A Reflection for Monday of the First Week of Advent
Find today’s readings here.
During the liturgical season of Advent, the church reflects on the three “advents” or arrivals of Christ. The first was his coming as Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth. The second arrival is his coming at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. The third is the subtle ways in which Christ arrives in our lives every day. This third arrival is the one to which the Gospels give the most emphasis. The Gospels were written long after Christ lived, and the evangelists hoped to give new believers who never knew the incarnate Christ the tools they needed to recognize him when he appeared.
The evangelists do this in part by sharing recollections of early believers as they encountered the incarnate Jesus Christ. The things that these early believers had done to prepare themselves were of interest to later believers as they made their own hearts ready for Christ. Many early believers, like the Twelve Apostles, had the advantage of growing up in a Jewish environment. They had learned from Moses and the prophets how to recognize the Messiah when he came, and when Jesus arrived, their hearts were ready to accept him.
Others, like the centurion in today’s Gospel reading, did not have that advantage. It came as something of a surprise in the early church that so many people who had no knowledge of Israel’s traditions had recognized Jesus as Lord. This is especially the case for Matthew. Although he never doubts the validity of Gentile conversions, he puzzles over them throughout his Gospel account.
What inspired the centurion to place his faith in Jesus? It does not seem to be Israel’s religious tradition (although when Luke recounts this same narrative, the centurion was a wealthy man who had built the synagogue in Capernaum, so perhaps he knew something of it; see Lk 7:2-10). I suggest that love inspired the centurion to deeper faith. He referred to the paralyzed servant as paîs mou, “my boy,” not doûlos mou, “my slave.” He went out of his way to advocate for him, something that many Roman men might have deemed beneath their dignity. The situation might be difficult for us to understand today, but in the Roman world, strong feelings of affection could sometimes develop between masters and slaves. This is probably the case here. The natural love that grew in the centurion’s heart prepared him to place his faith in Jesus’ ability to save.
What Matthew teaches in this Gospel passage is that love alone can prepare our hearts for Christ. People who already have good habits of forgiveness, generosity, kindness and humility have made themselves sensitive to the arrival of Christ in the Spirit. The days of Advent on which we now embark can be a school of love, a time to prepare ourselves again to encounter Christ who arrives anew every day.
Get to know Michael Simone, S.J.
What is your favorite Advent/Christmas hymn?
The Advent hymn “People, Look East” by Eleanor Farjeon. I heard the hymn for the first time only recently, but I loved it. It somehow hits the sweet-spot between joy and yearning. I appreciate the poetry too:
Stars, keep the watch. When night is dim
One more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather,
Bright as sun and moon together.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the star, is on the way.
What are you most proud to have worked on at America this year?
I used vignettes from the lives of four close friends in my reflections on the daily readings. These are the people who support me through life and who share every joy and sorrow. I was grateful that they let me write about them, and grateful to America for giving me the freedom to do it.
Do you have any favorite Advent/Christmas family traditions?
On Christmas or soon after, we always watch the film “Moonstruck.” Although it’s not a Christmas movie per se, it’s set at Christmastime in New York. I feel intense nostalgia whenever I watch the film not just because I’ve seen it so many times, but because the actors so perfectly convey the tone and nuance of communication in an Italian-American family (where even shouting and pounding the table can have subtleties of meaning). The Castorini family could easily have been modeled after anyone on my mother’s side (my dad’s side is a little more like the Italians in “I Love You To Death”). In the climactic scene, when Rita Cappomagi (played by Julie Bovasso) delivers the line, “It’s Johnny Cammareri…” her intonation is so like my grandmother’s that I sometimes tear up.
