There Will Be Signs

Adjustments are a fact of life! We make them all day long, usually without thinking about it! For example, adjusting the volume on the TV,radio or iPod; we adjust our schedule to accommodate someone in need.Other adjustments take more thought and energy and have far-reaching consequences. Moving, marrying, baptizing all bring adjustments. Even changing liturgical seasons means adjusting to new gospel challenges.

This Sunday’s Gospel calls us to adjust our daily living in order to develop the vigilance that enables us to discern the signs of the Lord’s presence and to adjust the choices in our lives so we are blameless in holiness and thus, are more fittingly a testimony of the Son of Man’s power and glory.

The redemption at hand in the gospel is God’s work but it also calls for a response from us: growing in love, living in ways pleasing to God and being faithful. Moreover the very discernment of signs of the Lord’s presence is already a response-when we live as though the end times were now.

Often the anxieties of life blind us to the genuine signs of Christ’s presence and action. This time of year is filled with all kinds of distractions. The Advent season invites us to a more balanced perspective on what we really are about: continually opening ourselves to Christ’s presence. Thus Advent calls us to do deeper discernment about our lives and this very discernment is already a way to prepare for Christ’s coming now and in future glory.