First Sunday of Advent
November 29, 2020 — Year B
Readings: Is 63:16B-17, 19B; 64:2-7 / Ps 80 / 1 Cor 1:3-9 / Mk 13:33-37
by Rev. Salvador Añonuevo, Pastor

Not too long ago, Bristol Street Motors conducted a study to find out how many motorists actually read the owners’ manual before driving their car. They found out that sixty percent don’t bother to read it, and I understand why. Reading the car manual is about as exciting as cleaning your oven or watching paint dry.

That is why most drivers leave them in the glove compartment. They perhaps think that, since their cars are working well, they don’t need the advice of the manufacturers. They may have forgotten that, if they would like to really benefit from the car’s functions and different features, and perhaps be able to troubleshoot a problem if something should go wrong, they need the advice of the people who made them.

In today’s first reading, which is taken from the book of Isaiah, we hear that we are the clay and God is the potter; we are the work of His hands. Since the Lord God is our creator, He surely knows how we should live our lives as we continue to navigate through this world He has given us.

The good news is that He gave us guidelines on how to do this through His words in the sacred scriptures. Our Holy Mother Church will also be there to help us interpret His living words, and our Christian family, the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, will be there to help us as we continue our journey.

All of us gathered here have a reason to rejoice, for our presence here, our gathering as members of God’s family, is a way of acknowledging the fact that God is our Creator and that we are the work of His hands. Today, the first day of the season of Advent, the beginning of another liturgical year, we are here to ask for God’s guidance about how we should go about our lives with all its challenges.

We can rest assured that the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, will give us guides from different directions and sometimes from unexpected places. In addition to His living words and His Church, He may show us the way through other people, books we read, events, videos or even media. All we have to do is open our hearts, minds, and souls for His message.

In the gospel the Lord Jesus said “Be watchful, be alert.” The best way to do this is to follow God’s will and to live in His presence every day of our lives.