by Msgr. Joseph P. Calise
Most people can remember at least one teacher who had a profound effect on their life. Teaching is a noble and honorable profession because teachers shape the minds of the future and prepare students for the responsibilities they will have later in life. Its success, of course, also depends on the openness its students display towards the process of learning. The purpose of exams is to measure the success of the learning process.
However, young minds often cram the evening before to pass a test and forget what they “learned” as soon as the exam is complete. Into this scenario comes the surprise quiz. In my years as a teacher, I used them regularly. I would explain on the first day of class that there would be occasional surprise quizzes to help me understand what the students were actually retaining.
The announcement of one of these quizzes was usually greeted with various grunts and groans. Now, since the use of surprise quizzes was announced on the first day of class, the occasion should not really have been much of a surprise. They knew what would happen — just not when. And there we have the spirit of today’s Gospel.
On this First Sunday of Advent, the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah is predictable. We expect to hear about the fulfillment of the promise made to the Jewish people that the Lord would “fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah … I will raise up for David a just shoot.”
We are preparing, after all, to celebrate Christmas, the fulfillment of that promise. But the Gospel takes us in a new direction. Of all the Gospel writers, Luke gives us the most traditional Christmas scene. Although both he and Saint Matthew offer a genealogy and recount the scene at the crib, only St. Luke writes about the annunciation, visitation, and presentation. He alone talks about the promise of the birth of John the Baptist. With all the beautiful scenes at the opening of Luke’s Gospel, it may seem odd that the church uses this section from the 21st chapter to open Advent.
In St. Luke’s Gospel, the words we hear today are followed immediately by Judas’ going off to arrange his betrayal and the start of the events that would precede the crucifixion. But this makes Advent real for us. The fulfillment of the promise to the
Jewish people brought with it another promise to all people — the promise not that a Messiah would come but that He would return one day in glory.
We do not celebrate Christmas simply because a baby was born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago but because that Baby grew up to teach the gift of the Father’s salvation to all who would hear it, to suffer and die on a cross, and to rise again after three days. Ascending into heaven, He promised to return, a return for which we wait as the Jews waited for the first coming.
Therein lies the challenge. We know it is going to happen, but not when. So, like students warned of surprise quizzes, although with much more important stakes, it is our responsibility to be always prepared.
Readings for First Sunday of Advent
Jer 33:14-16
1 Thes 3:12—4:2
Lk 21:25-28, 34-36
Msgr. Calise is pastor of Transfiguration-St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, Maspeth.
