Some of us who saw Godspell years ago remember quite well the catchy rhythmic song Prepare ye the way of the Lord - St. John the Baptist's vocation. His life was dedicated to the One who will come after, and to prepare the groundwork for Christ's ministry in Galilee. Yet all the time John knew that his ministry would be superseded. "I baptize in water" but He will "baptize in the Holy Spirit." (Jn1:26,33)
In his ministry John uttered one of the most important truths for living the Christian life: "He must increase but I must decrease." (Jn3:30) This is a most excellent start for meditation for us who want to take the time of Advent seriously, and use it as a time of preparation for the great feast of our dear Saviour's coming at Christmas. This means we passionately desire to prepare our way for the coming of the Christ Child, so we can kneel in adoration and awe at the crib at Midnight Mass and welcome the holy Infant as the humble shepherds did on that first Christmas night.
How shall we do this? The very first thing I would suggest is that we become oblivious of the commercial world which wants to start celebrating Christmas three months before hand and by the time the 25th December arrives, the Christmas story is dead. The second point we have to remember is that Advent like Lent is a penitential season. We cannot come to the manger unless we are truly penitent for our manifold sins and have striven, be it in a small way, to live more Christlike, that is to grow in love for our blessed Saviour and His and our sisters and brothers. So we forget the parties, even if we are shunned by friends and neighbours until the 25th; then we can enjoy a magnificent banquet in honour of the Christ Child with family and friends, and of course during the Twelve days too. Rather we shall spend the Advent time, quietly, meditatively, penitentially and doing some good for those who really need it. If we do, we shall be the like the wise virgins who were prepared with their lamps to meet the Bridegroom. By keeping Advent in this way we shall not mistake the tiny Christ Child for all the tinsel, carol singing and plum pudding eating.
Advent is also a time of hope and anticipation. We look forward to Christmas with great joy as that precious moment in time when God's plan for man's redemption came to fruition with the birth of the Christ Child. He took upon Him our earthiness in order that we might be fashioned like God. As St. Anthony of Padua reminds us "Christ's love for us so bound Him to us, that it motivated Him to descend down to our wretchedness, as if He could not have lived in heaven without us." Thus Advent gives us the opportunity of letting God mould us more into His image. He is the Potter and we are but His clay. Let Him shape us this Advent; let us surrender ourselves to God's hand, and be content as our offering to the holy Infant to present the mould God has made from His clay.
As well as looking forward to greeting the Christ Child, Advent also enables us to look forward to meeting Christ as our King and Judge. Advent anticipates that moment when Christ will claim His kingdom which will rule over all, and the time when we must come face to face with Christ and be judged on how we have spent our time. Advent then should also be a time of expectation. "We have allowed the flame to die down in our sleeping hearts," says Teilhard de Chardin who insists that "this flame must be revived at all costs. At all costs we must renew in ourselves the desire and hope for the great coming." Indeed "we must hope everything for Christ, [as] ... we shall never know all that the Incarnation still expects of the world's potentalities."
Advent is also a time for us to ponder on our whole dependency on God, for without Him we are nothing. There is "really not one true thought or good feeling" we can have without Him. There are no good works without Him. We even cannot "drive away ... any sinful feeling or any inclination to vice" without Him. "It is the Lord who accomplishes every good thing" we ever "think, feel and do."
Of course we cannot think of Advent without a word about prayer. It is the living water to quench each soul. It is the "golden link" which connects the "wanderer and stranger upon earth with the spiritual world ... [and] with God, the source of life." Without it our real selves wither and die, and there is no kernel to life.
Penitence, prayer, judgment, heaven, hell, anticipation and expectation are all worth reflection during this Advent. Advent Sunday begins with its readings beckoning us to come to God's holy mountain. It is this image I would like us to keep before us at this holy time. Remember "one day in His court is better than a thousand elsewhere." There are many ways we can take this. I would like us to take it as God calling us to a place of quietness where we can linger with Him, and to where we have left behind all those facets of life which hinder our union with Him, and our understanding of His kingdom. On that mountain we seek only God, of being with Him, of loving Him and above all to learn more about Him and His will for us, especially in the light of the distinctive Advent themes. Father John of Kronstradt assures us that "the best moments on earth are those in which we meditate upon heavenly things, or when we recognise and defend the truth, which is of, and from, the heavens."
The season of Advent is another opportunity we have given to us as not to let the wordly pressures encroach too heavily upon our very being. Do use this time richly - it may be our last Advent when we can prepare for His coming. A sober thought for Advent comes from the Reformed Jewish Sabbath Morning Service: "For everything is trivial except the pure soul which must one day give its account and reckoning before the judgment seat of Your glory."
Advent Sunday
A Reading from the Catechetical Lectures of Cyril of Jerusalem
We do not preach only one coming of Christ, but a second as well, much more glorious than the first. The first coming was marked by patience; the second will bring the crown of a divine kingdom.In general, what relates to our Lord Jesus Christ has two aspects. There is a birth from God before the ages, and a birth from a virgin at the fullness of time. There is a hidden coming, like that of rain on fleece, and a coming before all eyes, still in the future.
At the first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. At his second coming he will be clothed in light as in a garment. In the first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming he will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels. We look then beyond the first coming and await the second. At the first coming we said: 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' At the second we shall say it again; we shall go out with the angels to meet the Lord and cry out in adoration: 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'The Saviour will not come to be judged again, but to judge those by whom he was judged. At his own judgement he was silent; then he will address those who committed the outrages against him when they crucified him and will remind them: 'You did these things, and I was silent.'His first coming was to fulfil his plan of love, to teach us by gentle persuasion. This time, whether we like it or not, we will be subjects of his kingdom by necessity. Malachi the prophet speaks of the two comings. 'And the Lord whom you seek will come suddenly to his temple': that is one coming.
Again he says of another coming: 'Look, the Lord almighty will come, and who can endure the day of his coming, or who will stand in his sight? Because he comes like a refiner's fire, a fuller's soap, and he will sit refining and cleansing.'
These two comings are also referred to by Paul in his writing in Titus: The grace of God the Saviour has appeared to all, humanity, instructing us to put aside impiety and worldly desires and live temperately, uprightly, and religiously in this present age, waiting for joyful hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.' Notice how he speaks of a first coming he gives thanks, and a second, the one we still await.
That is why the faith we profess has been handed on to you in these words: 'He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.'Our Lord Jesus Christ will therefore come from heaven. He will come at the end of the world, in glory, at the last day. For there will be an end to this world, and the created world will be made new.
