Preparing the Table for the Lord

December 1, 2024 - Sunday of the First Week of Advent

“Your redemption is at hand,” we hear at Mass today from the lips of Jesus (Luke 21:28) as Advent comes upon us.  Advent, the coming of the Lord, is His gift to us. He comes to meet us. He is hospitable.  Perhaps we could venture to say that the Holy Trinity is hospitality itself, each of the Three Persons living towards and for the others, and inviting us into that communion of love. The Lord comes to make his home with us, as we hear at Christmas: “And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John 1:14).

Today I met the priest who, as a seminarian, greeted my mom and me on the day I entered Immaculate Conception Seminary, September 2, 1987, and carried my suitcase as he ushered me up to my room.  I also had occasion today to recall the priest on faculty who gave me the warmest greeting and looked after me as I made the transition into the life of a seminarian in my first months here. Their hospitality left an indelible impression on my heart.

Today and in this first part of Advent we are reminded that the Lord will come again, lest we be distracted and too engaged in earthly things to recognize Him when he comes. The Scriptures exhort us to “prepare the way of the Lord” (Isaiah 40:3).  Joyful anticipation is the note that Advent strikes.  We are invited to prepare the table of the Lord, from which He feeds His people.

Later in Advent the Scriptures will turn toward Bethlehem, impressing on our minds and hearts the treasure we have received, the Lord Jesus Himself.  Contemplating His hospitality, we will be spared discouragement in the face of life’s obstacles and disappointments and emboldened for the mission before us of extending His hospitality to our neighbors, especially the least among us, preparing the table of the Lord for them.

Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that, gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Rev. Msgr. Gerard McCarren, S.T.D. Rector/Dean, Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology

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