Message of Abbot Paul - Sunday 27th November 2022

It was truly uplifting last night to begin Advent with a Carol Service, sung not by the monastic community, although we participated in the prayers and the readings, but by a choir based on Hereford Sixth Form College, called Academia Musica. I was particularly moved by some of the 15th century texts they sang, which I had not seen or heard before. I have always been struck by the theological depth of popular medieval carols and their breath-taking interpretations of the life of Christ and the implication of his Incarnation. Together with the celebration of Vespers with its Advent antiphons, it was a wonderful way to begin Advent, this season of prayer and fasting that takes us up to Christmas. My parish priest, when I was a boy, always called it Little Lent to remind us of the penitential nature of the season, which is often overlooked by Christmas talking over.

 

​Advent is a time when we look forward to the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of time, while at the same time looking back to his First Coming at his Incarnation and Birth, something we do by reading the prophets of Israel who looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. We look back in order to look forward, while recognising and celebrating the fact that he is with us now, this Third or Intermediate Coming in the present moment. It’s a season that takes us out of ourselves into the presence of the Mystery of God. In our Gospel passage, taken from Matthew, (Mt 24: 37-44), as this year we will be reading Matthew on Sundays, apart from Lent and Eastertide, basing himself on the story of Noah and the Flood, Jesus warns his disciples in this way. “Stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Just as we do not know the moment in which we are going to die, so too we do not know the day or the hour when Christ will return in the glory of his angels on the clouds of heaven. What we do know is that we will die and that Jesus will come again. What can we do but keep calm and wait in patience, simply making sure that we are ready at the time of his choosing to meet him, see him and receive his welcome into the kingdom of his Father.