Today we begin Year B in the liturgical cycle. As usual, on this First Sunday of Advent we repeat the warning which comes at the end of the previous year - namely the warnings to be ready for the time when the Lord will come to take us to himself. The word 'advent' means 'coming' and at this time we are actually reflecting on three comings of Jesus. The season of Advent is clearly a time when we recall the first coming of God among us as one of us, a coming which we celebrate at Christmas when Jesus first appeared in our world and was welcomed by the poor (the shepherds) and outsiders (the Magi). But this coming is to prepare us for the final coming when we will have to give an account of how we lived and loved, on how we accepted and lived the Gospel message which Jesus came to give us. In between, there is the coming that happens every day of our lives. The way we welcome Jesus into our lives each day will decide our readiness, our wakefulness for the final coming, the coming of the Jesus whose birth we now prepare for.