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ADVENT a time of Waiting: a time
of Preparation
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There might be a lot of celebrating happening and money being spent on presents but the actual event that we are celebrating has often been forgotten. Last year the Red Cross even gave instructions that no religious Christmas cards were to be sold in their shops. And the Scottish parliament said the words "Merry Christmas" were not to appear on their Christmas cards. If the true meaning of Christmas is to be kept alive in the world, however, it is up to us Christians to do it. If we don't, who will? Christmas is a really important time for us to witness to our faith and if we are open God will create situations for us to proclaim what we believe by our words or our actions. Today many people don't even know what the real meaning of Christmas is. One of my friends was asked by her neighbour. "Why do you always send religious cards?" The neighbour had no idea that Christmas had anything to do with a spiritual event - the greatest spiritual event of all - Jesus coming into the world to save his people. This question, however, gave my friend the perfect opportunity to share the Good News. If we are to keep Christ as the centre of Christmas, however, and make him known to the world, we ourselves must have a good understanding and grounding about the true meaning of Christmas and take every opportunity we can to make this known. The readings of Advent tell us what we need to know about this great event and help put it in context. The theme for the first Sunday of Advent is a preparation for the coming of Jesus into the world as man. This is such an awesome event, but we often don't reflect sufficiently on it : Jesus, the Son of God, the Second person of the Trinity, left his place in heaven and came, as one of us, like us in all things but sin, to reconcile us to the Father and offer to each one of us the gift of Salvation. "A wake up call" The second theme is the preparation for the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time, which is the gospel reading from Luke 21: 25-28; 34-35, where it speaks about the signs we can expect and the fear that will come upon the earth. This reminds us that Advent should be a real wake up call for us, to remember what life is about and what Christ's coming ultimately means for us. It is a call to wake from our slumber because our liberation is near at hand and it will come at a time we do not expect, so we must be ready. The gospel of the 2nd Sunday of Advent leads us very well into this preparation. "Prepare a way for the Lord", says the gospel of Mark (1.3). This is the cry of the last great prophet of the Old Testament, John the Baptist, and is the central theme of Advent. When it says "prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight, what does this say to us?" An interesting interpretation I came across recently suggested that it is not talking about the Lord's paths that need to be made straight, but it's our paths, the paths to our hearts that need to be made straight. It is an invitation for us to look at our lives and to try to see what are the blocks that are preventing Christ from being born again in our hearts this Christmas. Thus Advent is a time of preparation for us, asking the Lord to show us, what needs changing in our lives, knowing that he will give us the grace to do this. So often there can be blocks in our relationships with others - family members, friends, work colleagues - and Advent can be a time to sort these out.
Let's not delay. Let's realise that time is short, straighten any
crooked relationships and make Advent this year a true preparation
for Christ's coming at Christmas.
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We
will soon be celebrating Advent. The word "Advent" comes
from the Latin word "Adventus" which means coming and Advent
is a time of waiting and expectation for the feast of Christmas when
we remember the coming of Christ, who came to bring salvation to each
one of us. But what does Advent mean for us personally? I am asking
myself this question. Is it a time of waiting or have we succumbed
to the world's way of preparing for Christmas - spending more than
we can afford and getting short tempered because of all the rushing
around we are doing?