I
always like the fact that we celebrate Christmas in the middle of
winter when the evenings are short and it is usually cold (unless you
live in Florida!). Then we begin to light candles and put up
colored lights and decorations to remind us of the coming of our
King. It is a time of great hope and hopefully also a time that
will bring joy. ‘Advent’—which simply means ‘coming’—is
meant to be a time of preparing for two things: we are preparing for
the coming of Jesus at Christmas, and we are also remembering that
Christ will come again at the end of time.
Normally
we think of Advent as waiting for the event of Christmas, but that is
just part of it. Christmas and Easter are two halves of the same
event and they cannot be separated
Each
Sunday in the Creed we say that, ‘He will come again to judge the
living and the dead.’ We don’t know when that will be, but
we believe that it will happen. The Lord asks us to ‘stay
awake’ and not to forget him, because none of us know when we will
die, but the important thing is that we do not forget the Lord, who
loves us and who created us. And so each Christmas we remember that
Jesus came among us, for us, to help us, to teach us
about God, about the world to come and above all to die for us, so
that we can join in the happiness of God when we die ourselves.
The
best way that we can prepare ourselves is in the heart, by trying to
give time to God and being open to what He wants to say to us. The
Lord is constantly speaking to us but often we are not listening
because we are too busy or distracted. People sometimes ask me
if God speaks to me. Yes, God speaks to me all the time, but not
through visions or voices. It's usually through other people, or
through the Scriptures. It took me quite a while to learn how to
listen, so that I might hear what God is saying to me. Advent is a
good time to try and listen again and hear what the Lord has to say
to us. That is why the readings are about getting ready for the
one who is coming, and not being so distracted by the world around us
that we forget him.
One
thing that is characteristic of the Gospels is that they are full of
hope. The message of God to us—the Good News—is always one
of hope and it is certainly something we need in a world where we are
constantly hearing of so many terrible things happening around us. We
don't hear of all the wonderful things that are constantly happening
around us: the many acts of kindness that people continually do for
each other, looking out for each other especially when we are
struggling. This is the Spirit at work in us and this is what
makes the world bearable, in spite of the awful things that happen.
Just a few years ago (Nov 2016), several serious fires were started
in different parts of Israel, just to cause suffering. Then, to
everyone’s amazement one group that came to help out were
firefighters from Palestine. As you know there is a lot of tension
and hatred between these two countries at the best of times, but
there is more goodness in people than evil. We just don’t usually
hear about it.
Jesus
reminds us that while we get on with the ordinary things of everyday
life—eating, drinking, marrying, working—we must not forget the
eternal things. It is a warning to us never to become so immersed in
time and the things of the world, that we forget eternity. Even
though the worldly affairs are important, we must not let them
distract us from the reality of God; the reality that we will die,
that life and death are in his hands, and that whenever He does come
for us, He must find us ready.
In
one sense we can never be ready enough for God. How do you prepare to
meet God? And yet this is what God has created us for and we believe
it will be wonderful beyond our wildest dreams, if we have made any
effort to be ready.
Jesus
says that when the Son of Man comes, of two people doing the same
thing, one will be taken the other left. What does this mean? It
means that although both people were doing the same ordinary things
that we all have to do, one of them had not forgotten about God, but
the other had; the one who had forgotten got left behind.
If
we get totally immersed in the world, or in our families, or in our
work, then we have missed what it is about, because there is much
more to our life than this.
Sometimes
it is when someone becomes seriously ill, or dies, that we suddenly
start realizing how much we have become immersed in the world.
Naturally we have to get on with the day to day things of working and
living, but we are being told to make sure that we also make time for
God.
I
think a good recipe for a ‘happy’ Christmas, is to keep it simple
and spend some time coming up to Christmas remembering what it is
about. Even go to mass once a week, or spend a few minutes in a
church every few days. That way we will remember what we are
celebrating.
"Do not be afraid.
I
bring you news of great joy.
Today
in the town of David
a
Savior has been born for you;
He
is Christ the Lord."