By George Pence–
(Editorial note: This week The Boy Monk’s regular contributors all address the theme of Advent, a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to welcoming Jesus into our lives and celebrating Jesus’ birth on Christmas.)
Advent is here, so happy New Year!
Advent is the first season on the Christian calendar and typically it is identified with Christmas in the same way that Lent is associated with Easter. They are both penitential seasons of preparation – as is attested by the purple vestments worn by priests during both seasons.
The call to sacrifice that is so much a part of Lent is not similarly emphasized for Advent, but that is an accident of tradition and history without rationale in Catholic belief. Both seasons are meant to encourage reflection and self-denial as appropriate preparation for a great holy day.
Many of us assume, wrongly, that Christmas is both a part of, and comes as the climax to Advent. Just as in a similar way we intuit that Easter is the final act of Lent. However, Advent and Lent are separate from and do not include the great celebrations that they anticipate.
Advent and Lent are entirely about preparation and they have a meaning and importance that is allied to, but not entirely contained by the events that come after.
For instance, Advent is not solely focused on the coming of Christmas. In fact, Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), one of the great doctors of the church, made this fact a major theme in his most famous homilies. Bernard reminded us that Advent is really about the three comings of Christ: the first was His birth in Bethlehem, the second is His promised arrival at the end of time, and the third is His arrival in our hearts and minds on a daily basis.
So Advent, or advenio in Latin, can simply be translated as “coming to”… and that “coming to” is in whatever way Christ chooses. Once that meant Bethlehem, once that will mean at the end of time, and on countless other occasions that has meant His arrival to you, and to me, and to every believing Christian at whatever place and in whatever time.
To think that Advent recognizes a singular intersection of humanity and Jesus on December 25th in the year one is to sell short the nature of our relationship with Christ. Yes, there was that moment in a manger 2,017 years ago. But that moment had immediate importance for only one man, one woman, three fellows riding on camels and a collection of farm animals. For the rest of us that importance comes only in retrospect, and only because there was an Easter.
The relationship we have with Christ is more in the nature of His daily arrival, a consistent knock on the door, an ever-present tap on the shoulder. Advent is about asking ourselves if we are prepared to answer that door, are we prepared to respond to that tap?
For He is coming… always.
