Advent

Advent means ‘coming or arrival’. It is used to denote the coming or the arrival of someone very important or an ostentatious event. For the Jews it was the period of waiting expectantly for the coming of the Messiah. For Christians it is not different. At Advent, we await the coming of the messiah, no less, but much more, we also await the second coming of Christ at the end of time. Now let us apply life’s lesson to Advent and see how it fits into our life.

Remember when you had to wait for the weather to clear before you traveled? You may have bought your ticket to fly out to meet with friends for ‘Thanksgiving’ or any other important holiday that is best celebrated with friends and family far away. You are all packed and your friends are excited about your coming so they wait eagerly for you. Then there was this announcement that a bad snowstorm has broken and that all airports are closed till further notice. You must, no doubt, wait; there is nothing else to do. Your friends will have to wait and pray with you till the storm clears for you to travel. There you have it. That is Advent! Waiting for the Lord. In spite of the seeming hopelessness, sadness and darkness there is always something lurking in both your mind and theirs; you still expect to see and celebrate with them. What kept you going is called hope. Advent is all about hope!

Eugene H. Maly in ‘Word Alive’, said in his reflection on the first Sunday of Advent, Year B, “One of the distinctive characteristics of biblical religion is its insistence on hope in the future. Hope pervades both the Old and New Testaments. It is why we celebrate a season of Advent in our liturgical year; for Advent is essentially hope in the future coming of the saving God. In him is our hope, as the New Testament Scriptures make abundantly clear.” We dare to hope in the face of crisis, frustrations, and disappointment because not to hope is disastrous. We hope because we believe, we believe because God saw us through in the past and we believe that he will be there for us in future, though we may have no clue how that future will be. One thing we do know though is that this future is not without Christ. So we wait patiently in hope for the birth of Christ even as we await his second coming. “Thus, in Advent hope and faith are expressed equally; we can hope because we believe.”

The conflict with this season though is the commercialization of Christmas. Sometimes we may allow this to get in the way of Advent and we may even forget that Christ is the reason for this season. As Christians, we should know where to draw the line. Though we may think of the material preparation for Christmas let us remember that it is ultimately all about Christ. How would you feel if everyone prepares for your birthday and forgets to invite you to the celebration? Let us remember this warning given us by Christ himself on the need to be prepared: “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’” Mark 13:32-37.