Advent Reflections 2004

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Advent Reflections 2004
http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=1581

12/7/2004 - 6:15 AM PST

By John Michael Talbot
©Catholic Online 2004

Advent is a time for penance. In this it is similar to Lent. But it does not have the same rugged intensity as Lent. It is a bit softer and sweeter. Lent is a more severe penance, aiming at the ultimate extremes of Good Friday and Easter. Advent aims for Christmas, and its images of the Babe in the manger with mother Mary and Joseph, the Shepherds, Wise Men, and Gods good creatures settled in peace and calm. So at least from the non theological and experiential level, Advent is a time of penance, but with the cozy feelings of Christmas. As I like to say, Advent is Lent with a little sugar on top!

Nonetheless, Advent remains a very real time of penance. Beneath the peaceful manger scene is the rather harsh reality of the King of Kings born in the rugged poverty of a manger instead of a travelers inn. This recollection of the extreme poverty of the Holy Family at the birth of Jesus was the point of St. Francis reenactment of the Christmas crib at Greccio some 800 years ago which began the popular devotion of putting a manger under the tree in the Christian west

But even with a more historically accurate understanding of the circumstances of the birth of Jesus the overt focus on Christmas does not really start until December 17 for Catholics, and is not liturgically fully upon us until Midnight Mass. This is counter-cultural to the secular world in which we live. The secular world starts marketing Christmas in July. I know this all too well from my experience as a Christian recording artist. This marketing ramps up more steeply after what is now the second most celebrated holiday of America, Halloween. It makes the all out effort for commercial success the day after Thanksgiving. Most Christians in America at least wait until after Thanksgiving to put up Christmas trees, lights, and mangers.

Catholics do not really begin formal Christmas preparations until Late Advent on December 17th-25th. Until that time the first weeks of Advent are focused on preparing for the coming of Jesus into our life in several ways.

The first is, indeed, the historical coming of Jesus as a babe in a stable, His life, ministry, death on a cross, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. In this we look back in time to the historical Jesus as the gauge and inspiration for our own lives as Christians today.

The second is His final coming at the end of the age. Here we anticipate Gods full knowledge of our entire life, are aware of His judgment, and most humbled in His forgiveness. The early fathers of the Church tell us that the first emphasizes His mercy and humility. The second emphasizes His glory and majesty.

But there is another "coming" between these two more commonly understood first and second comings. St. Bernard, an early Cistercian monk and abbot, tells us of a daily coming of Jesus into our lives through the Holy Spirit in prayer, word, and sacrament within the Church. While the first coming is most inspirational, and the second is most awesome, it is this third intermediate coming that is for me the most challenging on a daily basis. How are we living like Christ, or as "Christians," within our personal world of family, friends, and coworkers? This seems more understandable for most of us, but this is the place where the rubber meets the road concerning the authenticity of our profession of the Christian faith. It often involves really personal and usually pretty tough stuff.

This is where the real penance begins. Do I really use all of the God given tools at my disposal to embody the love of Jesus in my daily life, or does my faith remain only a religious routine of ritual and doctrinal intellectualism? Important as those things are, they do not incarnate my Catholic Christian faith fully. They are most important tools, but only tools, to help me become more like Jesus in my daily relationships with God, people, and all creation. If I ready myself here, then I make use of the first coming to really be ready for the second coming. Then Jesus will really be the center, beginning and end, of my Christmas this year, and so of my whole life.

This Advent please try getting beneath all the signs and symbols of the celebration to the Reality of Jesus in our life. This will cause us all to do penance, or to change, and to change for the better.