This Advent Prepare a Way for Him in Your Heart

Once again, Advent has rushed to meet me much too soon. For months now we’ve all been saying you just can’t plan ahead for anything anymore. Go out for a bite to eat next week?  Maybe – depends on Covid. Take a trip away? Better not –  Covid. You get the idea. Not being able to count on a future event is the “new normal” and it has been one of the most difficult adjustments. Still, after a while one can get used to just about anything. And so it was a pleasant surprise last week when I walked past a large horse chestnut tree and thought, Oh, well…next year I’ll be able to gather some conkers, suddenly realizing yes! I will be able to gather conkers next year!  As long as I’m still around, naturally. This was the first thing I didn’t have to think twice about and modify for many months.

As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Genesis 8:22

It was pleasant to remember that tiresome or unpleasant as it is, this will all be over eventually – like high school. I had a boost of confidence knowing that just as the sun continues to rise and set so will the seasons continue to change from one to the other. We can depend on it just as we can depend on God’s continued presence in our lives and in our world. A comforting thought. The liturgical seasons are also changing. We are moving now into Advent and very soon we will be celebrating Christmas.

We’re in another lockdown here in England, this time for the month of November, most of which will have passed by the time this is published. Unless, of course, the lockdown has been extended. A bit of the uncertainty that is so much a part of the “new normal”. The lockdown was announced on the 31st of October. The media focused immediately on making people worry about how Christmas might be impacted. Shops were quick to stay open late for the people who rushed out and panic-shopped for gifts and decorations.

This time it has been dubbed “lockdown light” because schools and more types of shops are open than were before – garden centres, for example. Sadly, the English government still insists on classifying religious services as non-essential and so all places of worship are closed except for individual prayer. It is better than last time when all the churches were closed completely, but far from perfect. (A short break for a civics lesson: in the United Kingdom in addition to the English parliament there are the three “devolved” governments of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. They each have different laws concerning lockdown and much more. In some of those countries religious services are allowed, with restricted numbers.)  

Christmas has been completely secularised here. It is all about shopping, Santa Claus, television specials, overeating, overdrinking, and overindulgence for everybody. In that regard, there may be good cause for concern about the consequences of this lockdown. Already there are “experts” advising how to keep from overloading the credit cards and manage the children’s expectations. At the same time, the media is pushing us to spend as much money as we can – or more. They tell us how to buy the perfect gift, put up perfect decorations, cook the perfect turkey dinner (yes, turkey), and host the perfect party.

We are surrounded by promises of perfection. We are distracted by bright lights, shiny colours, and the sound of “seasonal” songs with the jingle bells counting down the shopping days until Christmas. We are overwhelmed with all the stuff of Christmas and none of the reality. The real meaning escapes us – or is desperately being hidden from us. What would Christmas really be like without the decorations, the cards, the gifts? What if there was no tree decorated and standing in the living room and in our church? How would it be without all the traditional trappings? Would it even feel like Christmas?   

She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.” Matthew 1:21-23

Don’t get me wrong. I am describing the type of Christmas celebrated all my life. Except for the perfunctory Nativity scene with its little figurines, there was nothing in my childhood to indicate the cause of the holiday. But then, I was raised a pagan, not a Christian. Not that I realised we were pagan at the time, nor for many years later. We were the normal ones. Those people who put up signs reading “Put Christ back into Christmas” were the strange ones. We thought of them as fanatics who were definitely out of step with the world. They were out of step with the world and God bless them, every one! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to those unknown people long ago and far away who every year were the only ones to remind me what Christmas is about.

Did the Word become flesh and pitch His tent among us only to give us a reason to go shopping or eat too much? Does it require the maker of the universe to become one of us for us to go visit our grandparents? These sound like ridiculous questions, but the things we do each year show our answers and we do not think them ridiculous at all.

If we each counted how much of Advent is taken up with pagan vs. Christian activities or behaviours, what would be the result? If going to Midnight Mass is the only thing done to mark the season, for example, then I suppose the tally would be something like 99.9% pagan. What changes would it take to make even 50% Christian? Of course, that would still leave 50% pagan. I was going to write that at least it is better than nothing, but I am not sure about that. Jesus gave 100% and that is what He wants from us, not half.

Many people are expected to do their Christmas shopping online during this lockdown, though there will still be plenty who will spend December out in the shops racing to find the right gift or the best bargain. As Catholic Christians, our main focus during the weeks leading to Christmas should be to remember the end times and bring into our minds and hearts the longing for Christ to come again. The Cycle of Prayer for Advent guides us to pray for Openness to the Word of God, Migrants and Refugees, and Expectant Mothers. Considering the season as well as the state of the world this makes real sense as the focus of our actions and our prayers.

The Church, especially during Advent and Lent…re-reads and re-lives the great events of salvation history in the “today” of her liturgy. (CCC 1095)

Each year the Advent readings lead us through the history of God’s chosen people. We start by remembering the centuries waiting for the messiah to come, yearning for the fulfillment of the promises of God. Soon we hear of the birth of John the Baptist who tells us of the nearness of the Lord and of our need to prepare for His coming. Through the month of December, we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ more fully into our hearts. We remember His birth 2,000 years ago as we await His return at the end of time.

Advent and Lent both use the colour purple, an ancient symbol of penance as a means of preparation. We are encouraged to seek the sacrament of reconciliation and to take the time to read the gospels and other good books to help us celebrate Christmas with a deeper understanding of the meaning of Christ’s Incarnation. Vincent Ryan OSB has written an excellent and very interesting article about the history and spirituality of Advent here. The main thing is to allow both seasons to give us time to slow down and think about our lives and how we spend our time as well as our money.

So what am I suggesting? That we all stop buying gifts and decorating trees and singing Carols? Not at all. But I am suggesting that these not be the most important things about Christmas. That if they are, then we should take some time to stop and think again about our priorities. We are pilgrims on our way to our home to be with Christ in heaven. Think about our true home during these holidays. After all, the big celebration isn’t in the car on the way home to meet our loved ones. It happens once we get there and are all together again.

In Advent, the liturgy frequently repeats and assures us, as if to overcome our natural diffidence, that God “comes”: he comes to be with us in every situation of ours, he comes to dwell among us, to live with us and within us; he comes to fill the gaps that divide and separate us; he comes to reconcile us with him and with one another. He comes into human history to knock at the door of every man and every woman of good will, to bring to individuals, families and peoples the gifts of brotherhood, harmony and peace. This is why Advent is par excellence the season of hope in which believers in Christ are invited to remain in watchful and active waiting, nourished by prayer and by the effective commitment to love. (Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus 3 December 2006