It’s new year’s day on our church calendar, as we commence a new liturgical year, with this advent season of four weeks in preparation for Christmas.
The word Advent, coming from the latin word “adventus” means an arrival. Advent celebrates the arrival of Christ—or should we say arrivals.
The comedian George Burns used to quip, “it’s not that I don’t believe in God, I do believe in God, I just wonder when he is going to show up.” Well, Advent helps us to appreciate and celebrate just “how” in fact God does enter our lives. Specifically, three ways.
Firstly, God has already broken into history. He did come at Christmas, that first Christmas, 2000 years ago. God took on human flesh and was born in Bethlehem. Advent, helps us to spiritually prepare for the celebration of Christmas. For Christmas is an event so important, a liturgical feast, so glorious, that we need some time to prepare for it. We decorate our homes and our churches in preparation for Christmas, and we decorate our lives with special Advent liturgies, and prayers, and by practicing the Advent virtues of faith, hope, joy, love, and patience, and by engaging in extra acts of mercy and charity.
Secondly, Advent helps us celebrate the ways that God enters into our lives, now, in the present life of the Church.
He comes to us now in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church: In the pouring of water at baptism, at the absolution of sins in Confession, at the sacramental anointing of the sick—God enters into the lives of individual Christians through the Sacraments. He comes to us at every celebration of Mass, truly present in the Eucharist.
And he comes to us in our private prayer lives, too, doesn’t he, when we are at home contemplating his Word, bringing to him our doubts, our wounds, our anxieties, our gratitude for blessings. As we draw close to God in prayer, God draws close to us, with his gifts of peace, healing, strength, consolation, and courage.
Both in our private prayer and our public liturgical sacramental life, the Lord’s Advent is mysterious and subtle. Even for life long Catholics, his presence is sometimes difficult to detect, his presence is veiled behind the gestures and words and ritual elements. What the senses fail to grasp, can only be detected through faith.
This is not unlike how many of Jesus’ contemporaries did not recognize him as God when he came in history 2000 years ago. In the prologue of John’s Gospel we hear the sad words that “he came into the world, but the world did not know him, and his own did not recognize or accept him.” The worldly did not recognize him then, and the worldly do not recognize him now.
So, Advent helps to increase our spiritual sensitivity to the way that Jesus enters into our lives through the sacraments and in the silence of private prayer. We are encouraged to come to Mass as often as possible throughout Advent, and to make a good confession, and to set aside time every day to reflect on the scriptures and to engage in devotional prayer during this holy season. In this way Advent will open our minds and hearts to the myriad ways the Lord enters into our lives.So, The Lord came in history, the Lord comes in mystery, and lastly, the Lord will come in majesty at the end of time as judge of the living and the dead.
Right at the beginning of the Church year, this first day of the new Church year, we begin with the end in mind, by considering the Lord’s return at the end of time. And His coming in majesty will not be veiled, or mysterious, as it was 2000 years ago and in the sacraments. When he comes again, every knee on earth will bend, every tongue will proclaim Jesus Christ is Lord. He will not come in a hidden way, but with a blare of trumpets.
When will this be? We know neither the day nor the hour. He could return at any moment, in 10 minutes, 10 years, 10 millennia. I’d say it’d be nice if he came at least after the collection today, but at that point, the offertory will be irrelevant, for the earthly mission of the Church in time will have come to an end.
We do not know when the Lord will return, so, we are to live always with the Lord’s return in mind, as if his return is imminent. The motto of the U.S. Coast Guard describes the position of the Church in time, “semper paratus”—always prepared. Our souls are to be prepared for Christ’s final advent by confessing any serious sins in the Sacrament of Confession, we are to be prepared by not being too attached to material earthly things, by busying ourselves not with selfish pursuits, but living generously for God and others.
In the verses immediately following the today’s Gospel the Lord says, “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.” The Lord gives this warning because it would be a tragedy of the highest kind if our souls were not prepared for his return because of sin and earthly anxiety. If we were too busy making provision for the flesh as Paul says in the epistle, that we were not prepared for the Lord’s return.
We also prepare well by savoring each moment the Lord has blessed us with. Each moment is a gift given to us to grow in holiness and merit grace. In a sense, we are to live each day as if it were our last. Gratitude is to be a mark of the mature Christian—gratitude for the blessings that fill our lives, recognizing that even earthly blessings are but hints of the good things to come for God’s faithful ones in eternity, they are appetizers for the feast to come. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the good things which God has prepared for those who love him.
The Lord’s return in glorious majesty at the end of time should fill us with urgency to make sure that our souls are prepared, but also to use every moment wisely, with gratitude, and joyful expectation of the blessings to come.
Though George Burns wondered when indeed God will show up, we Catholics have it on good authority that He has come in history, he does come in mystery, and he will come again in majesty at the end of time. May this Advent stir up our faith to help us prepare well for Christmas, to appreciate with greater faith his coming in the mystery of the sacraments, and to live always in expectant hope in the Lord’s imminent return in majesty, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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