First Sunday of Advent (A) 2025

INTRO: Next weekend on Saturday morning there will be many children wondering:
“What is it going to be like…. going to confession for the first time?”

BUT……WONDERING ABOUT THINGS in our future and what is going to happen ……… IT IS A GOOD THING!!! It keeps us on our toes.

“What’s around the corner for me?”
“What am I going to encounter next in my life?”

And in our wondering, we all live with a bit of uneasiness…wondering about the future days to come in LIFE!

People do have things planned out …. And so, YOU DON’T WONDER about anything, but we need to be careful about this.

Because….
The unexpected comes to everyone, whether it is a cancer, a death, or a promotion, or even the wonderful news, “We are pregnant!”

We need to be ready and prepared to receive life as it comes to us and be grateful.
That is ONE of the reasons why the church in her wisdom gives us ADVENT, to bring those of us who think we have it all together to be ready for the unplanned. With God all things are possible!

We want to be changed by becoming the kind of person who gives opportunities that we had NOT PLANNED ON that come before us a chance.

Here is an example:
Someone asks us to do something, and we look at our watches and say…. “Can’t, it’s not in my plan!” You could have lost an incredibly good opportunity to meet CHRIST!

Advent calls us to be prepared to meet CHRIST and to be gratefully ready …. smiling ……. when he comes. Advent wants us to ACCEPT at times a different blueprint than our own because it may very well be a God-given design for us to meet CHRIST.

CONCLUSION
Even in a first confession, our little ones meet CHRIST. Yes, and they wonder what He is going to be like and when they do…. you should see their faces.