He Bids Us, Stay Awake! First Sunday of Advent, by Gayle Somers
Right and Wrong Versus Right and Left, by Joseph Pearce
November 29, 2025
New Advent resources include Fr Mike Schmitz’s Waiting Well and Bishop Conley’s men’s guide
November 30, 2025
Candle. Advent. Photo by Amin Zabardast on Unsplash
By Gayle Somers, Catholic Exchange, Nov. 28, 2025
Gayle Somers is a member of St. Thomas the Apostle parish in Phoenix and has been writing and leading parish Bible studies since 1996. She is the author of three bible studies, Galatians: A New Kind of Freedom Defended (Basilica Press), Genesis: God and His Creation, and Genesis: God and His Family (Emmaus Road Publishing). Her latest book, Whispers of Mary: What Twelve Old Testament Women Teach Us About Mary is available from Ascension Press. Gayle and her husband Gary reside in Phoenix and have three grown children.
On this first Sunday in the new liturgical year, Jesus warns His followers to “stay awake!” Why do we need to hear this today?
Gospel (Read Mt. 24:37-44)
St. Matthew records for us an extended conversation Jesus had with His disciples about “the coming of the Son of Man.” We know this prophecy had two levels of meaning. Jesus was preparing His followers for the day of judgment that was to come on Jerusalem, when God would judge her rejection of the Messiah. The catastrophic sack of the city in 70 A.D. by the Romans, in which the Temple of the Old Covenant was destroyed (never to be rebuilt), was the first fulfillment of His warning. How was that a “coming of the Son of Man”?
The destruction of the Temple meant the end of all animal sacrifices for Israel. Never again would animal flesh and blood be offered to God to atone for sin. Instead, because Jesus ascended into heaven in a cloud, He sits at God’s right hand eternally offering Himself for our sin. He makes present forever the one sacrifice He made on the Cross. His Presence makes full atonement for man’s rebellion against God. The destruction of the Temple was the definitive physical, visible sign of the end of the Old Covenant; it gave way to its fulfillment in the New Covenant. The Son of Man has now come to earth in His Church. He, together with all believers, is now the new Temple of God….
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