Most of us live by some sort of time schedule. We check our calendars, our clocks and watches, and even our cellphones to make sure we are where we are supposed to be. My sister has I think every moment of her life on her I-phone calendar. Granted she needs to do a lot of that for her work, but I’m just not that organized! Nevertheless however we keep track of it, most of us follow some sort of schedule in our lives, even if we are retired.
    Today we begin this wonderful season of Advent in our church. Not only is it the beginning of a whole new Liturgical Calendar Year, it is the start of a season that is characterized by time as well: times past, time in the present age, and time in the future yet to come.    Of course Advent is the season of the year that more than ever moves on time: the four weeks prior to Christmas which recalls the generations and centuries that the people of the Old Testament waited and longed for the coming Savior; we have but four weeks to await Christmas; yet this time also points to the second coming at the end of time.
    Today’s first reading from Isaiah the Prophet focuses on the days to come when men will establish peace on earth – when they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Isaiah looks forward to a time of peace.
    Paul begins the second reading from the Letter to the Romans by saying: You know the time; it is the hour for us to wake from our complacency and to be alert because our salvation is close at hand.
    And in the Gospel reading Jesus reminds us that we do not know the time nor the hour when the Son of Man will choose to come into our life and bring us the fullness of salvation. And so we need to be vigilant, watchful, ever alert to the time we are in. For God comes to us when we least expect Him and when we are least prepared.
    So may these days of Advent heighten your expectation and longing; and may the Lord come to each of us in the ways that we need Him the most.