Out Of Synch

As traditional Catholics, we often get the feeling that we and the world don’t quite see eye to eye.  And there’s probably no other time of the year when we’re so far apart, so far out of synch, than in Advent.  They’re already celebrating Christmas, while we’re doing penance and thinking about the end of the world.  I hope we’re all managing to stay on the right side of the line between their premature partying and our liturgical observances.  But do I dare to imagine, however, that perhaps we’ve become so influenced by the values of the world that we’re in danger of being drawn into their mentality farther than we would like?  Let’s put it to the test…

What do we think about when we say the word “Advent”?    Santa riding his sleigh on his way to Macy’s?  Covering our homes and the trees outside with color lights?  Spending hours at the mall, or on Amazon, trying to find the perfect gifts?  Office parties, Christmas trees, silver bells, sleigh rides through the snow?  That’s the kind of warm and fuzzy images the world wants us to have?  Why?  So that we’ll be lulled into spending more of our money on things we neither need nor even want.  The problem is though, that we like thinking about these things through the month of December.  It’s “feel-good time” and we’re all in danger of dancing amongst the snowflakes.  It’s time to take stock of our own Advent activities, and make sure we don’t go too far in our joyful anticipation of the coming Christ Child.

So what should we be thinking of this Advent Sunday?  Let’s look at what the Church puts before us in today’s readings?  Not only does she not lull us into the warm and fuzzy, she gives us an Epistle that starts by telling us that “now is the time to awake out of sleep!”  Ouch!  But really, that’s what Advent is all about, isn’t it, especially when we read St. Paul’s next words: “for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed.”  Here, you see, is what we should really be thinking about.  Yes, Christmas is coming, with all its celebrations and partying and feasting.  But the coming of Christmas is really the remembrance of a past event.  It’s the coming of the Christ Child, the Advent of our Redeemer who, two thousand years ago, was born to save us all from Satan’s power.  Today, two thousand years later, we are nearer to the Advent of that same Redeemer, but in a completely different form, no longer as a little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, but as our Judge, ready to pronounce sentence of eternal life or death. before whom, at some time in the next few years, we will stand to receive his justice.  Every day we come closer to our death is a day closer to our salvation, the whole reason for our lives.  The Feast of our Lord’s Nativity symbolizes this approach of our own salvation, and St. Paul wants to make sure that we spend our Advent, “not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying;” instead, he advises us to cast off these works of darkness and put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”  He wants us to be ready to meet our Maker.

And then, of course, there’s the Gospel… it’s the first Sunday of Advent, and all the holly, jolly thoughts are starting to infiltrate our brains.  And then, pow! “There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts falling them for fear. for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”  If the Epistle didn’t wake us up, then the Gospel surely will.  At least, it should do.  But beware that nagging feel of vexation when we read this Gospel, and what we see as the negativity of these events that herald the end of the world.  Are they interrupting our Christmastide reveries?  Do they bother us?  If so, it’s definitely time to set aside the egg nog and turn our thoughts to the serious and very real Advent that is our Lord’s Second Coming.  Let’s remember the all-important fact that for us today, the approaching arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ is not into a cold dark stable in Bethlehem but into a cold dark world of sin that has for the most part rejected him.  Today’s Advent of a coming Saviour refers to his Second Coming, that Dies Irae, that Day of Wrath, when he shall come to judge the world by fire.  And if such thoughts cause you some slight vexation, is it not because we are like the ostrich with our head in the sand, blithely ignoring the world’s tumultuous descent into wickedness, preferring to get a buzz at the office party rather than think about such depressing things.

The lesson we need to learn today then is simply this: to get real and put things in the right perspective.  As we enjoy our modest Advent preparations for Christmas, let us give priority to our preparations for something far more real and significant, that is, our judgment before the throne of God and the never-ending life eternal that follows.  If we succeed in those preparations, we’ll find that our pre-Christmas “festivities” are tempered as they should be, as we set aside the drunkenness and chambering and wantonness in favor of staying as close to God as we are to our own clothes, “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ” as St. Paul describes it.  If we really want to have the best Christmas ever, we should stop obsessing with the idea of making it merry and bright by our own efforts.  Instead we must turn our lives towards the Son of God for it is he who makes everything merry by bringing joy to the world, and makes everything bright by being the Light of the World.