Don’t Miss Jesus

First Sunday of Advent

November 29, 2015

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap (Luk 21:34).”

We are entering the first Sunday of Advent. This liturgical season always exudes the atmosphere of expectation. We are to anticipate the coming of our Savior, and the Church teaches us that at least there are three comings of Christ. The first event was the birth of Jesus two thousand years ago, in Bethlehem. The second coming will be the arrival of Jesus as the King and Judge at the end of time. The third is His presence among us here and now. These three comings are interrelated and if we miss one, we might miss the rest. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus Himself taught us to stand erect before the Son of Man, before Himself. Just like the first Christmas which came in the most unexpected hour, the final judgment will surely appear like ‘a trap’. The danger is that we expect Him in the wrong ways just like Herod the great who anticipated the birth of new King by killing the all the babies in Bethlehem, or like the Jewish elders and Pilate who crucified ‘the King of Jews’. Instead welcoming the Messiah, we might ‘kill’ Him. 

The key to anticipate Jesus’ advent is that our ability to welcome Him here and now. However, we seem to have problem in seeing Him here and now. In the 1990’s, Harvard psychologist Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris filmed an experiment, famously dubbed as ‘Monkey Business Illusion’ (available in YouTube). A group of people was asked to observe students playing basketball. They were tasked to count how many times the players in white T-shirts pass the ball. The players moved in regular motion and passed the ball back and forth. Suddenly, in the middle of video, something bizarre happened: A man dressed as gorilla walked into the middle of the room, pounded his chest, and immediately went out the scene. At the end, the viewers were asked if they noticed something unusual. Surprisingly, half of them shook their heads in astonishment. Gorilla? What gorilla? 

The monkey business test proves that on one hand, our great ability to focus our mental energy into particular activity, idea or expectation, while on the other hand, neglecting other things, however obvious they might be. It gives an illusion that we are confident that we are aware of everything that happens before our eyes, but in reality, we often see what we want to see only. I guess this is what happened with people in the time of Jesus as well as in our generation. We fix our gaze certain idea of Jesus, who He should be, what He must do, and we miss Christ’s coming. 

This is perhaps why our Pope Francis is shaking our heads with his unusual actions because he doesn’t want us to miss Christ. On the Maundy Thursday, he washed the feet of the young inmates, some of them were not even Catholics. He baptized a baby of unmarried couple. He embraced and kissed the disfigured man. He is the first Pope who particularly exhorts us to care for the mother Earth in his Laudato Si’. Currently, he is meeting people living in the slum of Kenya. 

If Jesus Christ can appear as little and meek baby on a manger and as condemned man nailed on the cross, He can practically come to us in unimaginably simple ways. Don’t miss Advent, don’t miss Jesus!

Br. Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP