1’st Sunday of Advent Pointers

Advent means waiting, thus during this season of advent, we prepare for the coming of someone On this first Sunday of advent, I think it is very vital to ask ourselves these questions: “Who is coming?” Who do we await on Christmas?” If we observe and analyze people during this season, we will be surprised to discover that most of us are waiting for Christmas and not for Christ. Children are waiting for Santa Claus and for the gifts from their ninongs and ninangs. Employees and workers are eargerly waiting for their bonuses. Students are waiting for Christmas break. Teenagers wait for parties and Christmas gimmicks. Even the poor are not waiting for Christ; they wait for the Christmas goodies/dole-outs  some religious and civic organizations will give. Everybody waits for someone or something else except for Christ.

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People have become so materialistic in their relationship with God and men. Take this as an example: When someone returns home from abroad, many relatives would eagerly wait for his arrival but they do not really wait for the person but for what he brings. They wait not really for the balik-bayan but the balik-bayan box.

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It is Christ who is coming on Christmas. Christmas is the day of Christ. And so we must wait for Christ on Christmas and not for Santa Clause, not for the gifts, not for the Christmas gimmicks. We must wait for a poor and humble Christ and not the Christ formed according to our own fantasies and imaginations. This was precisely the fault if the Jewish people. They waited for the Messiah but one who was a product of their materialistic concept, replete with splendor, power and riches. The messiah came but they did not receive him.

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What if Christ comes to you on Christmas day in the form of a humble and poor person? Or in the form of sickness or calamity, or in the form of the death of a dear one? Will you still receive Christ on Christmas day?

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The Christmas gift that God gives us is sometimes painful, humiliating and difficult. Nevertheless it is Christ that we should await this Christmas.

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Unless we welcome Christ, the poor and humble messiah, into our lives this Christmas, then December 25, 2016 will just be another date in the calendar. As the season of advent begins, let us start to de-program our lives and make this Christmas the most meaningful Christmas in our lives. Never let this be another missed opportunity.

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