Starting the new liturgical year in the Christian church, the season of Advent unveils great riches for us. Advent inaugurates a new year for the church, another cycle of experience in following Christ. Yet, in one sense, we have been here before and done this before.So what? True, Advent's themes may appear to be familiar and self-evident, but the fact is that they bid us not toward entertaining or sentimental familiarity but to deeper relationship with our God and with one another.
Advent speaks of preparation, readiness, expectant waiting, and hope. It can be said that Advent is the best mirror of what a life of faith entails on a day-to-day basis. For we are called to live our lives firmly on the ground of human experience but in the trusting context that God's promised new life emerges whenever God is kept at the center. We are called to live our lives in the world but not be of the world. “Advent” means “to come.”we open ourselves to the life that is “to come” in our midst in Christ.
There are many outward and visible signs of Advent in our midst. For example:
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The Advent wreath marks the season's four Sundays before Christmas
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The liturgical color is blue, a the color associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and consequently an allusion to Advent's call that all Christians are asked to carry the Christ into the world
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The altar lacks the usual flowers but instead has advent greens, a sign of expectation of the blossoming to come.(In some locales the Advent color is purple, the color of royalty.)
The liturgy, itself, changes to present Advent's reality. For example:
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The Entrance Rite is different in Advent. As a sign of our sense of expectation, the procession will begin with a choral introit, a kind of liturgical “town crier,” calling our attention to the fact that something is brewing in God's kingdom.
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In place of singing the Gloria (which we will save for Christmas), we will say (at 8:00), sing (at 10:30) the Trisagion [“Holy God; Holy and Mighty; Holy Immortal One: Have mercy upon us”]. The Russian tune we use conveys a growing power of a mysterious presence.
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At the 10:30 liturgy, we will use Eucharistic Prayer B. Please note how this text expresses the tone of immanence, of how God has just acted in history through Christ's Advent.
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Our Service Music shifts to another part of our musical repertoire for the liturgy. From Schubert's Deutche Messe we gain the setting for the singing of the Sanctus [“Holy, holy, holy Lord--”]Singing a cappella, God's holy presence among us (especially in the Christ) strikes a gentle chord.
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With the arrival of a new liturgical year, we switch our concluding thanksgiving prayers. This coming year we will offer the prayer found on page 366.
The celebration and honoring of Advent stands in contrast to the general culture's expectation of pre-Christmas. Whereas the stores put their Christmas wares on display soon after Hallowe’en, the church strives to be patient, waiting for that which we cannot give to ourselves. Like a pregnant woman anticipating her deliverance, we do not rush into the emotional convenience of a Christmas on-demand.For God's presence is not something we control; nor is God “on call” for us. Rather, we await God's manifestation and will.Advent's posture calls us to work on making room for God in our hearts and lives so that we may, in turn, truly be “surprised by [Christmas'] joy.”
One area in which this discipline hits many of us is that we do not sing Christmas carols until it is Christmastide. We work at not unwrapping the presents before it is time! (Please note that the choir will lead us in a thorough offering of the Christmas carols at 10:40 p.m., just prior to the Christ Mass on December 24.)
The Four Sundays of Advent
Advent 1 contains images and themes about the end of time. Literature sort is called “apocalyptic,” the word, itself, meaning “revelation” or “unveiling.” Apocalyptic literature is used in response to a social crisis that has the power to corrode one's faith. One of the core elements of Advent is acknowledgement that “ Christ will come again,” that the reality that we know in time and space will conclude to “unveil” life on God's terms. Several items deserve attention.
One is that God comes to us from the future.What does this mean in terms of our response to the nature of change, when what is familiar is challenged to make room for God in our life? Another is that Christ has already been born, been crucified and raised from the dead. How does one manage to live in the world but not be of it, therefore?
Advent 2 we meet the season's “poster boy:” John the Baptist. He is a truth-teller, at one in the same time compelling for his piercing directness yet also threatening for penetrating our defenses. In Christian art, the Baptizer is pictured pointing to the Christ. For he is the “forerunner” of the Messiah, the human “alarm clock,” who attempts to wake us up to the presence “Emmanuel:” “God with us.”
Advent 3 is traditionally known as “Rejoice Sunday,” or “Rose Sunday” because at the core of Advent's message lies the presence of our saving, redeeming God. To the discerning heart, Advent's apparent harshness functions like the peeling of fruit: Beyond the tough skin lies the fruit, and once opened, we “rejoice.”
Advent 4 is like a funnel's neck. From the wide-open mouth of the season's beginning, this last Sunday of Advent brings us to the very particular, very personal realities of God's will. Just days prior to our celebration of the Incarnation, this day's gospel reading finds Joseph very much embodying the rest of us. How does faith overcome fear and doubt? How far will we allow God's presence to change our plans, our lives? Advent asks a great deal of us. God gives more to us.
