(Please read the passage cited above first.)
My sisters and brothers,
Today we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent. The Lord is coming. St Paul greeted the Church of God at Corinth, “The grace and peace of God our Father and of Jesus Christ be with all of you.” Paul wanted his Corinthian to receive the grace of God. Grace is always a gift of God. It is never something that we have earned. It is always God’s gift, freely given. God gives us his gifts, his grace and peace.
If we have the grace of God, we have it because God has given it to us. The Corinthians thought that they had received the grace of God by their own merits. They had not because the grace of God is always the gift of God.
We Christians are celebrating the coming of the Lord. We await the glorious coming of the Lord at the end of our life and in the feast of Christmas. This glorious coming of the Lord, however, is from God’s mercy, not from our merits. Our merit is sin; God’s merit is his mercy. We are Christians through the mercy of God, not because we have earned anything.
We celebrate God’s mercy today and we await the overflowing of God’s mercy until God comes again.
Advent is the time for waiting for the coming of God, the time when we await God’s mercy in a splendid way. Always it is God’s mercy that calls us to repentance. Always we need to remain with reproach in the justice of God until this coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Always we need the grace and the peace of God our Father and of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ. Always we need this season of Advent.
St Paul continually gave thanks to God for the gifts that God had given the Corinthians. Continually we ought to give thanks to God for God’s mercy and peace. Continually we await for God to come to us and remain with us. Always God wants to celebrate with us God’s coming and presence. Always God wants to celebrate with us his revelation of self. God never wants to be separated from us.
We have to be ready because the Lord is always coming to us to show us the mercy he brings to us. We wait because we know that God will come.