Advent 1st Sunday C: Dec 1st - Liturgy
Greeting (See Second Reading)
May the Lord so confirm your hearts in holiness that you may
be blameless in the sight of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus Christ
comes. May the Lord be always with you. R/ And also with you.
Introduction by the Celebrant
- Waiting
in Tension
“Stand erect, hold your heads high.” This is the message the
Lord speaks to us on this First Sunday of Advent. There are terrible civil
wars, there is famine in many parts of the world, and there are millions of
refugees seeking safety. Yet our Lord assures us that we should keep up our
hope and expectations, for he is still with us and near to us. Be attentive to
his presence, not only here in the Eucharist but also in every day's life.
Watchful, but not
Afraid
Much of the world is in the darkness of hunger, suffering,
and violence, yet if we are God’s people, we keep up the indestructible hope
that truth, goodness, and justice will prevail. For we believe that Christ our
Lord has come and is alive among us. We struggle, and we know the road is
rough, but the Lord goes with us, and he tells us: Come with me, serve with me,
love with me, give and share yourself with me, and you will be better, and the
Church and the world will be better.
Penitential Act
We have been busy with our own affairs and have forgotten
those of the Lord and the needs of people. Let us ask the Lord to forgive us.
(pause)
Lord Jesus, make us recognize that you are near in the
people who are hungry and needy. Liberate us with your love. Lord, have
mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, make us discover you in those who search for
peace for themselves and for their country. Bring them your lasting peace. Christ,
have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, reveal yourself to us in those who grope in
their night of suffering. Let your light shine on them and on us: Lord, have
mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Be near to us with your forgiveness, Lord, and keep us
attentive to your constant coming. Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray in this season of hope that the Lord may keep us
vigilant (pause)
Lord our God, we are your people on the march who try to give
shape to your kingdom of love and peace. When we are discouraged and afraid, keep
us going forward in hope. Make us vigilant in prayer, that we may see the signs
of your Son’s coming. Let Jesus walk with us already now on the road he has
shown us, that he may lead us to you, our living God forever and ever. R/
Amen.
First Reading: Keep Hope Alive
To a discouraged people, the prophet announces: Take
courage! A Savior will come from the house of David. With him honesty and
integrity will make a new beginning.
Reading 1: JER 33:14-16
Second Reading: Prepare for the Lord’s Coming
Jesus came to make us new. By growing in love and living
our faith more deeply, we hasten his coming in our world.
Reading 2: 1 THES 3:12—4:2
Gospel: Your Liberation Is Near!
Even in times of danger, Christians keep hoping in the
future. By a life of love, prayer and vigilance they prepare to meet the Lord.
Intercessions
In his love, our Father in heaven sent his Son into the
world to fulfill all our hopes and to give us an eternal future. Let us pray to
him:
R/ Lord, you are all our hope.
– For the community of the Church, that we may
make the gospel credible by our commitment to justice and love, let us pray:
R/ Lord, you are all our
hope.
– For people without hope or courage, for those
suffering from hunger and wars, that we may revive their hopes by building a
better world with them, let us pray:
R/ Lord, you are all our
hope.
– For Christians everywhere, that they may not
be ashamed of the gospel but speak its message of hope in the language of their
own lives, let us pray:
R/ Lord, you are all our
hope.
– For all of us here, that we may not be
self-satisfied but that we may remain vigilant to let God renew us in Christ
and to make us live for others, let us pray:
R/ Lord, you are all our
hope.
Lord our God, you love us and so you expect us to make your
goodness and justice visible to all. Let your Son stay with us, that your and
our expectations may come true, now and for ever. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God, as a pledge of your promises you give us your
Son Jesus Christ in these signs of bread and wine. We do not ask you for a life
without problems and risks, but for your Son’s vision of a world in which you
are present and for your Son’s courage to answer with our own lives your call
to build up a new world, in which your Son can be our Lord now and for
ever. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
Already in this Eucharist Jesus will be close to us. Every
Mass is a sign of hope that God is with us in our world. Let us give thanks to
the Father for this.
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
Let us pray in the words of Jesus to the Father of all that
we may do his will and give shape to his kingdom: R/ Our Father...
Deliver Us
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil. Wake us up from our
sluggishness and help us to hasten the coming of your Son among people, that we
may live in a world of justice without division and fear, as we prepare with
joyful hope for the coming in glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. R/
For the kingdom…
Invitation to Communion
Lift up your head, for this is Jesus, our Savior and our
Lord. Happy are we if he finds us awake as we wait for his coming. Happy are we
that he invites us to his table. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God, merciful Father, you have spoken to us your
word of hope and renewed our strength with the bread of life of your Son. Free
our faith from banality and routine and send us out with your Son to restore
integrity and love and the trust that with him we can give shape to a future beyond
all human expectations, for the future belongs to you, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit one God for ever and ever. R/ Amen.
Blessing
Keep your heads high in hope was the message of today. Keep
hoping when there are wars and violence, keep hoping when there is much
injustice, Keep hoping when there is much hatred, keep hoping, for there is a
future. Christ is with you, and with him you can do away with violence and
wars, you can defeat enmity with friendship. Yes, hold your heads high, for the
Lord Jesus is among us and with him there is hope and a future. Let us go with
him and may almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. R/ Amen.
Go in the peace and hope of Christ. R/ Thanks be to
God.
***
Commentary
Vigilant in Prayer
One who is in love knows that the person loved always comes
back in thoughts, dreams, fantasies, and conversations. To believe in Christ
means to fall in love with him. He does not abandon us. In the year “C,”
evangelist Luke highlights Jesus’ tenderness toward the least, the
marginalized, the excluded and the sinners.
Today is the First Sunday of the season of Advent. The word
Advent referred to the visit of a king to a city or the day of the king’s
coronation. The Christians adopted this practice to indicate the period of
preparation for the visit of God who manifested himself in Jesus.
It might be our experience that we expect a friend’s visit
and wait for his arrival in the wrong bus station or terminal or we miss the
time of the appointment and are not able to meet him.
It also happens with God. He has already come many times in
human history. He showed the place where he can be met, but perhaps we have not
understood well because we end up waiting for him where he does not come.
Advent is a time that helps us prepare well to receive the Lord into our lives.
Today’s Gospel gives us some dramatic expressions of
something that would occur. We could easily mistake it for some predictions
that Jesus is giving in advance about what will happen at the end of the world.
But that is not the meaning of the text. The apocalyptic images used by Jesus
does not refer to explosions of stars, to catastrophic collisions of stars and
planets. They speak of what is happening today. It becomes impossible to live
in our world. People commit abuses and injustices; hate reigns; there is
violence, war, inhumane conditions. Nature herself is destroyed by the
exploitation of resources.
Jesus does not intend to provoke fear, but to get just the
opposite. He wants to free us from fear, inspire joy, and infuse hope. Today’s
Gospel invites everyone “to lift the head.” There’s no chaos from which God
cannot obtain a new and wonderful world.
How to stay awake, alert, and ready to seize the moment and
the place where the Lord is? It is very easy to get confused, deceived, waiting
for him where he is not – that is: in our bad habits, our attachment to the
goods and positions of this world.
There is only one way to stay vigilant: to pray (v. 36). Prayer—Jesus says—will have two effects: it will give us the strength to see all the events in life with God’s eyes and it will ensure that we are not caught by fear. Prayer will make us ready to welcome him and go with him to the extent where he wants to lead us.
