This Sunday we begin Advent, the four-week liturgical season that precedes Christmas. The term is derived from the Latin word adventus which means “coming.” While we remember that coming of Jesus at the first Christmas, I think this season also invites us to be attentive to the constant comings of Jesus in our lives and in our world. Ironically, because we are so busy preparing for Christmas with buying gifts, making holiday plans, decorating our houses, or making sweets, we are less attentive to the many ways that Jesus continues to be part of our lives. And we are less attentive to the many ways he desires to use us to do his will.

As I prayed over the gospel reading for today from Mark, I, like the disciples, was reminded to be watchful and alert to God’s presence in my life. The disciples were likened to servants whom the master had put in charge of his house, each servant entrusted with his own work. What does it mean for me to oversee God’s house together with my brothers and sisters? What is the work that God has entrusted me with? As I grapple with these questions, the reading consoles me that God does not abandon me but instead, as the Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore notes in his poem Gitanjali, “he comes, comes, ever comes…..every day and every night he comes, comes, ever comes.” As we enter this season of Advent, may we experience this constant coming of the Lord in our life, as we strive to take care of his house and do the work entrusted to us.