The First Sunday
of Advent (A)
Dear
brothers and sisters,
The
older I get, the more I dislike winter. I have never enjoyed the cold
temperatures, or the ice and snow, but what I dislike the most is the weeks and
months of darkness, which feels more oppressive with the passage of years. A
few days ago I was sitting at my desk in my office in the rectory trying to
clear out the e-mail inbox, when I happened to look up and outside through the
window. It was about 6:00 in the evening and utterly black. A tremendous yawn
overtook me and I yearned for the return of the sun because I was ready to
crawl back into bed. Perhaps you’ve been there, too.
I once worked in a toy store as the Parental Video Game Adviser at a time when the Friday after Thanksgiving was known as Green Friday because many stores took in more than half of their annual income that day. Now that day is known as Black Friday, supposedly because stores now begin to operate in the black instead of the read. Still, I cannot help but wonder if this change in name is not somehow related to – or indicative of - a change in our hearts, a change not for the better.
To
understand what I mean, consider the following events that all took place in
these United States of America in connection with Black Friday shopping: a man
was shot dead and a woman injured in a parking lot in San Antonio, Texas because
the deceased told another man to stop grabbing a woman by her hair; two people
were shot in Chattanooga, Tennessee after an argument about merchandise broke
out in a mall; one man was killed and another wounded in Atlantic City, New
Jersey while standing in line outside a store waiting for the “door buster
savings;” a man was shot dead in Reno, Nevada because of a parking space
dispute; another man was killed in Memphis, Tennessee while shopping in a mall;
and customers fought over washcloths selling for $1.60 in Bainbridge, Georgia
and broke out in a brawl.[1]
Is this the joy of the season? Is this what it is all about? Is this really the
most wonderful time of the year? Does this not show a darkening of our hearts?
In
the midst of the darkness of these days, I find myself repeating a line J.R.R.
Tolkien gave to Aragorn at Helm’s Deep: “Yet dawn is ever the hope of men.”[2]
The ancient Christians prayed looking toward the east; even in their homes they
would look out an eastward facing window when making the sign of the Cross and
saying their prayers. They did so in the confidence of the return of “the one
Morning Star who never sets,” Christ Jesus, “who, coming back from death’s
domain, has shed his peaceful light on humanity.”[3]
They looked to the east because they knew that dawn is ever the hope of men.
They looked not simply the dawning of a new day, but for the dawning of the
coming of the Lord Jesus with his angels; they lived in eager expectation of
his coming and sought not to be caught unawares lest he come as a thief in the
night. Can the same be said of us?
This
season of Advent, then, has as its chief aim two purposes: first, a preparation
for the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time, and, second, a preparation
to celebrate his Birth at Bethlehem. The temptation today is to anticipate too
early Christmas Day at the expense of our spiritual growth. In many families,
the Christmas tree and the Nativity set have already been raised and will be
taken down shortly after Christmas dinner, in stark contrast to the liturgical
year, which celebrates Christmas beginning not until Christmas Day and
continues through the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, this year the ninth of
January.
It
seems we have forgotten this rich season that calls us to wait, to be still, to
ponder, and to hope for the dawn. The Church “raises its gaze to the final goal
of pilgrimage in history, which is the glorious return of the Lord Jesus” and, recalling
Jesus’ “birth in Bethlehem with emotion, it bends down before the crib. The
hope of Christians is directed to the future, but always remains well rooted in
a past event.”[4]
Too
often we lose sight of both of these directions – the future and the past - in
the hustle and bustle of worldly life and are caught up in the present. Advent
calls us to step beyond this busy-ness, to contemplate anew the great love of
the Lord Jesus who “shall judge between the nations and impose terms on many
peoples” (Isaiah 2:4).
Our
communal neglect of Advent in favor of the maddening greed of Black Friday
“seems especially disturbing – for it’s injured even the secular Christmas
season: opening a hole, from Thanksgiving on, that can be filled only with
fiercer, madder, and wilder attempts to anticipate Christmas.”[5]
We find ourselves surrounded by
More Christmas
trees. More Christmas lights. More tinsel, more tassels, more glitter, more
glee – until the glut of candles and carols, ornaments and trimmings, has left
almost nothing for Christmas Day. For much of America, Christmas itself arrives
nearly as an afterthought: not the fulfillment, but only the end, of the long
Yule season that has burned without stop since the stores began their Christmas
sales.[6]
Is
this not what the Lord Jesus warns against when he tells us that we also “must
be prepared, for at an hour [we] do not expect, the Son of Man will come”
(Matthew 24:44)?
It
is too easy for us to give in to the temptations that surround us, to focus on
the commercialism and materialism of the culture in which we find ourselves,
and ignore this season of grace in which we should be stirring ourselves from
our faithlessness and from our sluggish spiritual sleep (cf. Romans 13:11). We
must instead focus on Jesus, on keeping his commands by loving God and neighbor
in every circumstance, and prepare to meet him when at last he comes to judge
the living and the dead.
If you have done
everything that was asked of you and are prepared for it, then you have nothing
to fear, but if you have not, then look out! Paul is not trying to frighten his
hearers but to encourage them, so as to detach them from their love of the
things of this world. It was not unlikely that at the beginning of their
endeavors they would be more dedicated and slacken off as time went on. But
Paul wants them to do the opposite – not to slacken as time goes on but to
become even more dedicated. For the nearer the King is, the more they ought to
be ready to receive him.[7]
So
long as there is yet another dawn, there is time for us to “throw off the works
of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12).
Let
us, then, keep these days of Advent well, not in the anticipation of the gifts
we will exchange on Christmas Day, but in gratitude for the gift of the Lord’s
mercy given us in his Birth at Bethlehem and in expectation of his return in
glory. Just a few days ago, His Holiness Pope Francis gave us a bit of wise
fatherly advice. He encouraged us to spend time in the presence of the Blessed
Sacrament, with the Eucharistic Lord present in his tabernacle, and to make a
simple prayer: “You are God; I am a poor child loved by You.”[8]
If
we make this prayer our own, the Lord will help us remember the many ways we
have failed to love both God and neighbor. With these sins in our minds and
hearts, we can enter the confessional and entrust ourselves again to God’s
merciful love. We will leave the confessional with a lightened and joyful heart
and “the dawn from high shall break upon us” (Luke 1:78). Then, this will truly
be the most wonderful time of the year. Amen.
[1] cf. Liam Quinn and Myriah Towner,
“Black Friday turns ugly as at least three people are shot dead including GoodSamaritan trying to break up domestic in Walmart parking lot – as shoppersfight over everything from TVs to $1.60 towels,” Daily Mail, 25 November 2016.
[2] J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The
Lord of the Rings, 3.7 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994), 524.
[3] “Exultet,” Roman Missal.
[4] Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus Address, 27 November 2005.
[5] Joseph Bottum, “The End of
Advent,” First Things (December 2007),
20.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans, 23. In Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture,
New Testament Vol. VI: Romans. Gerald Bray, ed. (Downers Grove, Illinois:
Inter Varsity Press, 1998), 321.
[8] “Pope: Corruption is blasphemy which leads to worship of money,” Vatican Radio, 24 November 2016.
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