COMMENTARY – 1st Sunday of Advent B

Fellowship with Christ While Waiting for His Return

Verse 3 is St. Paul's greeting in his letter to the Christian community at Corinth.  St. Augustine wrote that the peace Paul writes about is the peace of the soul that originates in friendship with God which grace brings with it and is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Augustine, De verb. Dom. Serm., 58; also see Gal 5:22-23).  Paul's prayer for a blessing of "peace" isn't an earthly concept of peace, meaning the absence of conflict.  It is a divine, spiritual peace and a gift of God "that surpasses all understanding" and "will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:7).

In verses 4-9, Paul gives thanks to God for the community.  Then he reminds them that they owe their election among the blessed to God who chose them through a divine call.  Like all Christians, they received God's grace in Christ Jesus that has enriched them in every way.  The gift of grace through Christ Jesus gives them a share in God's divine nature (see 2 Pt 1:4) and raises them to a new level of privileged existence only shared by those redeemed in the blood of Jesus.  Through a spiritual re-birth in Christian baptism (Jn 3:3-5), this transfigured nature enables Christians to share in the perfection of God's inner life.  Our new life in Christian Baptism is the introduction to a privileged state that will be fulfilled at the end of life on earth when the lives of those who die in a state of grace become joined to the life of the Most Holy Trinity in the heavenly paradise.  

8 We will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  9 God is faithful, and by him, you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
In the meantime, as we wait for the time of Christ's return, Paul assures the Corinthian community that he and the others Jesus chose to shepherd His Church will continue to tutor and guide the faithful.  Their mission is to call believers to fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  He sustains His people in holiness with His very life through His gift of the Eucharist and the other Sacraments to guide and protect them on their journey to salvation.  Our faith journey may end in the Second Advent of Christ and the Final Judgment (CCC 1038-41).  Or, our life on earth may end in death and facing Christ at our Individual/Particular Judgment (CCC 1021-22).  Either way, God gives us everything we need to be watchful and ready for that meeting that will signal success or failure at the climax of our lives.

Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2014; revised 2023 Agape Bible Study; used with permission

Be Alert and Watch for the Coming of the Master!

In this short parable, Jesus appears to speak of His return in glory.  However, He might also be referring to the violent end of the old Sinai Covenant and the judgment on the people and Jerusalem because they rejected their divine Messiah (Lk 19:44).  Referring to the judgment against Jerusalem and the Old Covenant hierarchy, Jesus said: "For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides.  They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation" (Lk 19:43-44).  

Jesus tells a parable in which He is the man who leaves on a journey (His Ascension into Heaven) and places His servants (the Apostles and disciples and those of future generations) in charge of His "house" (the Church).  The gatekeeper whose duty is to be "on the watch" (verse 34) refers to the chief steward of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, St. Peter and his successors.  Jesus names the four night-watches observed during the period of the Roman occupation of Judea: 35 Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.

The Four Night-Watches in the first century AD:

1. #1: Evening Watch from sundown (c. 6 PM) to 9 PM
2. #2: Midnight Watch from 9 PM to midnight
3. #3: Cockcrow Watch from midnight to 3 AM (the trumpet that signaled the end of the third Watch at 3 AM was called the "cockcrow")
4. #4: Dawn Watch from 3 AM to dawn (c. 6 AM)

A trumpet blast announced the change from one Watch to the next.  The night watchmen who blew trumpets at the end of each Watch were in the Jewish Levitical guard at the Temple and also the Roman Watch in the Antonia Fortress.  You may remember that Jesus warned Peter that he would deny Jesus at "cockcrow."  After Peter denied Jesus, he heard "cockcrow," the 3 AM trumpet (see Mt 26:34; 26:69-75).  St. Mark's Gospel mentions two cockcrow signals, probably referring to the one at the Temple and the second at the Roman fortress (Mk 14:29-30; 71-72).  

The same sequence of events foretelling the destruction of the Temple, the end of the Sinai Covenant, and the return of Jesus in the Second Advent occurs in Matthew and Luke's Gospels.  Jesus' point may also be that the end of the Old Covenant, finalized in the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of Old Covenant Temple worship and sacrifices in AD 70, signals the beginning of a new and final age in the rule of Christ's Kingdom of the Church.  The Age of the New Covenant Kingdom of the Universal Church is the last age of humanity, and it will last until Jesus' Second Advent, followed by the Final Judgment of the nations.  In this passage, the keywords for all generations are Jesus' commands to "Be watchful! Be alert" (verse 33).  He warns us to be ready for His Parousia (appearing), so He will find us diligent in doing the good works of faithful servants who belong to His "House" that is the Kingdom of the Church.

Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2014; revised 2023 Agape Bible Study; used with permission