The Coming of Christ by Marianne Dorman

PREFACE

Prepare you the way of the Lord.

Some of us who saw Godspell years ago remember well the catchy rhythmic song Prepare ye the way of the Lord, the vocation of St. John the Baptist. 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 Yet all the time John knew that his ministry would be superseded.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." (Jn.1:26,33)

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 sober 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 brethren. 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 of Christmass. 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, fasting, 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."