"A SEASON OF CONTEMPLATIVE AND ACTIVE PREPARATION" | AN ADVENT REFLECTION

It is easy to get lost in a sea of commercialism surrounding Christmas. Some stores start carrying Christmas paraphernalia in October and advertisements for the perfect gift start hitting the airwaves earlier each year. We are a culture with many options being presented to us and it can be very overwhelming at times. So, by the time we get to the start of Advent, we have already been introduced to all we need to think about to prepare for Christmas. So, what is the purpose of Advent?

Advent is a season to take time to reflect on what we are preparing for. It has become for me a season of contemplative and active waiting, listening, or seeing. The question is what am I waiting or preparing myself for? Christ is ever-present, always waiting for me to find where he is being birthed anew in my life. That can come in the form of sitting with liturgical readings each day for Advent, being open to a new revealing. It could also happen through my being truly present to each relational encounter I have at home, in the workplace or on the street. Or Christ can be found in a walk through a garden, watching a sunset or feeling the wind on my skin.

The last Sunday before Advent puts the season more in perspective for me. It is the feast of the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. It is the one line from Matthew 25, “what you did (or did not) do for one of these least ones, you did (or did not) do for me,” that captures for me what Advent is all about. I am not just waiting or preparing myself for a King, but I am being invited to find that King being birthed repeatedly through all of creation, especially those crying out to see where that King is present in me.

All the readings throughout Advent build upon who this God is and how He/She chooses to be birthed into this world, a birth that is ongoing new life. The King or Messiah proclaimed to be coming is already among us. This Christ is one who continually invites us all to participate in this expression of faith, hope and love in a world in need of light, as the words of Isaiah 60 call us to,

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”

Where is that light within and in front of me? What is it calling forth from me?

Joseph Lonergan
Director of Student Services and Spiritual Formation
Franciscan School of Theology