Advent is a season of waiting in excited and hopeful
preparation within the Catholic Church. The first Sunday of Advent, marks the
beginning of the New Year within the Church. For many, the Advent season is
marked with the frenzy of putting up Christmas decorations and finding the
perfect gift. As children, we may have had Advent calendars where you opened a
window every day and got a piece of chocolate. A piece of chocolate every day
for 25 days is a very exciting prospect as a child, especially when you get to
eat it before breakfast. Within the Church, however, Advent holds much more
meaning than a piece of chocolate a day or Christmas decorations.
Advent comes from the Latin word ‘adventus’, meaning
‘coming’. During this season we are looking forward toward the coming of
Christ. In some ways, it seems strange to put so much emphasis on looking
forward to birth of Christ. This is an event that happened in the past, Christ
came as a child nearly 2,000 years ago; He is not being re-born every year. We
also are not celebrating His birthday in the terms of celebrating another year
of life, we are celebrating His birth. So why is it that every year we dedicate
an entire season to waiting in hope and anticipation for His coming when we
know that He has already come to Earth?
The answer to this is really twofold. First, looking forward
and waiting for His coming reminds us of the time before Jesus came to Earth. A
time in which the Chosen People really were longing for His coming. While it is
hard to fathom that people lived before the first coming of Jesus Christ, it is
a reality. Consider the Jews fleeing the Egyptians, their prayers were
different than ours in that they were praying for the first coming of Jesus. We
are fortunate enough to live during a time in which we have already gotten to
experience the first coming of Jesus and have the opportunity to experience His
presence in the physical form every day in the Eucharist.
The second aspect is that we are always waiting in joyful
expectation for the Second Coming of Jesus. We are fully aware that we do not
know the time nor the place when Jesus will return to Earth. The season of
Advent, which reminds us how the Jewish people waited for the first coming of
Christ, reminds us that we must always be ready for the Second Coming. The
Advent season is a perfect time to ask ourselves if we are prepared to meet
Jesus face to face if He should decide to come again during our lifetime.
One tradition that has been handed down through the
generations in my family is the preparation of the manger for Jesus’ birth. On
the first Sunday of Advent, we set up a manger scene in our house, complete
with all the characters minus the baby Jesus. Every day after dinner we gather
together as a family and discuss what good deeds we have done for others. For
every good deed, we got straw to put in the manger. Over the four weeks, the
straw in the manger builds up. By the time Christmas comes, and as long as we
have actually performed good deeds, the manger is warm for baby Jesus because
of the straw. As little kids, this was a good way of getting us to think about
preparing our hearts for Christmas and being able to see the results. This
daily exercise of having to think through your day and question if you have
performed any good ideas prompts you to remember what the Advent season is all
about.
As we prepare for the coming of Christmas this year, let’s
try not to forget the importance of Advent. It is through full participation in
the Advent season that we are able to truly rejoice in the joy of Christmas.
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