Today is enter to the new season of our liturgical calendar. The season of Advent year A. So, what is the reason for another Advent? The word "advent" comes from the Latin "ad-venire", meaning to come to, to come towards.
This season spotlights the three comings of Christ: the first, 2000 years ago; the last, sometime in the future; and the ongoing - Christ's constant coming into our lives through his grace, his providence, and his sacraments.
We live in the final age of human history, the age which will end in Christ's second coming, the destruction of the cosmos as we know it, and the creation of a new heavens and earth - the full establishment of Christ's Kingdom, as today's Readings described.
In today's Gospel, Jesus has explained to his Apostles that the age of the Church will be marked by both wonderful growth and also painful persecution. He has explained that Jerusalem, the epicenter of the Old Covenant, will be destroyed to make definitive way for the New Covenant. He has explained that the world itself will eventually be destroyed to make way for the new heavens and the new earth.
God wants us to know that our time is limited, that our lives and history itself will come to an end. He wants us to know this, because he wants us to use our limited time wisely, living as true Christians.
Jesus considers this lesson to be so important that he dedicates four separate parables to it before he finishes the conversation, driving the lesson home. Jesus knew how easily even the most faithful disciple can fall into the trap of thinking that this earthly life is the goal, and not merely the path.
Fr. Paulus Waris Santoso, O.Carm