1st Sunday of Advent
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
OLR, NOLA
This
time of year, my family and friends call me The Grinch. The
seminarians will call me Scrooge. I'm not grouchier or any more
mean-spirited right before Christmas. . .I just happen to enjoy
Advent, and I want us all to anticipate the Lord's birth at
Christmas. I want us to truly wait for him, not rush head-long into
the gift-grubbing and cheap marketing tricks. So, I'm not the Grinch
nor am I Scrooge. I prefer the term “Advent Nazi.” No Christmas
decorations before Dec. 24th. No tree, no bells, no
gift-wrapping, no Santas! No hymns about Baby Jesus – “Silent
Night,” “The First Noel,” “Away in the Manger.” None of
that! I don't even want to see the colors red, green, and white in
close proximity before the vigil Mass on the 24th. Advent
colors are purple, purple, rose, and purple. In that order.
Oh, and while I'm ranting, Christmas concludes with the feast of the
Epiphany on January 6th not December 26th. Why
is all this important? Because I am convinced that we have lost the
art of waiting, the fine art of anticipation. We no longer know how
to “look forward to” anything, so we are constantly made anxious
by what's coming.
Or,
in the case of Advent, we are made anxious about who's coming. We
can't avoid the fact that Luke's gospel description of the Lord's
coming has a strong sense of foreboding about it, “. . .nations
will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the
world. . .” We know that the Lord has been born. And we celebrate
his birth every year at Christmas. But we also know that he will come
again. We just don't know when. The idea here is to warn us, to get
us ready for an event that we know is coming, but we don't know when
it's coming. That tension btw knowing and not-knowing can make us
anxious. Unless! Unless, we have properly
waited; that is,
unless we truly
anticipate this
coming event. How do we properly wait, truly anticipate? One way is
to set aside a time every year during which we emphasize the
expectation of his second arrival, during which we sing and pray and
read about him coming among soon as a child. Advent prepares us for
his second coming (date unknown) by teaching us to wait for his birth
(Dec 25th). If we will not celebrate Advent properly, we will not be
ready for his coming again.
So,
why do we start celebrating Christmas the day after Halloween? Lots
of reasons. Most of them have to do with worshiping the demon,
Mammon. Money. Sales. Profit-margins. Staying in the black.
Consumerism. But I think there's an even deeper, spiritual
explanation for our rush: living
with anticipation feels like deprivation.
Waiting patiently feels like we are “put upon,” made to feel
unimportant or small. I
want what I want and I want now! If I don't get what I want
right-this-second, then I am being deprived of something I need. I'm
being denied, refused!
What used to be eagerness becomes impatient entitlement. What used to
be genuine joy, waiting for the coming of Christ, becomes bored
cynicism. Jesus says of his coming again, “Beware that your hearts
do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties
of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.”
“That day” – his coming again – can catch us by surprise and
trap us only if we have forgotten how to wait, forgotten how to
expect and anticipate. We can be prepared to welcome the Christ Child
at Christmas AND Christ the Just Judge at his coming again by
properly celebrating Advent, by paying careful attention to the
traditions of this season.
If
we do this, if we are “vigilant at all times and pray that [we]
have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent,”
Christ's second coming will be no surprise to us. If we allow the
Advent season to teach us how to be patient, we will “see the Son
of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory,” and we will
not be anxious or afraid. Every year I watch videos of Black Friday
shoppers mauling each other for Christmas deals – cheap TV's and
limited edition toys. And every year I imagine that I can hear the
demon, Mammon, laughing at his own worshipers. How many of those
people elbowing each other in the face for a on-sale blender will
patiently wait for the birth of the Christ Child? Do they believe
that Walmart sales and coupons will help them when the Just Judge
returns? I don't know. But I do know God the Father fulfilled His
promise to send us His Son in the flesh. And I know that He will
fulfill His promise to send us His Son again in judgment. If you know
the first, then believe the second, and wait. Wait ready. Wait
patiently. Wait as if your eternal life depends on it.
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