Advent

Advent is not all that far away, only a few weeks left.  With that, I felt it might be good to discuss it, to show its importance, to strongly emphasize that only through it can we celebrate Christmas properly.

Even worse than the commercialization of Christmas is the retroactive extension of the Christmas season all the way back to Thanksgiving; thus, in all the culture except perhaps in church  (though it may have even crept there), Advent is gone.  Sure, there might be a wreath.  I would admit that people know that Christmas has not yet come- but we'd rather start the party before the guest of honor arrives anyway.

Penance doesn't sell.  Waiting doesn't sell.  Advent is all about waiting.  And, unlike Lent, there isn't the nice tending towards semi-Pelagian self-righteousness giving up of something like chocolate (I'm not completely discounting the practice- only when it leads to semi-Pelagian self-righteousness; which it tends to for many).  Advent gets the chopping block.  

But for our lives here and now, Advent is the most important time of the year.

It bears repeating: here and now,  Advent is the most important time of the year.

Why, one might ask.  Isn't it Easter, or maybe Christmas?  You know, the celebrations of the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery?

I agree.  Easter, and secondly Christmas (with Pentecost in there somewhere) are the most important parts of the year.  I never claimed that spot for Advent.  Rather, Advent is the most important as regards our lives here and now!

Let me explain:

The Christian lives simultaneously in two worlds.  In one world, Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God has died for the sins of all and has risen gloriously, forever defeating death and making creation anew, bringing all who are in Him to the glory of the Father.

In the other world, the Christian struggles with sin and death (which seem not to have gotten the memo that they have lost the war), and all the problems that keep us from looking to and loving God.  In this other world (as in my first post), we live as though that described above hasn't happened yet.  We're still waiting for Jesus to come.  If someone asks me "Are you saved?", I ask them the same question phrased differently, "Have sin and death been completely overcome in your life?"  This usually confuses, and then begins a long conversation over what St. Paul really said (which, in the end, boils down to "I have been saved, I am being saved, I hope that I will be saved").

The first world is the truth.  The second world is the one we experience.  Though we have experienced the Resurrection and are being made partakers in the Divine Life, we're a lot closer to pre-Incarnation than post-Resurrection in the way we carry ourselves.  This is why Advent is so important- it doesn't allow us to become satisfied with ourselves or with the world or even with the state of the Church.  In Advent properly celebrated we experience most fully the lack of Christ which tends to resonate much more with our experience than the actual reality of how present Christ is in our lives.  We realize how much we need to change, how much we need God's grace, how much we need God.  

Living in both worlds, we are in a both/and situation, not either/or.  When one participates in the Eucharist, and experiences Christ made present under the forms of bread and wine, there is a reality and a non-reality.  Christ is truly and completely there, but it sure doesn't look that way- just like the two worlds described above.  Just as in the Easter season we emphasize the fact of the first world, Advent is the time for emphasizing the second- with Christmas being the definitive inbreaking of the former world into the latter.

So here's a challenge:  Try to live Advent as Advent this year.  Don't sing Christmas songs until Christmas (Especially for me, this is hard...But sing all the Advent tunes you wish!).  Wait, like you waited as a child for the presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  Actually wait, be patient- pray!  Beg for God's coming.  Ask again and again.  Prepare a way for the Lord and make straight His paths.  Look at where you have not let God enter your life.  Look at where you have shut God out, where you don't want Him, where you think you don't need Him, where you want to make it on your own.  Celebrate Advent- and I guarantee that this Christmas may spiritually speaking be one of the best ever.