Time for Change

First Sunday of Advent Year A

Time is truly precious. We are not able to regain lost time. What has passed is past. Each day, we fight for time to do things that needs to be done. Time to prepare a meal. Time to eat. Time to work. Time to study. Time to rest. Time to pray. Time to sleep. We know that if we waste too much time on one thing, we may have to make up for it on another. Some things just get postponed day after day.

Today, we begin the season of Advent with its First Sunday. We are asked to look at time in a new way. We must ultimately recognize that time is a gift from God. Unless, we use this gift for the purpose that it was given, we would have wasted it.

Today’s readings remind us that time is not just meant for doing our own activities – whether it may be work or rest. Rather, time is given by God to us in order for us to make life-changing decisions. God’s time is time for change, for repentance, for conversion and transformation. In the second reading, St. Paul writes that the “time” has come – time to wake up and change our lives – “let us give up all the things we prefer to do under cover of the dark; let us arm ourselves and appear in the light.”

As we come to the end of the year, we need to sincerely ask ourselves if we have changed for the better or for the worse? Have we grown in love, kindness and compassion towards others in this entire year? Have we learn to forgive the people whom we need to forgive? Have we grown closer to the members of our family – especially our wives and husbands, our children or parents? Have we taken time to stop the bad habits that hurt others and ourselves? If we have failed to improve ourselves in any of these areas, if we have indeed become more selfish and self-centered, more resentful, lazier in our spiritual practices like praying or coming to the church, then its time to wake up and take stock of our lives. We have wasted the gift of time which God has bestowed upon us. We have misused our time to meet our own selfish needs.

The warning given by Jesus in the gospel is something that we must certainly heed. “So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming.” Can any one say when his time is up? Does anyone know when your last breath would be? If we fail to make the necessary changes to our lives today, we may live to regret it. Let us not die with regret and resentment in our hearts. Let us prepare ourselves and be ready when the Lord calls us home.

Making a commitment to follow Jesus is making a decision to change one’s lives. Let this be our preparation for this coming Christmas. It is not only our houses that need a spring cleaning, our souls too urgently need spring cleaning. For “you must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”