The Church has her own special liturgical year and calendar in
which she presents again the history and unchanging mysteries of
our salvation, from Creation to the Second Coming, together with
the entire life of the Savior. The mysteries do not change, but we
do. A little older and wiser, we have the opportunity to review and
renew these mysteries. When the familiar feasts come around we
grasp something more about them because we have lived another year
and apply them more deeply to our lives. This is a year of
formation, like a school in which we, like pupils, learn faith,
hope and charity. We learn God's will and to do God's will. Each
Sunday and feast will present a special lesson to us for our daily
living.
Advent is an especially lovely season and we can make great use of
it. With the beginning of the season of Advent, we begin a new
liturgical year. The First Sunday of Advent is therefore the
Church's "New Year's Day". In the Judeo-Christian tradition, Sunday
begin at sundown of the day before when the faithful celebrate
First Vespers. Advent begins the Christmas cycle.
Advent comes from the Latin word for an "arrival" or a "coming".
Advent means that the Lord is coming. Jesus Christ, our brother in
our humanity and our God in His divinity is about to arrive. But He
is comes to us in different ways. First, Jesus came to us at a
specific point in history at Bethlehem about 2000 years ago. But in
the Church's great feast of Christmas He mystically comes again.
Second, the Lord, Alpha and Omega, will come to judge the living
and the dead in the Second Coming. Third, the Redeemer comes to us
in grace. He speaks to us in our consciences, he comes to us in the
Eucharist and in the Word of God proclaimed. He arrives in the
person of the begger, the needy, the suffering, the oppressed. We
must be ready to receive and welcome Him when He comes, however He
comes.
Advent is a time of joy tinged with penance. Joy, because we can
imagine nothing more sweet than the Christ Child and His Mother
Mary's bliss at His coming to light. Penance because we must strive
to be properly disposed to receive so great a gift of His presence.
In the millennial tradition of the Church, we faithful have done
penance before great feasts. Christmas and Easter each have their
penitential seasons in anticipation, Advent and Lent. The
liturgical color used in the Latin Church for the liturgy during
both Advent and Lent is purple, a sign of penance. In some places
people may see blue used, which is done without the Church's
approval. The Latin Church also emphasizes the penitential
dimension of the season by directing the use of sparse ornaments in
church and by legislating that instrumental music should not be
used, except to sustain congregational singing. This is a kind of
liturgical fast, which makes the joy and celebration of Christmas
all that much more powerful by the contrast of the lean and muted
season of Advent. Advent is a time of great joy, because we look
forward to the beautiful feast of the Nativity, but it is joy
stitched through with somber and focused spiritual preparation by
doing penance.