We begin the First Sunday of Advent, a time in which the Church invites us to wake up, to open our eyes and hearts to recognize that God continues to come, continues to be born, continues to bet on our life. We begin our journey for a “filial rebirth”.
This first Sunday, already in the last weeks of the Jubilee “Pilgrims of Hope”, reminds us precisely that hope is a decision: a way of situating ourselves in history and of looking at what we live from the certainty that salvation is near.
We welcome the Word
Brethren:
Behave yourselves recognizing the moment in which you live, for it is time to awaken from sleep, because now salvation is nearer to us than when we embrace the faith.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness and put on the weapons of light.
Let us walk as in the daytime, with dignity. Let us not eat and drink, let us not be lustful and wanton, let us not quarrel and envy. Let us rather put on the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 13:11-14)
St. Paul invites us to recognize the time we are living in. Not just any time, but one in which God continues to work, awakening us, bringing his salvation closer to our lives from the smallness of each day…..
Advent thus opens as a call to live in the light, to leave behind that which extinguishes life, and to “clothe” ourselves in the likeness of Jesus, in order to walk with dignity and hope.
Determination that illuminates our path
“Our lifestyle must clearly manifest that we are women of faith and hope, rooted in the certainty of God’s love. We long for a more eloquent consecrated life, that our words and gestures speak of God in a meaningful way, even in a world that seems indifferent or reluctant to listen to his message.” (Determination GC XIX n. 13)
These words of the Determination resonate especially on this first Sunday of Advent. Hope is not just a feeling: it is a way of life that is embodied and manifested in our choices, gestures, rhythms, in how we relate and how we look at reality.
Advent invites us to return to the essentials: to allow our life to be a humble but real sign of light in a world that needs simple and authentic witnesses.
Resonates in our lives
This first Sunday we invite you to stop, breathe, wake up… and take an honest look at what can be reborn in you.
What do you want to enhance so that your lifestyle speaks more about you as a person of faith and hope, rooted in the certainty of God's love?
May this Advent find us with awakened hearts, attentive to God’s steps and full of hope.
