Photo by Marcos Ferreira on Unsplash

First Sunday of Advent

My first night of graduate school in Columbus OH half a lifetime ago, I awoke to a most intense blinding light shining through my fifth-floor bedroom window and a thundering noise that threw me in a panic against the wall. No, it wasn’t some religious epiphany. Rather, a helicopter was landing on the roof of Grant hospital across the street. I didn’t know it at first. I jumped out of bed, my heart pounding, my head spinning, and way more adrenaline in my system than usual at 2AM. Even after I figured out what was happening, I don’t think I ever got used to being woken up that way again. It didn’t help to complain, so I learned to sleep with the radio on low and the blinds down. The best I could do was to be ready for it the next time.

A friend from seminary once told me of being woken up rudely in the morning at his parents’ house. They had turned his bedroom into a sewing room after he left for college. So he had to sleep on the couch in the living room, which wasn’t a problem, until he woke up with the cat sitting on his face. What was even more surprising to me was that it had to happen more than once before he decided to do something about it.

These days I wake up to a gentle alarm on my phone that invites me to emerge from my slumber without raising my stress level beyond what’s necessary to recall who I am and where I am. I haven’t had to press the snooze button in years. It’s just not anything I have to think about. I just slip into auto pilot. Some people rely on mom or dad to turn on the light, pull off the covers, and threaten them with a lifetime of misery. And despite the variety of tools we employ and the people we enlist to help get the job done, waking up is still and will always be something we have to do for ourselves.

As we begin today the holy season of Advent, the scriptures invite us to wake up anew to the reality of salvation. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes that “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” It is a reminder that we are on a journey toward salvation, or better still, that salvation is swiftly gaining on us, that we should continue making actual progress in our spiritual growth through the years, so that we are better prepared to embrace salvation when it comes upon us. Now some of us may realize we might still be right where we were at this time last year, and perhaps even the year before. Why are we not better prepared? Why do we not feel the urgency? Are we still asleep, oblivious to what God is trying to accomplish in our lives? Or do we choose to not bother with getting ready at all? When it happens, it happens.

Perhaps we choose to put off preparing for the Lord’s return till such time as we are in physical decline, thinking we will then have all the time we need. The people in Noah’s time didn’t see the rising water either, but not because they didn’t care. Rather, they were so immersed in their legitimate daily concerns, they could have just missed the signs. Now I’m sure even at a time when cable news or the internet didn’t exist, they would have all heard about that huge boat Noah was building in his backyard. Yet even if they did know, would it have mattered at all?

Every so often when I visit with people nearing the end, I will hear from their loved ones or from them directly that they’re ready. It can be a great comfort to those who hear it, knowing their loved one is not being dragged out of this world against their will. And knowing this is the one singular moment we prepare for all our lives, it makes sense we get to it at peace in mind and heart, not fearful, not apprehensive, eager for what comes next, or at least ready if not eager, ready for a new and exciting chapter.

So how do we best prepare? St. Paul continues, “throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day; … put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” In a word, be prepared any time. There won’t be time to change into your nice outfit, no time to grab your keys, your wallet, or your cell phone. There will be no excuses, no deferrals, no postponements. When it’s your turn, it’s your turn. You might not even get to tell your loved ones goodbye or clear your internet web browser search history. So, live each moment prepared for the inevitable summons to a much better life beyond this life.

I did not intend all this talk of the hereafter to sound dismissive of our legitimate concerns surrounding death, especially since the Christmas shopping season has began and the hereafter is the farthest thing from our minds. But I came upon a thought that makes sense in this Advent season. Advent is no longer just the time to prepare for the birth of Christ in a stable at Bethlehem. That singular event took place once in human history and will never happen again. Rather, Advent is a time of preparation for the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation, that same salvation St. Paul writes about in the second reading, that salvation which “is nearer now than when we first believed.” And when we live our lives eager for the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation, actively working to make that promise a reality here and now, whose fulfillment is like the vision of the Lord’s mountain in the prophet Isaiah, “the mountain … which shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills, … to which all nations shall come, that [the God of Jacob] may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths,” … where the Lord will be the just judge, and we will turn the weapons of war and violence into tools for peace; if we live our days eager for the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation, when that day arrives, it will not catch us off guard. We will truly be ready for that hour when the Son of Man will come.

As a nation, we possess a truly awesome generosity of spirit, an eagerness to share our blessings with others, and a willingness to see the establishment of peace in our time. But we also know that hardness of heart, that selfishness and arrogance that is contrary to the image of God’s kingdom of justice, love, and peace. And among those most alert and awake to God’s promise of salvation are found some who are yet asleep and unaware. They are people we live with, people we work with, people who sit next to us in church. They are us. We can only awake for ourselves. And if we are awake, we cannot let down our guard. We cannot return to being asleep and unaware. Advent is no longer just a season of the church year. It should be more like a way of life for us. So while we help to establish God’s kingdom in our time, we might keep ourselves ready for the day God fulfills his promise of salvation. Stay awake and alert, but not fearful or anxious. God’s salvation is on the way. And that moment comes upon each of us at just about any time.

Rolo B Castillo © 2025