The First Sunday in Advent – November 30, 2025
The beginning of a new year is always a special occasion. Like birthdays or first days of school, we mark this First Sunday of Advent and the season it ushers in with out-of-the-ordinary cues: different colors and vestments; new ritual candles, books, and prayers; even a unique mood with songs sung only this time of year.
Perhaps adorning extraordinary moments and seasons with exceptional actions is a way to express our hope for the ordinary days that follow. Advent prepares us to live the meaning of incarnation, which enters us more deeply into the Easter mystery of the cross and resurrection, which, in turn, becomes the lens for all the everyday moments.
Advent is a wake-up call for Jesus’s disciples to an eschatological way of living in which we spend every moment doing the ordinary things disciples do, making each day an extraordinary moment of grace.
Jesus’s proclamation in today’s Gospel is a fitting reminder that “the Son of Man will come” (Mt 24:44) in the ordinariness of daily life—as we eat, drink, marry, and work.
Advent then is a wake-up call for Jesus’s disciples to an eschatological way of living in which we spend every moment doing the ordinary things disciples do, making each day an extraordinary moment of grace. As we begin Advent and this new year of Matthew, let us live now the vision we will find at this liturgical year’s end when the outcome of such an ordinary life in Christ is revealed: You, who gave me food and drink, clothed and welcomed me, come, inherit the kingdom.
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