01 December 2024 – 1st Sunday of Advent (Year C) | RCIA Rite of Acceptance

by Fr Joachim Robert

Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.

Dear friends,

As we begin this journey of Advent, and as we saw at the beginning of the liturgy – the lighting of the candle, the candle of HOPE, makes us rethink how we define HOPE.

In the Gospel of today, the first line states:
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and the stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; men dying of fear as they await what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.

And as we look at the Gospel today, dear friends, we see a vision of the world that is dark, that is gloomy and full of confusion and a future of destruction. And when we are faced with scenarios like that, what would be our response?

And generally how we would respond is we will feel overwhelmed, we feel discouraged, we go into despair not knowing how to handle all the things that is happening around us. At a grander scale in the world, we see war, famine and so many other things that cloud the world and make us think that it is gloomy. And on top of that, we have people around us who also say that the end of the world is near, adding more gloom to a gloomy situation that is there.

And when there is confusion, we add more confusion and confuse many more others. And when there is negativity, we also increase negativity after negativity, making the world and feeling gloomy and that the destruction is near. And that is perhaps of how we would deal with it sometimes.

If you take a look at Malaysia. There is so many injustices that are happening all around Malaysia. And a few days ago, or even yesterday, there is so much of flooding happening all around the country. And that too make us have this sense of disillusionment of what is happening around the world. And usually we panic and we also add on to the gloomy situation that is around.

In that kind of scenario, the church comes forward to celebrate Advent and what we do is light the candle. Light the candle to indicate perhaps of a new beginning, of a new hope that could arise from that gloomy situation.

And even in our own families, when we look at broken relationship, when we look at distrust, when we look at feud in the family, all these seem to not make us move forward. But as Christians, we are called to confront this challenges that we are faced with. As Jesus said in the Gospel:
Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.

Our Christian HOPE, dear friends, is to embrace the situations that we are confronted with rather than running away. We embrace those challenges and move forward and it calls for a different kind of response for us as Christians.

And as I looked at the RCIA Candidates just now, whenever they were coming forward to make that public declaration of their intent, they too are making a conscious effort or decision to mark the beginning of a new journey and making a different kind of response in these situations of life that they have been confronted with.

And that gives is reason to HOPE, just like how we lit the candle of HOPE just now. 

HOPE whenever it is coming from a situation when life is good, perhaps may only make us enjoy it for a moment or maybe it can be a false type of hope. But our hope, TRUE CHRISTIAN HOPE, comes from our response of love that we embrace the challenges and acknowledge that Jesus is with us and He will lead us forward in whatever circumstances that we are faced with.

And this is a perspective of faith, of faith that allows us to hope and find our reason to hope in Jesus Christ. Again, dear friends, no one can force us to make such a decision. That decision comes from your own conviction of how God has journeyed through with you all through your life.

And we must pray for the grace of HOPE. We need to pray for the grace of hope to make us find an opportunity to embrace those challenges and to allow God to be immersed in the realities of the world and to make us renew our hope in Him. Or else we get drowsy with our faith, we get into this slippery slope of being lazy in our spiritual life.

And the Gospel also invites and tells us:
Watch yourself, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life. and that day will sprung up on you suddenly, like a trap.

Jesus is giving us that invitation to not despair but to find our true hope in Him. And I would like to propose you, dear friends, three things to make us realise in how we can ground ourselves in HOPE during this Advent.

The first thing is PRAYER (P). Prayer is for us to grow in that relationship of trusting that whatever circumstances that we are confronted with, the Lord is there to journey together with us, leading us forward rather than being able to succumb or being overwhelmed with what we are faced with.

Prayer strengthens us, prayer gives us courage and prayer gives us this opportunity to connect with God. And each time we take a step forward, confident in the power of God’s love in our life, we, like the candle we lit just now, make that as an act of HOPE. Knowing that God provides for us, knowing that God sustains us.

The second thing that we need to do is to LOVE (L). And Saint Paul in the Second Reading to the Thessalonians today, he says:
May the Lord be generous in increasing your love and make you love one another and the whole human race as much as we love you.

Love, dear friends, is a response that we make because we care. For example, if a child is sick, the parents are vigilant. Vigilant in ensuring that everything around the child is taken care of so that the child is well again. And that love demands we be watchful. We become vigilant because we care.

And love also, dear friends, draws us to acknowledge the people that is present around us. Not to allow them to just pass by as a landscape of our lives but to have a commitment of love, to do what we can for the growth of their faith journey.

And the third thing that we need to do, dear friends, is to SOAK (S) in God’s word, to allow the Word of God to mould us, transform us and to shape us more and more into that image of Christ.

And very often when we read the scriptures, we want to dictate what scripture tells us. But when we soak ourselves in scriptures, in the Word of God, we allow the Word of God to inspire us, in how those people (the holy men and women of old) have made their hope founded in this Christ who loves them. And in doing so, as we strive to live our life faithful to our scriptures, we indeed inspire, encourage and love one another.

And coming back to our RCIA Candidates, when they came to this Rite of Acceptance, they came forward trusting and imploring God’s mercy and God’s love to be upon them, to mark on this beginning of this journey which they have undertaken for some time now. And they were accompanied to pray, to pray together as individuals, as a community and they become a sign and a symbol of HOPE for each and every one of us here.

Just as that candle was lit, you and I allow ourselves to be lit by the candle so that we can purify our hearts, trusting in God’s providence and trusting in God’s mercy in our lives.

And the second aspect as they came to receive that bible, that Word of God, to allow themselves to be rooted in that word and we as a community also responded with our commitment to journey and accompany them all along this path of discipleship. It is also an act of allowing scriptures to resonate and to inspire and encourage.

And thirdly, the aspect of LOVE. We as a community also have the responsibility because when people are searching, people are enquiring about faith, you and I become a testimony of God’s love in sharing our life’s journey together with them.

So today, as we begin this whole journey of Advent, let us be reminded, dear friends, of that PLS, to Pray, to Love, and to Soak in God’s word. And as we allow this three words to resonate in our lives, as we begin this journey of HOPE, let us remember that Jesus is our centre, Jesus is our strength, Jesus is our hope, Jesus is our all.

And we pray that as these Inquirers and these Candidates come together to seek God with sincerity of their hearts, we pray that we as a community, we support, encourage and inspire them as well to become more faithful in their commitment and their walk of discipleship.

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