Advent Reflections
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2022
By Sam Cowan ’23
During the Advent season, we await the coming of the Lord in our hearts as the precious Child of Bethlehem, who arrives Christmas morning. This is the so-called ‘middle coming’ of Christ: not his triumphal entry into history as remembered in the Gospels, nor his final coming at the end of history, which will signify the renewal of all creation. Rather, it is the period of spiritual anticipation, signified by the name of the season, ‘Advent’, from the Latin meaning ‘arrival’. The image of Christ’s coming, both past and future, grows within as the spirit prepares with yearning for the moment the Savior pierces the veil between light and darkness, hope and despair, and fulfillment and yearning.
Advent is most specifically a time of purification. Today we hear the words of the Baptist: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths: all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” The waters of baptism have cleansed us of our sins and made us pure for our Lord. In the season of Advent, we remember and reaffirm our baptismal promise in preparation for the yearly spiritual arrival of Christ, just as Saint John the Baptist prepared the way for his first earthly coming.
In the past, Advent was a time of fasting. Even if we no longer carry out this physical practice, we should be sober and mindful of the object for which we are preparing ourselves. We are reminded of Elijah who commanded the rains to cease for three years so Israel would fast to purify itself. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus identifies John the Baptist with the foretold second coming of Elijah before ‘the day of the Lord’. Indeed, John, the new Elijah, has not withheld the waters, but grants them in preparation for the Day of the Lord. His disciples fast, remembering the times of scarcity, and awaiting the fulfillment of the covenant, while Jesus’ disciples eat and drink in his presence, fulfilled by the present visitation of the Lord. So, like John, we await the coming of Christ our Sabbath in want so we may be fed by his presence and receive rest. The author of Sirach writes of John/Elijah:
You were destined, it is written, in time to come to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD,
To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons, and to re-establish the tribes of Jacob.
Let us fast with the Baptist–be it actually abstaining from foods or merely an internal vigil–so that we ‘make our ways straight’ in anticipation of being filled with good things in the coming visitation of the Lord, the holy feast of Christmas.