WATCH

God of silence open up for us solitude.
Salvatore Quasimodo

The Gospel passage for this first Sunday of Advent (cf. Mk 13,33-37) is the last part of Jesus’ speech before his passion (cf. Mc 13,1-37). When one of the disciples admires the Temple, Jesus responds by stating that not one stone will be left upon another. What does it mean? Jesus relativizes the vaunted historico-religious stability of the present, represented precisely by the Temple, to focus attention on the “new times” that he inaugurated, which will find fulfilment in his Passover. Hence the question of how and when this will happen. Jesus replies in three parts. In the first, (cf. Mc 13,5-23), he speaks of a time of persecution and of the testimony that believers will be called upon to give; in the second, (cf. Mk 13,24-27) he announces the parousia (return) of the Son of man and the final judgement; in the third, (cf. Mk 13,28-37) he offers criteria of discernment and invites everyone to be vigilant. These words of Jesus are essentially his response to two tensions that the Christian community always has to face. On the one hand, those who see that history, despite the contradictions, nevertheless moves on, relax their vigilance. On the other, those who see the signs of the imminent advent of God. Hence a kind of “sell-out” to what might be called eschatological impatience, a consequent disengagement from the world. On the contrary, the Christian community is called to follow the path of history, but with an eye to the future Kingdom, and the advent of its Lord. Surveillance also has an anthropological dimension: it reminds us of how man is a work in progress, an unfinished thing tending towards fullness.

Even loving you is denied us
if you don’t sow love in us
You, the sole end of your, and our, solitude.

Davide Maria Turoldo

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey