HOMILIES

Dear Audience,
For better understanding of the spiritual message behind this homily I kindly remind you to first read and contemplate the biblical texts before reading or listening to my preaching - a human reflection on the Word of God!

First Sunday of Advent (Year A)

Nov 30, 2025

570

Listen Read

First Reading

A reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (2:1-5)

This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come, the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills. All nations shall stream toward it; many peoples shall come and say: "Come, let us climb the Lord's mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths." For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

(P) The word of the Lord.
(R) Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalms of David (122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5)

(R) Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

I rejoiced because they said to me, "We will go up to the house of the Lord." And now we have set foot within your gates, O Jerusalem. (R)

Jerusalem, built as a city with compact unity. To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord. (R)

According to the decree for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. In it are set up judgment seats, seats for the house of David. (R)

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May those who love you prosper! May peace be within your walls, prosperity in your buildings. (R)

Because of my relatives and friends I will say, "Peace be within you!" Because of the house of the Lord, our God. I will pray for your good. (R)

Second Reading

A reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans (13:11-14)

Brothers and sisters: You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

(P) The word of the Lord.
(R) Thanks be to God.

Gospel

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (24:37-44)

Jesus said to his disciples: "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

(P) The Gospel of the Lord.
(R) Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily

There is a story about a small town along the banks of a river in the state of Maine in the USA that was proposed for the construction of a hydro-electric plant in the 1950s. The plan called for a dam to be built across the river and the town to be submerged beneath the water. After much discussion the plan finally went into effect and the inhabitants were given ample time to find other places to live. However, no sooner the government announced the decision, an unusual thing began to happen. The people stopped all the repairs and improvement works of the roads, houses, and buildings in the whole town. So, with each passing day, the entire town was quickly falling apart and looking aged and worn.

Long before the dam was built and the waters came, the town that was once an active community seemed empty, abandoned, and neglected as if it were a little ghost town, even though the people had not yet moved away. Explaining the situation, an elder in the town said, "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present." The town was covered by a cloud of hopelessness because it had no future.

The ancient Israelites also had faced a similar situation about seven hundred years before Christ when their life was marked by feelings of abandonment, despair, disorientation, and hopelessness. What were the reasons for such a situation? The Kingdom of Israel which was under the kings of Saul, David, and Solomon for about 120 years split into two kingdoms after the death of Solomon - Israel in the North with ten tribes and Judah in the South with two tribes. But soon after its establishment, the kingdom of Israel fell into widespread political division and unrest, idolatry, complacency, immorality, corruption, social injustice, religious hypocrisy, and abuse of power which eventually led to its a tragic downfall.

After two hundred years of existence as a nation, the ten tribes of Israel were conquered by the Assyrians and were taken into captivity. The exile occurred because they repeatedly failed to follow God's law. But Judah survived the Assyrian invasion and continued for another 130 years as an independent nation. That's because unlike the northern kingdom which never once had a righteous king, Judah at least had a few good kings who led the people to follow God, worship Him, and turn away from sin. God in turn faithfully preserved them and the city of Jerusalem from the Assyrians. He preserved them in part because of His promise to David that through his offspring He would establish a lasting kingdom. This is a reference to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who was called "the Son of David", Matthew (21:9). Yet, eventually, those in Judah too, chose the path of evil over good, just like Israel to the north.

They should have learned from the sins of the ten tribes and their subsequent punishment. Instead, they turned their backs on God. They disregarded every law God had given, desecrated their land with evil practices, and redirected their worship to foreign gods and idols. When they were surrounded by enemies, they turned to neighbouring nations, such as Egypt and Babylon, for provision and protection, instead of relying on God. They put their trust in their own wisdom, strength, wealth, and abilities. In doing so, they trusted in everything and everyone but God. In the midst of these events, Isaiah appeared and confronted the people of Judah regarding their disobedience and rebellion against God. He warned them that they would be punished just like Israel, including potential conquest and exile, if they continued doing wicked things, Isaiah (1:10-17). However, along with warnings of judgement and destruction, Isaiah also offered a message of hope. He envisioned the day when the Israelites would have a different kind of life in Jerusalem, what the New Testament would later be called "the Kingdom of God." We read a part of his vision in today's first reading, Isaiah (2:1-5).

The prophet declared that a time would come when, "the mountain of the house of the Lord" that is, the temple mount in Jerusalem, known also as Zion, where the God of Israel was worshipped, would become the most important of all the mountains on the earth because people from all over the world, including non-Jews, would come there to learn of God's ways and walk in His paths. In fact, God Himself would impart to the people His "law" and His "Word" so that they would learn His ways to become like Him. Further the prophet said that on that day, God would set all things right. He would resolve the disputes between nations and remove all obstacles so that there would be everlasting peace.

They would have no further need of swords and spears because they would transform instruments of death, that is, "swords and spears", into instruments of life, that is, "ploughshares and knives used for pruning vines." In this light of this future hope, Isaiah turned to the people of Judah and called them to walk in the light of the Lord. We believe that this prophecy referred not to the physical things, but rather about the future "messianic reign" or "spiritual and glorious Kingdom of God" which was inaugurated with the coming of Christ over two thousand years ago and continues until the second coming of the Christ in glory at the end of time.

What is the message for us?

Isaiah's message was a great comfort to the Israelites as they constantly faced threats of invasion and subjugation by their foreign enemies, wavered between godly and ungodly living, and experienced isolation, oppression, humiliation, anxiety, fear, bitterness, anger, helplessness, and apparent abandonment by God. Like the Israelites, even today millions of people are consigned to a life of exile in a foreign land because of conflicts, violence, natural disasters, political and religious persecution and endure years of insecurity, abuse, hardship, trauma, and loss. Let us keep all the people around the world who currently live in physical exile from their homeland and do what we can to help, take away their pain, and make things better for them.

We may not be exiled to distant lands or forcibly removed from our homes and yet we too may often find ourselves in exile. We are confronted with physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual alienation, estrangement, or disconnection from our family members, friends, community, and God. We are surrounded by fear, insecurity, violence, threats, and disasters of every type. We are trapped by feelings of despair, hopelessness and abandonment when we move to a new place, or when life changes unexpectedly, or when we face economic hardship and financial distress, or when we experience mental and health problems, or when we are unable to fix broken relationships, or when certainties are stripped away, or when we are facing an unknown future, or when we are overwhelmed by our own doing, including sin, or when we don't see the answers to our prayers, or when our season of waiting seems unending.

But today's passage from Isaiah reminds us that no matter what form of exile we are in, it won't last forever. One day, it will all be fixed. In the meantime, we need to follow the words of Isaiah, "let us walk in the light of the Lord." In other words, while we can confidently expect that God will deliver us from all these things and our troubles and our difficulties, we must live in honesty, purity, and obedience, leaving behind the darkness of sin.

Echoing the words of Isaiah, St. Paul in his letter to the Romans (13:11-14) today reminds us that "our salvation is nearer than when we first believed" and therefore, we must "cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light... and the Lord Jesus." In other words, while we await God's deliverance and the coming of His Kingdom, we must avoid evil behaviour, such as drunken revelries, promiscuous debauchery, and jealous brawling and instead, we must reflect fully and clearly the Lord Jesus and put our hope in Him and what He has promised us.

As we begin the season of Advent, we have lit the first candle, traditionally called the Candle of Hope as a reminder to us that God's promises are true. Therefore, when we are living in exile, when we are going through a hard time, when we are faced with an impossible situation that causes us to feel confused or hopeless, let us not lose hope. Instead, let us cling to hope during times of discouragement and live with confidence, for "this too shall pass". Until the coming of the appointed time or the time of fulfilment, let us pray to God each day and worship Him with the angels who surround us, seeking His will in all things and repenting when we fail.

(P) Amen.

God Bless You!

Content Options

to download the audio file Sign In » or Register ».
generate Google Translate Layout ».
share this homily via:

Top of Page

More Homilies this Month

Use the Prev or Next buttons to read or listen to the other homilies of the month.

« Prev The Feast of Christ the King (Year C) Next »