By Leon Bent –
Don’t overlook deeper meaning of Advent!
Don’t Rush – First Things First: It is important not to skip this first step. There might be Christmas decorations in the shopping malls or Christmas parties to go to, but the first step we need to experience is to slow down and begin at the beginning. If we are to have a deep religious experience that allows us to celebrate the Incarnation – in the past and its meaning for me today – then we have to first taste the depth of our longing for a Saviour. Until we feel our need for a Saviour, we are at risk of missing gifts of the Season of Advent altogether.
Step Two – Longing and Anticipation: Once we experience our deep desire for Light and Hope, Liberty and Peace, we can start to pray with deep longing and anticipation. Longing is an expression of how much we want something. Anticipation is an expression of how much we expect it to become a reality. Weeks 2 and 3 of Advent can become days of real faith, full of deep desire and powerful hope. Of course, the prayers and readings of this period are all about offering us these graces. The expression of promise and expectant hope can feed our desires.
Letting It Become Personal: The second part of Advent takes us into the story of Jesus’ coming to be our Saviour. This is not the story of a generic god saving us. Jesus is sent to be a human Savior. God becomes one of us in Jesus. So, in our longing and anticipation, we can begin to get to know him through his relatives who prepare the way for his coming. We can see the hesitation and questioning of Zachary and Elizabeth, then Mary and Joseph.
They all make great acts of faith to believe, to trust, that the promises made would be fulfilled. We can use the background times of the third week of Advent to let our faith become personal, as we express our faith, our trust in Jesus’ coming to us this year. “Lord, Jesus, I trust that you can bring your Light into my life, that you can give me hope as you free me and fill me with your peace. Thank you for letting me prepare for your coming this year. Come, Lord Jesus, come.”
The Final Days of Advent – Getting to the Manger: So often the final days before Christmas become a blur of activity. Hopefully, this year, we have gotten good at using the background time each day to focus our reflection and conversation with God the Father and with Jesus. Now that we come to the hectic days, we can choose to stay focused right up to and including Christmas. One of the special ways to do that is to not lose the manger. It is the central piece of the story and it is loaded with meaning and message, consolation and fruit for us. The richest of the Advent experiences are here – in letting ourselves imagine the Holy Family of Joseph and Mary arriving in Bethlehem for the census, having nowhere to stay.
A special transformation begins to happen the day before Christmas when we start to imagine that stable where our Savior was born. It is the deepening antidote to some of the excesses of Christmas preparations – too much drinking, too much glitz, celebrations which are quite a few degrees off centre. It is there in the stable, in its humble feeding trough that I will find the fulfilment of my longing and hope. In that poverty my Saviour, my Light and Peace, reveals to me the Good News he came to bring. He came into this world as he would leave it – humble and dependent upon God.
Christmas Joy: Christmas will be totally different, after this kind of deep Advent journey. We can’t help but experience real joy for having prepared to be renewed in the gift of life that comes to us through Jesus. We will sing, “Oh Come All Ye Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant,” with a much deeper meaning for us. When there is more light than darkness, more freedom than addiction, more hope than discouragement, more peace than conflict, we have much reason to rejoice at such a gift. Putting the meaning back into Christmas is reason enough to give Advent a new chance this year, in the midst of our busy lives.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.
Indian Catholic Matters relies on donations in carrying out its Mission to offer inspirational content for free. Your support will indeed go a long way in keeping it that way.
[give_form id=”12111″ show_title=”true” show_content=”below” display_style=”button”]