First Sunday of Advent Homily: Hope, Prophecy, and Readiness
Readings and Virtual Homily for November 30,2025, First Sunday of Advent; Thanksgiving and Giving Thanks; December Schedule
Readings for Mass this Sunday:
Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122:1-9
Romans 12:11-14
Matthew 24:37-44
Dear Friends and Family,
Advent readings tend in one direction or the other -- the First or the Second Coming. This week's tend toward the latter.
The reading from Isaiah does not particularly reference the Second Coming, but it does predict our time -- the time of the universal faith; the time when the nations will acknowledge that the God of Israel is God. I love the passage's description of how the Gentiles (that is, us) will react with wonder, with joy and enthusiasm, at the prospect of being instructed in the ways of the true God, the God of the Jews. "In days to come," the prophet says, "…many peoples shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up...to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways and we may walk in his paths'" (vss. 2-3).
I sometimes joke with my parishioners here in Hayward, when I have this reading, that I am sure they got out of bed this morning joyfully and excitedly saying, "Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord, there to receive instruction in his ways..."
The point is simply that Isaiah is predicting that when the message of salvation is preached to the Gentiles, it will be received with wonder and joy, a reality abundantly attested to in Acts of the Apostles and the letters of St. Paul.
The psalm focuses on Jerusalem, and from the perspective of a pilgrim, a visitor on a holy journey. The verses from today's reading also denote wonder and joy; wonder and joy at Jerusalem -- the city of God. The verses may be understood to refer as well to the Church in our time, to the "New Jerusalem;" with this interpretation we have resonance with the theme of the first reading: Gentile joy at discovering the truths of God.
The reading from Romans exemplifies the early belief that Christ's return was imminent -- a very Advent theme. The evidence from Scripture and traditional sources strongly suggests that the first Christians thought the Second Coming likely to happen within their lifetimes which, of course, partly explains their intense missionary zeal. They wanted to bring the Good News to the entire world, and they wanted to accomplish this responsibility as rapidly and as completely as possible.
Two thousand years later, the Gospel has indeed been preached in every land; with two and one half billion adherents, Christianity is the largest religion on earth. The "days to come" spoken of by Isaiah in the first reading, when "the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills;" the days when "All nations shall stream toward" the mountain of the Lord, have come (vs. 2).
And as it was in apostolic times, plenty of Christians in our time are expecting, if not the Second Coming itself, then at least the fulfillment of various end times prophecies, in our time. I have preached and written extensively on this topic, giving my own take on it. No need to detail my understanding here, but just to restate it: I do believe we have entered "the last days." I do not believe anyone alive today, including my four year-old great niece, is going to see the Second Coming.
Then there is Matthew 24:37-44. "One will be taken, one will be left..." (vs. 40). Okay. So remember just two months ago, the stories in the news about the folks who were preparing to be raptured on either September 23 or the 24 or maybe at the latest the 25? This was huge -- if you were paying attention, which I admit, until about a week before the dates in question, I was not.
Nor is there any reason I should have been paying attention. "The rapture," as defined by our dear brothers and sisters in the Evangelical wing of the faith, is not going to happen. Not last September. Not next September. Not any September at all, nor any January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, October, November or December, for that matter.
The rapture, as defined by these folks, is a non-starter. It is not only denied by the Catholic Church; it is not only not believed in by the Orthodox or the mainline Protestants. The "secret rapture" described by the Evangelicals is non-Scriptural. It is not to be found in the Bible, despite the fact that any Evangelical Christian worth his or her tithe is going to tell you that it is guaranteed by Scripture.
This is too much to address here. I have written fairly extensively on this business in my book THE END TIMES. Suffice it to say that what Jesus here describes (one shall be taken and one left) refers to the very last moment of human history; the moment of the Second Coming itself. There will, indeed, be a rapture of believers into the clouds to "meet the Lord in the air" as St. Paul puts it (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-55).
But Paul notes that the dead will rise first. He says, and more than once, that this rapture will occur at "the very last trumpet call" (1 Cor. 15:52). Then those who are still alive will be taken up, as the Lord himself is returning. This rapture, the only one described in Scripture, occurs at the very last moment of human habitation on the planet. This rapture coincides with the Second Coming. There IS no "secret rapture" happening seven years before the end of the world. That's the end of it.
It is, of course, not just the first Sunday of Advent, but Thanksgiving weekend and I have taken some time the last two or three days to, well, give thanks. This year in particular, I have a lot, a lot for which to be grateful. As I imagine I have said in these homilies before, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year.
But it is only my second favorite day of the year. Number one is Good Friday. The two share a strong resonance. After all, there is nothing for which a human being might be more deeply grateful than his or her rescue by the God who made us. And Eucharist, the Lord's Body and Blood given for our salvation, means thanksgiving.
I could probably write several more paragraphs on this set of points, the connections between our national holiday and Good Friday. But it is early Saturday afternoon and I need to get this baby out.
I hope your Thanksgiving weekend is restful; warm and joyful. My best wishes for the start of Advent.
Take good care and God bless.
Love,
Fr. Brawn
December Schedule:
Saturday, Nov. 29
5 PM (English)
Sunday, Nov. 30:
8 AM, 630 PM (both English)
CATHOLIC COMMUNITY OF PLEASANTON/Seton Campus
11 AM (English)
Saturday, Dec. 6
5 PM (English)
Sunday, Dec. 7
8 AM, 1115 AM (both English)
Monday, December 8, Feast of the Immaculate Conception
8 AM (English); 5 PM (bilingual)
Thursday, December 18, Simbang Gabi Novena Mass
6 AM (English)
Saturday, Dec, 20
5 PM (English)
Sunday, Dec. 21
630 PM (English)
CATHOLIC COMMUNITY OF PLEASANTON/Seton Campus
11 am (English)
Christmas Eve
5 PM, 10 PM (both English)
Christmas Day
9 AM (English)
Weekday Masses (all 8 AM and English, except where noted)
Mon, Dec, 1
Tues, Dec. 2, 7 PM (Spanish)
Fri, Dec. 5
Sat, Dec. 6
Fri, Dec. 12
Sat, Dec. 13
Mon, Dec. 15
Sat, Dec. 20
Mon, Dec. 22
Sat, Dec. 27