“IT WAS THE BEST of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” This famous excerpt from Charles Dickinson’s A Tale of Two Cities comes to mind as I contemplate the upcoming holiday season.
Even if it’s a favorite time of the year, it’s overwhelming to assume additional holiday preparations and activities to our busy lives.
However, the stress we may experience during this time pales in comparison to the tension we see lived out in society during this time of year. Consumerism and busyness are celebrated, silence and simplicity are abandoned, and Jesus, the “Reason for the Season” is forgotten.
To save us from the frenzied Christmas experience society offers us, the Church provides us another way, the season of Advent. Each week during the liturgy, a candle is lit on the Advent wreath, and we are invited to examine what we need to “give up” in order to welcome Christ more deeply into our lives. The Church invites us to prepare our hearts as well as our homes as we anticipate the Nativity of Our Lord and His coming again at the end of time.
During the first week of Advent, we pray for the virtue of hope. The opening prayer (collect) for the first Sunday of Advent directs us to ask God for a great desire “to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming” so as to “be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom.” Hope is an act of trust that lifts our hearts beyond despair because it increases our desire for the good things God has promised us, primarily eternal life with Him in Heaven.
Let the gift of hope transform all fear and despair that attempts to seize your heart as you prepare for Christ’s coming.
During the second week of Advent, we pray for the grace of peace. Peace is the gift that the world cannot give. Jesus is the source of peace, and the Church prays in the collect for this week, “may no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your Son, but “may our learning of heavenly wisdom gain us admittance to his company.” Many spiritual writers teach us that whatever our circumstances or activities may be, there is no acceptable reason to give up our peace. When the world tempts us to be busy and stressed about all the things we need to do and prepare, we can ask for the grace to remain in the Lord’s presence and receive His peace.
As the feast of the Nativity of the Lord draws closer, the third week of Advent reorients our preoccupation with our miseries and disordered appetite for earthly goods and turns our hearts to “attain the joys of so great a salvation, and to celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.” During the Christmas season, our society’s focus is driven by consumerism and the enticement to accumulate gifts, decorations, food, etc. While it is not wrong to enjoy and share these things with others, we must admit that none of these traditions or gifts will give us the joy experienced on the first Christmas. This joy can only come from truly encountering Jesus, and we will meet Him in the sacraments, scriptures and our service to others.
Finally, for the fourth week of Advent, which often is quite short, we pray for the gift of love. God is love, the scriptures tell us, and “we love because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19). As we contemplate the mystery of the Incarnation, that is, God becoming one of us, to reunite us to Himself so we can be like Him, we ask for an outpouring of God’s grace and redeeming love. As disciples of Jesus, we are meant to live our lives united to the life of Christ and reject the world’s standard of individualism and indifference to others, especially the poor.
May Mary, Our Mother, teach us how to prepare to receive her Son with hope, peace, joy and love as we journey through the season of Advent.