The most important things in life require some preparation, don’t they? When parents discover they are expecting a new child, they prepare a room for the child and a crib; the room is decorated, clothes are purchased, a baby shower is thrown. When a couple becomes engaged for marriage, they prepare, they plan. They meet with the priest for marriage preparation, they attend a pre-cana day, the reception is planned, the wedding garments are acquired, a home is made ready.
Similarly, when a young man realizes his call to the priesthood, his seminary formation involves nine years of theological training, experience in different ministerial settings like visiting the sick in hospitals and nursing homes, visiting the imprisoned, learning how to craft a homily, teach in the classroom, and celebrate the sacraments.
We prepare for big tests, big presentations and tasks at our jobs, we prepare emotionally to tell someone difficult news, we prepare our wills for the end of our lives.
A priest friend of mine would often say, “everything prepares us for something else.” Often the sufferings of the past and present help to prepare us for some future task, that will require great character and faith and endurance. St. Paul even says that our sufferings help us to console others who suffer.
The Church year, the Liturgical Year, revolves around two axes, Christmas and Easter, the two most important feasts of the Church year. They are the most important feasts because they celebrate the two most important events in human history. Christmas of course celebrates the birth of the God-Man, our savior and Lord, Jesus Christ—God taking on human flesh, uniting himself to humanity to save us from damnation. And Easter celebrates the accomplishment of that salvation, the Lord’s victory over death—His resurrection. For what would life have been for us had Christ not come as our redeemer.
Those two feasts of the Church year are so important that they both have entire seasons to prepare for them. The season of Lent prepares us for easter, and the season of Advent which begins today prepares us for Christmas.
So how does Advent prepare us for Christmas? Well, certainly through the gift of time. 4 weeks to prepare for what has become for many people quite a stressful holiday. 4 weeks to space out all of the physical preparations, the shopping, the planning of parties and gatherings, the decorating, the Christmas carols, the baking of Christmas cookies.
But more importantly, yes? Are the spiritual preparations. How does Mother Church by her Advent liturgies and Advent symbols help us spiritually prepare for the celebration of the birth of the Christ-Child?Certainly, the scriptures are of pre-eminent importance during Advent. Particularly, we read through the book of the prophet Isaiah. We read from Isaiah on each of the four Sundays of Advent, and also on the majority of the weekdays.
But why Isaiah? Why of all the books of Sacred Scripture do we read from Isaiah so extensively? The book of the Prophet Isaiah contains so many of the themes of the Gospels, it is sometimes even called the “fifth Gospel”. We read in Isaiah of the call of God’s people to practice justice, the need for repentance, the reality of judgment, God’s promise of salvation and proclamation of mercy; the need for God’s people during times of darkness to practice faith and hope.
But Isaiah is read during Advent because it contains Scripture’s clearest proclamations of the coming of the Messiah. God will intervene in history--history filled with so much strife and chaos, war and oppression, injustice and sadness. The Messiah will enter into our lives bringing the peace and reconciliation our hearts long for, And will establish the Church to light to all nations of God's salvation.
If possible, come to daily mass to hear Isaiah’s promises. If you can’t, make sure you take time every day to at least read from the Scriptures, to allow Isaiah to fill you with hope this Advent. The daily Scripture verses are printed in the bulletin; if you visit the US Bishop’s website, you can sign up to have the daily scripture readings emailed to you.
In our Gospel for this 1st Sunday of Advent, we may be surprised that we don’t hear a story of Mary or Joseph preparing for the Lord’s birth, or Magi or shepherds preparing to meet Him. Rather, we hear a message from Jesus himself from one of the last chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. The Lord speaks of how the people of Noah’s day were not preparing for what was to come, but, instead they were eating, drinking and having a good time, and so were unprepared and unrepentant when the flood came. And in his own day people were failing to prepare for the coming of the Messiah.
Here the Lord gives us a warning and our marching orders for Advent. “Stay awake” he says. Make sure you are prepared for God wanting to break-in to your lives through prayer, reflection on his Word of God, and repentance of sin.
It is certainly appropriate during the season of Advent to make a good confession. Confessions are available every Saturday here at St. Ignatius from 3:30 to 4:30, and between the two sunday morning masses. We will have a communal penance service with our cluster parishes at St. Mel’s next Tuesday evening, Dec 10, at 7pm, and of course I’m always happy to schedule an individual confession throughout the week. For what better way to prepare our soul for the Lord coming more deeply into our lives, than by confessing and receiving absolution for those sins which weigh us down, our failures to love the Lord as we should.
“You know the time;” Paul says, “it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.” What are the spiritual practices that will awaken you from whatever spiritual lethargy has crept into your life? It’s not too late to come up with a good spiritual plan for your Advent preparations: take up some spiritual reading, plan your Advent confession, make a list of the good works you hope to engage in.
We will never regret the time given to the Lord to prepare spiritually for his coming, to prioritize faith during this busy season. By striving to live in the presence of Christ, with the mind and heart of Christ this Advent, you will prepare room for him to dwell in you this Christmas, for the glory of God and salvation.
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