1st Sunday of Advent

          Merry Christmas, everyone!  Now, doesn’t that sound a little odd, a little premature maybe?  If it doesn’t, it really should.  And yet for much of the world around us Christmas started the day after Halloween.  But for us, things are different.  At least they ought to be different.  Today we begin the season of Advent, which is our solemn preparation for Christmas.  It is not our anticipated celebration of Christmas.  I don’t say this to be “that guy,” the “Advent enforcer,” much less because I am some kind of scrooge – far from it.  I make this point because I think if we get swept into the Christmas frenzy too soon we will have robbed ourselves of something truly wonderful.  I would dare say that if we approach Christmas without proper preparation, we run the risk of robbing ourselves of the very meaning of Christmas itself, and that would indeed be sad.

          It reminds me of a few years ago when I was covering for a parish on Ash Wednesday.  At the end of Mass I was in the back of church greeting the parishioners as they left, and a man came up to me, extended his hand and very boisterously wished me, “Happy Easter, Father!”  I didn’t know what to say.  Here we were with fresh smudges on our foreheads, having literally just begun Lent a few minutes before, and already it was Easter!  I wanted to say, “I need my Lent!  Don’t take away my Lent!  I’m not even close to ready for Easter yet!”  But I think I just said, “Happy Easter to you too.”  Well, I need my Advent too.  I’m not ready for Christmas just yet.  The readings for this Sunday help us, I think, to know what we are to do in order to really get ready for Christmas, and to enter into this season with open hearts and with minds alert. 

In the first reading, God speaks through His prophet, Jeremiah, and says, “The days are coming…when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah…I will raise up for David a just shoot.”  And we believe that these words spoken through Jeremiah have already been fulfilled in the coming of the Son of God in the flesh some two thousand years ago.  In the birth of Jesus of Nazareth (of the house of David) to the Virgin Mary, God’s promise to us has been kept.  And so, I suppose, in that sense we may already say, “Merry Christmas!”  But in this season of Advent it is not only the first coming of Christ that is our focus.  After all, it’s not as if we are literally waiting for baby Jesus to be born, or like this is some sort of yearly “reenactment.”  No, in this special time of year, we also look to the coming of Christ at the end of time.  Already in the last several weeks of Ordinary Time we have been preparing for this in the daily and Sunday readings.  And hopefully, we look to that coming in glory of the Lord not with dread, but with joyful hope.  In a more intense way now we are called in this season of Advent to turn our gaze to the days that are yet to come, when all things will reach their fulfillment.

          But there is still another coming of Christ for which we should be watchful in this Advent season.  Yes, Jesus came two thousand years ago and, yes, He will come again at the end of time, but there is a third coming of Christ that occurs between these two.  And it is this coming that we might most easily miss. It is His coming daily into our hearts.  It is this coming that requires from us the most careful preparation.  And it is not something that we can do simply for a month, but must be about at all times.  We are always waiting and watching for the coming of the Lord in this way. 

Certainly, Jesus is also hidden here in the Eucharist, under the appearance of bread and wine, and in this way He comes to us regularly.  But He also comes in very little and subtle ways in the course of each day, perhaps in a thought or prayer for someone in need, or in a word spoken to us or by us, or in a person that comes to us in need, or in a good deed done to us.  There are many ways in which the Lord might make Himself known.  Our goal for this Advent season is to tune ourselves more perfectly to recognize this hidden, silent coming of the Lord. 

          Then, in the second reading, from Saint Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he tells us:  “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before God our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones.”  In this single, short verse we find a sort of “mini-program” for our observance of Advent.  First, St. Paul exhorts us to “increase and abound in love for one another and for all.”  If an increase in love, charity, is not a part of our observance of Advent, then we have truly missed the point.  If we do not try better to love those around us, how will we be able to perceive the coming of the God who is love itself?  In the love we show our neighbor, we show our love for God.  And if we truly love God well, then we must also love our neighbor.  So, we must “increase and abound in love for one another and for all.”

          Secondly, Saint Paul tells us to “strengthen our hearts,” and “to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father.”  Now, I know that we usually think of Lent as the time for us to deny ourselves and to repent of our sins.  But really Advent too should be a time for this.  In fact, it is no mistake that in both of these seasons we wear the color purple.  Now, this doesn’t mean we should be gloomy, any more than we should be Lent.  No, it simply means that we should do as Saint Paul instructs.  We should “strengthen our hearts,” that is, we should exercise that muscle of the will in order to choose that which is most deserving of our love and deny ourselves of whatever is contrary to the love of God.  So, yes, strengthen your hearts—that part of you that chooses, your will—strengthen your hearts in this holy season by choosing what is good and right and letting go of what is not.

          And then, Saint Paul tells us “to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus.”  Not only should we seize upon this opportunity of Advent to “mend our ways,” but we should also ask God’s forgiveness for the times when we have failed to live up to our Christian calling.  Like Lent, Advent too is a season in which we place more particular emphasis on the need for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  And what more perfect time, as we prepare to celebrate our Lord’s first coming, as we look forward with eager anticipation to His second coming, and as we welcome Him daily into our hearts.

          Finally, Jesus Himself offers us a word of instruction for our Advent in the Gospel.  He says, “Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”  He is speaking in this context of His coming at the end of human history and the fulfillment of all things, but His words are no less applicable to His coming daily into our midst and to our preparation for His coming at Christmas.  He is saying to us, “Be ready, be vigilant; do not grow slack in zeal, but increase in fervor and love.”

          So, I urge you to take these instructions from our readings on this first Sunday of Advent and apply them to make your Advent spiritually fruitful: “increase and abound in love,” “strengthen your hearts,” “be blameless in holiness,” “stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”  Strive to keep the spirit of this season of Advent.  And I know this will be hard at times, as Christmas already swirls all around us.  But keep Advent anyway.  At least interiorly, keep the season of Advent by following these instructions in the readings today.  At the end of it, I think that you will find that far from being robbed of Christmas cheer, you will be filled with true joy at the coming of the Lord.