The First Sunday of Advent begins the new year in the Liturgical
cycle. The Church describes the year as
the year of Grace because we are gifted with the opportunity to once again make
the spiritual journey with God’s chosen people as they prepare for the Messiah
foretold by the prophets Nathan, Isaiah and Jerimiah. Thousands of years, they waited to see how
God would bring about redemption.
Although for us, Advent is only four weeks long in preparation for the
Christ Child. We are encouraged to walk
in the footsteps of God’s chosen people who waited thousands of years for God
to fulfill the promise of the Covenant.
A covenant is a promise God made to humanity. Although we can break promises, God always keep his covenant. The word Testament is Latin for Covenant or promise.
The first covenant was made with Adam. God bless Adam and Eve with everything under one condition, which is that they don’t disobey him. Because of their disobedience, they were expelled from the Garden, but God promised an offspring that will crush the head of the serpent.
Genesis 3:15 is the first sign of the covenant with Adam. Otherwise called the Proto-Evangelium, the first Gospel. It is the first pronouncement of salvation promised by God. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head while you strike at his heel.” When Adam and Eve disobeyed God because of the serpent’s lies, God promised an offspring that will crush the head of the serpent. Early Apostles will piece this info together and see the prophecies have been fulfilled in this special child born in Bethlehem of Judea, the city of King David.
As humanity grew and dominated the earth, but the people had no room for God, for their hearts remained far from God because they persited in the evil doing. In Gen 6:5, “when the Lord saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and no desire to conceive was anything but evil, he regretted that he made man on earth, and his heart was grieved. So God said “I will wipe out from the face of the earth, that men I have created, and not only the man, but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
In the midst of the corrupted world, God only found one person who is good and blameless. Noah means peace, rest and comfort. Jesus says: “as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be the days of the son of man.” Despite what God has done, the hearts of the people remained far from God, and the cycle of sin is repeated.
After wiping out the face of the earth with the flood, God made a covenant with Noah. In Genesis 9, the sign of the promise is a rainbow. “I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth, when I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between you and all the living beings, so that the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings.
During the royal kingdom, the Lord promised another sign to King David. In 2 Samuel 7, through Nathan, “The Lord also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you, and when the time and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise your heir after you, sprung from your loins. I will make his kingdom firm. It is he who will build a house for my name. I will make his throne firm for ever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever befoe me; your throne shall stand firm for ever.
700 years before Christ, through the prophet Isaiah, another promise was given. While Judah was threatened with war, King Ahaz, was torn between two options. He could choose to surrender or receive help from foreign assistance. History tells us that he chose to seek help from the Assyrians rather than trusting in God. Isaiah tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, but the king refused. Isaiah went ahead and gave him a sign: “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.” That’s the sign of the new covenant.
On the night before Jesus died, he celebrated the Passover, a celebration of what God has done for the people, to help them recall how God has recued them from slavery in Egypt. At the Passover, instead of eating a lamb, Jesus took the bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them and said: “Take this all of you eat it, this is my body which will be given up for you. Do this in memory of me.” And Likewise he took the cup and said: “this cup is the new covenant in my blood which will be shed for you.” Jesus is the lamb that they partake from. He is the sign of the new covenant.
During the Advent season, as we prepare for the birth of Christ. Let’s keep in mind that we also share in the hope of God’s chosen people who waited thousands of years to see God will fulfill his promises, and how God will establish the new covenant.
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