What is Advent For?

SECOND SUNDAY of ADVENT

Fr. Pat Earl, SJ

Bar 5, 1-9 / Phil 1, 4-6, 8-9 / Lk 3, 1-6

I have something very simple to say.  I think it goes to the heart of Advent.  In our opening prayer we prayed that nothing would get in the way of our getting to know the Lord Jesus.  And we prayed to have God’s own wisdom so we could come to feel how closely Jesus accompanies us in our lives.  So let’s ask ourselves what gets in the way of our learning to recognize Jesus’ presence in our lives?

That’s what Advent is all about.  This whole season is all about helping us to become aware of Jesus’ presence in us.  And this is important to note:  it is not that at Christmas Christ will somehow come to us – as if he were not with us already.  Rather, it’s that during Advent we learn to come to Christ – we learn to recognize how Christ is already present to us in very real, concrete, fleshy ways.  That’s what Advent is for.

What gets in our way?  To begin with the obvious, we allow ourselves to become so busy, we fail to give ourselves quality time to spend with ourselves.  We fail to stay with what’s happening within us in any serious, sustained way.  So if anything is happening there, we’re the last to know it.

What I think gets in our way in a big way is a kind of false religiosity we have allowed to shape how we think about and imagine God’s presence in our lives.  That false religiosity is typically very churchy and ultra-spiritual.  But the gospels – and this season of Advent – are all quite clear and down-to-earth about where we are to find the living Christ taking on real flesh in our lives.  Christ’s living presence is as simple as the love we have for one another.  It’s as simple as the loving, caring things we do for one another.  I’m talking about everyday stuff – like getting up and going to work to provide for others.  I’m talking about taking time to listen to one another, even though we’re tired.  I’m talking about phoning or e-mailing someone who might be lonely or sad or unemployed.  The gospels and Advent call these things Incarnation – Word becoming flesh – God’s Glory coming down-to-earth.

For me it is the blessing and the curse of being a priest to see the blindness so many have to their own goodness and holiness.  It’s so obvious that Christ is living in them.  It may seem odd but I especially experience that in the sacrament of reconciliation.  There people are so humbly good.  You are so humbly good.

I want to conclude with a story from an Indian Jesuit, Anthony de Mello.  It’s an Advent parable.  Listen and learn how to use Advent.

A group of tourists sits in a bus that is traveling through incredibly beautiful country – lakes and mountains, green fields and rivers – But the shades of the bus are pulled down.  The tourists haven’t the slightest idea of what lies beyond the windows of the bus.  So they spend their time squabbling:  who will have the seat of honor; who will be applauded; who will get everyone’s attention.  And they remain that way till journey’s end.