vigilant. Jesus warns us: there is the danger we may not notice his coming and may be unprepared for his visit. I have recalled on other occasions what Saint Augustine said: “I fear the Lord who passes by” (Sermons, 88, 14.13), that is, I fear that he will pass by and I will not recognize him! Indeed, Jesus says that those people in the time of Noah ate and drank “and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away” (Mt 24:39). Let us pay attention to this: they did not realize anything! They were absorbed in their own things and did not realize that the flood was about to come. Indeed, Jesus says that, when he will come, “two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left” (v. 40). In what sense? What is the difference? Simply that one was vigilant, he was waiting, capable of discerning God’s presence in daily life, whereas the other was distracted, lived day to day, and did not notice anything.

Brothers and sisters, in this Season of Advent, let us be shaken out of our torpor and let us awaken from our slumber! Let us try to ask ourselves: am I aware of what I am living, am I alert, am I awake? Do I try to recognize God’s presence in daily situations, or am I distracted and a little overwhelmed by things? If we are unaware of his coming today, we will also be unprepared when he arrives at the end of time. Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us remain vigilant! Waiting for the Lord to come, waiting for the Lord to draw near to us, because he is there, but waiting alert.

And may the Holy Virgin, Woman of waiting, who knew how to perceive the passing of God in the humble and hidden life of Nazareth and welcomed him in her womb, help us in this journey of being attentive to wait for the Lord who is among us and passes by. [Synthesized from Pope Francis, Angelus, 27 XI 2025]

Rev. Jos Rajesh Peter M.S.C.

1st Sunday of Advent – 2026 – Cycle A

So, my friends, here we are, beginning another new Liturgical Year in our Church with the Season of Advent.  Our Scripture Readings at Mass are in a 3-year cycle and we have moved from Cycle C to Cycle A.  Our Gospel Readings this year are primarily from the Gospel according to Matthew.

Advent – a season of waiting; a season of hope; a season of preparation; a season of new beginnings.  We begin our Advent preparation today – not by putting up Christmas decorations but by celebrating Holy Mass, listening to the Word of God and receiving the Body of Christ in the Eucharist.

It’s interesting that today we celebrate a new beginning and the Church has chosen a gospel about the end – our end.  Jesus tells us “to stay awake, for you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”  Ergo, we must always be prepared.

In our Second Reading, St. Paul also urges us to be prepared:

“Brothers and sisters: You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand.”

And, of course, the way to be prepared is to live as Jesus taught us as well as living as Jesus lived, by loving God and loving and serving one another.

Another form of preparation in this season of Advent is to prepare for the coming of Jesus into our lives in a new way.  That might seem redundant.  Didn't we do that last year and the year before and the year before that ?  Well, it’s not redundant because we're not the same person as we were last year.  No one is. Our understanding of the Kingdom of God is different.  Our world view is different.  We can see the plight of the poor, the sick, the elderly, the foreigner, the immigrant.

As mentioned earlier, Advent is a Season of new beginnings, a season of Hope.  And, there's probably no better way to express Hope than in the words of our First Reading from the Prophet Isaiah:  

"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."

Wouldn't that be wonderful ?  Can you imagine? Peace in Africa; peace in the Middle East; peace in Asia, peace in Europe; peace in the Americas; peace in our country; peace in our city; peace in our neighborhoods, peace in our families……

Impossible ? No.      Difficult ?  Definitely !

One of the names for Jesus, especially during this time of the year is “Prince of Peace.”  On Christmas, we will hear the words of Isaiah:  "For a child is born to us.  They will name him Prince of Peace." 

Many ask: “Why don’t we have peace?  Why doesn’t God do something to bring Peace?”  He did.  He sent Jesus. 

My friends, Jesus didn’t come to teach us how to be Divine.  He came to teach us how to be human.  Jesus even condensed his teaching into a simple commandment:  "Love one another."  Peace is as simple as that.  But there’s a catch:  Peace has to begin with me.  As in the Peace Prayer of St. Francis:  “Let there be peace on earth – and let it begin with me….”