WE have just ended a liturgical year
with the celebration
of the Solemnity of the Christ the King. We are now beginning a new
one with the season of Advent, the proximate preparation for the birth
of Christ at Christmas.
The immediate thought that comes to mind in this
transition of the old and new liturgical years is that while we should
have the mind of ending well and also beginning well, we should
neither forget that this cycle of life is meant to catapult us to the
eternal life where there will be no more changes of seasons and shifts
of days and nights.
We have to understand then that the season of Advent
implies that we have to learn how to begin again very well. What is
presumed is that we have a global picture of our life.
We ought to know the different constitutive elements of
our life here on earth as well as their relations among each other. We
have to distinguish as well as relate the different dimensions of our
life, like the material and the spiritual, the temporal and the
eternal, the natural and the supernatural, the mundane and the sacred,
the theory and the praxis, piety and morals, work and prayer, etc.
With Advent, we are reminded that it is Christ who enables
us to get this global picture, since he is the very pattern of God’s
creation, and especially of us, as well as our savior after we messed
up God’s original creation through our sin.
Advent tries to arouse in us this longing for Christ who
should not be just a historical character buried in the past. He is
alive, for he is God who lives in eternity and thus is living even up
to now. He is always a contemporary of everyone of us, irrespective of
what era we pass through this world.
In a world sunk in its own fantasy, all but locked out
from God, its creator, there is a great need for us to recover our
proper bearing and to restore the proper place of God in our life.
Advent precisely gives us another opportunity to do readjustments in
our life to conform ourselves more faithfully to our ultimate dignity
as children of God.
This God has revealed himself to us and remains with us
through Christ in the Holy Spirit. It should not be difficult for us
to meet, know and deal with him. If we do our part, we can readily see
him, since on the part of God, everything is already given for us to
enter into an intimate relation with him.
The questions to ask ourselves are: Are we praying and
making an effort to know him? Do we try to be familiar with God’s
word, left in Sacred Scripture and taught authoritatively by the
Church Magisterium? Do we avail of the sacraments which are the
effective signs of grace and of Christ himself, especially in the Holy
Eucharist?
Or are we still indifferent to this need, still dominated
by our laziness or doubts and skepticism, or worse, by some worldly
ideologies that undermine our faith and piety and lead us to
agnosticism and atheism?
We have to understand Advent as a time for conversion, for
growing in our knowledge and love for Christ. It’s not just one more
season of the year, marked simply be decorating our places with
Christmas ornaments. Advent gives us another beginning, another chance
clean up the past and start new with a clean slate.
What can help is to pay close attention to the prayers and
readings of the liturgy of the season of Advent. There we can taste
afresh the preparation of the coming of Christ, our Redeemer, the
drama and the mysterious ways God uses to pursue his plan for our
redemption.
We should accompany Mary and Joseph in their involvement
in the coming of Christ. They can actually show us how to prepare for
Christ’s birth, especially spiritually, so that Christ too can be born
in each one of us.
Human as we are, we need to feel all these things. The
spirit of Advent is not simply an intellectual, spiritual affair. It
involves our whole humanity, down to our feelings, passions, instincts
and senses. The expectation and longing so characteristic of Advent
should be felt as much as possible, and made to trigger the
appropriate actions.
Advent should be an effective occasion to bring us back to
God. When the world seems to be drifting away from him, Advent can
start a new journey back to our Creator and Father, through Christ.
of the Solemnity of the Christ the King. We are now beginning a new
one with the season of Advent, the proximate preparation for the birth
of Christ at Christmas.
The immediate thought that comes to mind in this
transition of the old and new liturgical years is that while we should
have the mind of ending well and also beginning well, we should
neither forget that this cycle of life is meant to catapult us to the
eternal life where there will be no more changes of seasons and shifts
of days and nights.
We have to understand then that the season of Advent
implies that we have to learn how to begin again very well. What is
presumed is that we have a global picture of our life.
We ought to know the different constitutive elements of
our life here on earth as well as their relations among each other. We
have to distinguish as well as relate the different dimensions of our
life, like the material and the spiritual, the temporal and the
eternal, the natural and the supernatural, the mundane and the sacred,
the theory and the praxis, piety and morals, work and prayer, etc.
With Advent, we are reminded that it is Christ who enables
us to get this global picture, since he is the very pattern of God’s
creation, and especially of us, as well as our savior after we messed
up God’s original creation through our sin.
Advent tries to arouse in us this longing for Christ who
should not be just a historical character buried in the past. He is
alive, for he is God who lives in eternity and thus is living even up
to now. He is always a contemporary of everyone of us, irrespective of
what era we pass through this world.
In a world sunk in its own fantasy, all but locked out
from God, its creator, there is a great need for us to recover our
proper bearing and to restore the proper place of God in our life.
Advent precisely gives us another opportunity to do readjustments in
our life to conform ourselves more faithfully to our ultimate dignity
as children of God.
This God has revealed himself to us and remains with us
through Christ in the Holy Spirit. It should not be difficult for us
to meet, know and deal with him. If we do our part, we can readily see
him, since on the part of God, everything is already given for us to
enter into an intimate relation with him.
The questions to ask ourselves are: Are we praying and
making an effort to know him? Do we try to be familiar with God’s
word, left in Sacred Scripture and taught authoritatively by the
Church Magisterium? Do we avail of the sacraments which are the
effective signs of grace and of Christ himself, especially in the Holy
Eucharist?
Or are we still indifferent to this need, still dominated
by our laziness or doubts and skepticism, or worse, by some worldly
ideologies that undermine our faith and piety and lead us to
agnosticism and atheism?
We have to understand Advent as a time for conversion, for
growing in our knowledge and love for Christ. It’s not just one more
season of the year, marked simply be decorating our places with
Christmas ornaments. Advent gives us another beginning, another chance
clean up the past and start new with a clean slate.
What can help is to pay close attention to the prayers and
readings of the liturgy of the season of Advent. There we can taste
afresh the preparation of the coming of Christ, our Redeemer, the
drama and the mysterious ways God uses to pursue his plan for our
redemption.
We should accompany Mary and Joseph in their involvement
in the coming of Christ. They can actually show us how to prepare for
Christ’s birth, especially spiritually, so that Christ too can be born
in each one of us.
Human as we are, we need to feel all these things. The
spirit of Advent is not simply an intellectual, spiritual affair. It
involves our whole humanity, down to our feelings, passions, instincts
and senses. The expectation and longing so characteristic of Advent
should be felt as much as possible, and made to trigger the
appropriate actions.
Advent should be an effective occasion to bring us back to
God. When the world seems to be drifting away from him, Advent can
start a new journey back to our Creator and Father, through Christ.
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