Appreciating Advent

It is very easy to think of Advent as merely the beginning of the Christmas rush, the beginning of the Christmas season. This is especially true in a culture where Christmas music has been on the radio since mid-November, and Christmas movies are already flooding the cable channels, and Christmas sales and the shopping rush are in full swing at the malls and department stores. The intensive and even overwhelming focus on Christmas too often causes us to lose the appreciation of Advent qua Advent, in other words, as its own unique liturgical season.

Perhaps more than any other theme intrinsic to this season, the theme of "preparation" deserves the greatest focus. This theme takes on a dual character. We prepare for the memorial celebration of the nativity of our Lord. That aspect allows us especially to focus on the role of the Blessed Virgin in the economy of salvation. More than any other season this time of year turns our focus to her faith, her humility, her service to God's will. In this regard we see Mary as the perfect disciple, the model by which all of us must prepare for the coming of Christ into our own hearts. The Gospel of Luke especially portrays Mary as a woman of prayer, a woman who lovingly contemplated the mysteries of God. It is just this loving, prayerful contemplation that made her ever-ready to serve God's will, ever-ready for the coming of God, no matter how unexpected that coming might be. We never know when God will call us to service, or where we might find the Church, the people of God, in need of our own fiat. So this Advent should be for us a time to renew our lives of prayer, to refocus our souls in the loving contemplation of God's mysteries, so that we will always be attuned to the movements of the Spirit and the needs of God's people.

The second aspect of the theme of preparation is that during this season we focus on the return of Christ, the second coming of Jesus as Judge. It is a time to purify ourselves, to focus on those areas where we need improvement, those areas where we have not been faithful disciples, and to rededicate ourselves to that discipleship to which we are called. In that regard, Advent shares something in common with Lent. We tend not to focus on this aspect of Advent, but this is also an opportune time in the liturgical season to focus not only on prayer, but perhaps also on fasting or other means of purification. Perhaps this is especially true when there are so many temptations leading us away from what should be our real focus this time of year. It also could be an opportunity to offer reparation for the sins of our materialistic consumerism.

There is a difference, though, I think, between Lenten fasting and Advent fasting. Even though Lent ultimately leads up the celebration of the Resurrection, because to get there we must go through the Passion, Lent takes on a much more somber tone. At least that's my experience. Advent fasting, however, cannot help but be infused with joyful hope. That in large part is due to the liturgical readings for this time of year, which simply overflow with the joy of the Christian faith and the Christ-reality. I think sometimes fasting is actually easier during Advent because of that very reason, because it is not a somber, melancholy fast, but rather a joyful fast, an active preparation for the final coming of God's Kingdom.

On a personal note, this is my first community experience of a liturgical season outside of Ordinary Time, and so far it's been pretty awesome. Aside from decorating the chapel and going to the Latin Mass with my fellow prenovice, we are also adding Compline to our community prayer, in addition to Lauds and Vespers, which we already pray as a community. On top of which, we are also having, perhaps once a week, a community Holy Hour of Adoration. I especially love Adoration during Advent because of its eschatological character. The Eucharist is that gravitational force of the universe drawing all of creation towards the eschaton, towards resurrection. And so because that is a particular theme of Advent, joining Eucharistic Adoration to this season is a beautifully appropriate way to appreciate the salvation that we celebrate in the two comings of Christ.