From pastor’s desk on the First Sunday of Advent, year A
It was exactly one year ago, on Friday night, December 2nd, 2022, I went to the emergency
room for not feeling well. Then that night in the emergency room suddenly I started feeling numb
in my legs and I was paralyzed from the waist down. It still feels like a twilight zone. Immediately
I was admitted to the hospital—then I was hospitalized for the following 10 weeks in four
different facilities. That very night and the following days and weeks I learned in a very hard and
real way that I could not control my life and my fate anymore. There was something much
greater and much more difficult at stake, a task that only God could prepare or permit which lied
ahead of me. Paradoxically, my illness made me more aware of the fragility of human life. It
helped me to realize how precious and how short our life is. I have also learned how important
our faith is and how little time we have to come to the full knowledge of the Lord.
This is the gospel’s message for the First Sunday of Advent: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not
know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad.” Our Blessed Lord Jesus wants
His disciples, all of us, to be watchful, to live in such a way that we can always welcome Him
when He comes. But one must ask, “What does it mean to be watchful and alert in spiritual life?”
It is to live in the state of grace and in the state of preparedness. This means that we cannot be
attached too much the things of this world, we need to pray, and do acts of mercy and God will
take care of everything else. We also need to let go things go, the things that may be an
obstacle to our relationship with Jesus.
Though Jesus has already come, it seems that world has forgotten Him so much that we need
to be reminded again about His coming. This is the purpose of each Advent. It is a very sacred
season reminding us that we need to open our hearts and minds to Christ. I pray that this
Advent you will stay spiritually awake and alert. This means that you spend less time on
shopping and entertainment and more time on prayer and Scripture reading. That you will not
engage only in worldly business but in the things that will bring your closer to Jesus and the
Blessed Mother. I wish you experience a truly blessed Advent.
Fr. Janusz Mocarski, pastor