Recovering the Meaning of Advent
On behalf of the staff and pastor of St. Hubert’s Parish, let me wish you a Happy New Year.
Yes, Happy New Year. As many of you know, the first Sunday of Advent begins the Church liturgical year. Sadly, beyond this fact, we live in a time when Advent has lost much of its meaning, or at least the practice of that meaning in our society.
In our secular society, Advent is the merely the run up to Christmas, a time for busy rushing around for ever bigger and more expensive Christmas presents, usually done through crowded shopping centers and malls. The origins of Christmas shopping stemmed from a tradition of exchanging ornaments for decorating homes in anticipation of Christmas. That then led to open markets in medieval towns where people could buy such ornaments. That exchange of ornaments for decorating homes has now been replaced with pedestrians and drivers swearing at each other in crowded parking lots and Christmas presents costing hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Many of you remember a time when Christmas trees were not set up until Christmas Eve, the actual beginning of the Christmas season. Our secular culture, for reasons having nothing to do with spirituality, has succeeded in no small part in collapsing the Advent season into the Christmas season, and confining the Christmas season to only Christmas Day itself, rather than its liturgical end, which is the Baptism of the Lord, this year celebrated on January 13. At a time when we might still want to give gifts in the real Christmas season, our secular culture tells us it is time to take them back.
Now I am not saying that putting others first cannot be advanced in some ways by Christmas shopping. At some level we all like receiving gifts. But let me suggest it is far more valuable to for all of us to take a step back and try and recapture the meaning of the Advent season, a season that begins today. Is it still possible that in our hearts and lives we can still actually enjoy and cherish the meaning of Advent?
Let me suggest that the answer is yes. And let me start off by saying that Advent is its own season; it is not part of the Christmas season. I cannot stress this basic liturgical fact enough and so I say it again: Advent is its own season; it is not part of the Christmas season. You may notice that hymns assigned in Advent are not Christmas hymns. Christmas hymns are only assigned at Christmas and through the real Christmas season.
Our Church teaches that the purpose of Advent is threefold. Let us take each purpose in turn. The first purpose of Advent is to prepare oneself worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord’s coming into the world as the incarnate God of love. The word advent comes from the Latin adventur, meaning coming, in this case the coming of the Lord at Christmas. Advent, stresses the spirit of waiting, conversion and hope for the birth of the Redeemer, and the centrality of the Redeemer for the salvation of human beings.
We seek in Advent to be blessed with a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing for the coming of the Lord. The spiritual meaning of this is a yearning for a real deliverance from the evils of the world, first expressed by the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt more than three thousand years ago.
Advent represents a symbolic and even real out crying against bitter oppression in the world, which has far from ended. The first reading in Advent Sunday Masses, including today, is nearly always from the Book of Isaiah. The Book of Isaiah stresses deliverance from oppression by turning toward the loving covenant of the Lord.
In Advent, the Lord brings, and calls us to bring, glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the broken-hearted, and to proclaim liberty to captives. As far as I know, these glad tidings have never been about a new Wii, an MP3 player, or some new mechanical or electrical gadget. At the essence of the spiritual meaning of Advent is the real hope for deliverance by a God who heard the cries of the poor and oppressed and brought deliverance through the incredible act of sending Himself through the birth of Jesus. In Advent, we long for God to come and set the world right.
But the world cannot be set right if we have not set ourselves right. So the second purpose of Advent is to make our souls fitting for the Redeemer through a period of reflection upon our sins and seeking reconciliation through the sacrament of the same name, and through forgiving others.
Overcoming sin thus becomes a critical aspect of Advent. Because of this important truth, especially in the Eastern Rite churches in union with the Catholic faith, the season of Advent has always been a time of fasting and penitence similar to the Season of Lent. Penitence is a part of both seasons, symbolized by the color purple in both Advent and Lent, and the stress on the sacrament of Reconciliation in both seasons.
Finally, the third purpose of Advent is to make ourselves ready for God’s final coming as judge, at the passing away of this life, and at the end of the world. This is why Advent is such an important season to respect and commemorate. For it is only as we experience Advent in combination with other liturgical seasons does it take on its full significance and meaning. By experiencing Advent together with Christmas, Lent, and Easter, we come to understand the darkness of sin in our souls, the joy of Christ’s birth, the awful reality of Good Friday, and the Good News of the Resurrection. All disciples of Christ are called to take this journey, a journey that begins with Advent.
Just as Advent has a threefold purpose, it also has a threefold chronological focus. Advent looks backward, looks at today, and looks to the future. The profound essence of Advent is Jesus Christ Yesterday, Jesus Christ Today, and Jesus Christ Forever. It looks back to the first coming of Christ at Bethlehem. We look back in Advent and celebrate Christ made human. We wait to hear again the story of his life and experience his presence as a human being in history. Advent reminds us that Christ came to show us how magnificent life can and should be. He gave us true and valid principles by which we can live true and valid lives.
The Advent season also looks to today, the days we spend on this earth; our lives as Christians. We are called to be faithful stewards of what is entrusted to us as God’s people; the Gospel life, the service-based love of God and others. Christ has come. He is present in the world today. When Christ left this earth, he did not abandon us. He remains with us in the Holy Spirit, the Church, the sacraments, the Scriptures and each other. He lives in community with us and keeps his vision of life before us. Advent is a time to become more involved, more anchored in the meaning and the possibilities of life as a Christian community.
And Advent also looks to the future. When Christ comes again, his presence will be among us in all its fullness, a presence that will never end, a presence that will perfect and complete our community with God and each other. But the Advent season asks: Will we be ready? Advent reminds us to be awake and watchful for that second coming. Our Gospel this morning from Matthew makes clear this preparatory spiritual mandate of Advent.
The diminution of the Advent season by secular society is therefore not only annoying or unfortunate; it is a danger to souls. For it has the effect of viewing Jesus as a historical figure of the past, a figure through which we can satisfy our material dreams. By contrast, when celebrated with solemnity and in a devout manner, Advent instead shows us that Jesus is the Word of God who, in the past, now, and the future continues to shed light on man’s path back to God. Advent reminds us that Jesus’ actions are the expression of the Father’s love for every human being at every time and place.
These brief thoughts on the meaning of Advent represent, I hope, a useful corrective to the secular gutting of the season by the growing materialism of our society. Let us pray that this Advent truly be a season of anticipation, of forgiveness of sins, and most of all, a welcoming in our hearts of the Lord who at Christmas ushered in a time of true joy and freedom that, if we choose, can last forever.