We have now moved into the darkest part of the winter months. It is discouraging to see the sun rise so late into the morning and disappear so quickly before evening. One alert farmer wisely coined: if we did not have the feast of Christmas, we would have to invent it! We break the long winter darkness with festive gatherings. Mid-winter festivities are a sign of social health.
This is such a busy time with all sorts of gatherings and meals. There is very little energy left over to participate in the wonderful spirit of Advent. Now, for any sincere Christian we are challenged to hang on to some meaning in these four weeks before Christmas. The music of Advent will only survive and give us nourishment if we pay attention. Christmas shopping could drown out the music of Advent.
The first thing I must do is ask myself: Does Advent offer anything to my life. What is there to gain from paying attention to Advent?
There is very little to do (i.e., activity) during Advent. This is all about paying attention to the great and wonderful works that God is doing among us. Advent is a gift of time to pay attention to the great struggles between God and the Covenant peoples of Israel. The people learnt through incredible sufferings, (they were deported and abused as slaves by the conquering Empire), that God would not abandon them. God proved to be faithful. The first step is to pay attention to God’s faithfulness to our ancestors.
The second part of our paying attention is to participate in the coming of the very Son of God among us. There was an actual birth among poor people who were experiencing displacement. God has become flesh. Paying attention means deepening our relationship with the God-man Jesus. We must work to get to know Jesus so that we can know what God is like.
The third part of Advent is to pay attention to what God is doing among us today. What direction is God giving us through the flooding of the Fraser River in British Columbia? What does God want to recognize among the huge number of drug overdoses in Canada during the past five years? Is God moving us to share our time and energy with our elder co-workers who have slipped into various degrees of dementia? God is ever at work among us. We want to pay attention.
What I need to do during these four weeks is block off some special time to take the Sunday readings for Advent, pray and work them over. I need to give special time to just paying attention to the movements of God. There is no need to re-invent the wheel here. The Sunday liturgies offer such a rich fare for my spiritual life.
In all the business of this holiday season there is a nourishing gift awaiting: just be, just be present, to our faithful God.
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