Christmas music is playing through the stores, although it is not all Christ centered. Consider these familiar lyrics: “you better watch out, you better not pout, you better not cry, I’m telling you why.” Why, because someone is coming to town. That is a song and sentiment of the secular season that is used to encourage children into being good if only for a short time because the material reward will be great.
The fact is that someone has come and is coming to town, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The sad fact is that many will miss that coming because the pressures and commercialization of this happy time of the year overshadow the substantive reason to celebrate Christmas. The beauty and mystery and the joy of this time of year ought not to be the good deals we get for the stuff we buy, but the good news we remember on Christ’s birthday. Yet we, including me, can get caught up in the busyness of these days with shopping and parties, decorations and travel and lose sight of as some say “the reason for the season”, the birth of Jesus for a saving purpose.
Some years ago I was with friends for Thanksgiving dinner. My significant role was to stir the gravy and stay out the way. As we were about to eat, the tired hostess sighed and said, “all this work and in ten minutes it’s over, we’ll all be full.” It is true, so much effort over in a flash. That can be true of Christmas as well when we confuse who is coming with what we do, lose sight of what, or rather who, it is all about.
The Church seeks to help us avoid the frantic and frustrating part of secular Christmas by inserting a spiritual dimension to our days, a time of preparation, the season of Advent. We are asked to quietly reflect on the truth that Christ has come which we remember on Christmas day; that Christ is with us each day in the sacraments especially the Holy Eucharist, and that Christ will come again at the end of time to judge the living and the dead a truth we declare in the Creed. Christmas ought not to be simply a festive day that comes and goes, but rather an exclamation of the hope rooted in God who became man. For it to be so, we need time set apart for prayer, for penance and for joyful expectation.
We are not the only generation that has needed reminders of the beauty and joy that can be ours by preparing for the coming of the Lord. Isaiah, our 1st reading, presents a powerful vision in an attempt to prod the people who were going through the motions of worshipping God while devoting most of their time to selfish pursuits. That can describe us when we focus too much on what we are giving or getting and too little on why we are doing either. Isaiah says, “O house of Jacob, (we might substitute O America, if you want inner peace), “come let us walk in the light of the Lord”, lift your lives out of self-centeredness or anxiety. Advent helps us to do so.
St. Paul in the 2nd reading warns Christians to center themselves on the promise of new life they received when they became Christians. They lived in a culture that rejected, ridiculed even punished them because of their belief. They felt isolated and lured to conform to the culture and began to doubt. We can feel that way too as time honored values are challenged, moral choices subject to polls, and religion is marginalized even sought to be relegated to the back room. St. Paul declares: “throw off the works of darkness, put on the armor of light.” Advent helps us to do so.
Jesus in the Gospel encourages his disciples, which includes us, to always be ready, to be right with God. He said, “stay awake, the Son of Man is coming when you least expect it.” The people of Noah’s time waited until it was too late and perished in the flood. The thief takes advantage of those who are unprepared when he comes unexpectedly because they have put off protecting themselves. And so can we delay putting our moral house in order if we allow the pressures of secular Christmas to distract us.
The key question then is not whether we will be prepared in our homes for Christmas Day 2016, but whether we are prepared in our hearts for judgment day whenever it comes. Advent helps to us do so.
There is a legend that when the plants and trees were first created, God set up a contest. “I want you to stay awake and keep watch over the earth for seven nights”, he told them. The trees and plants were so excited to be entrusted with such an important job that the first night they did not find it difficult to stay awake. However the second night was not so easy and a few fell asleep. On the third night the trees and plants whispered among themselves to try to keep from dozing off, but even more fell asleep. By the seventh night the only trees still awake were the cedar, pines, spruce, firs, holly and laurel. “What wonderful endurance you have”, said God. “You shall be given the gift of remaining green forever. Even in the seemingly dark of winter while your brothers and sisters sleep, you will protect them.” As a result according to the legend, ever since the other trees and plants lose their leaves and sleep all winter while the evergreens stay awake. Evergreens have become part of our celebration of Christmas; ever green, ever awake, ever prepared for the coming of the Light of the World.
It is great to participate in the fun things of this season, spending time with family and friends, sharing expressions of our love with gifts, and supporting the good causes that help those in need, as long we keep Christ in Christmas. These four weeks of Advent can help us do so by setting aside a little time for prayer and reflection on what it is really all about. One simple way is to remind ourselves each day, just who is coming to town. Come, Lord Jesus.