Advent Reflections
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2022
By Joycelin Raho, Campus Minister
Happy New Year! Wait…what?
This Sunday we start the new church year; the beginning of the season Advent. Time feels like it's flying, doesn’t it? Before Halloween ended the pumpkins and costumes were taken down in the shops and the Christmas decorations went up. The Christmas rush started weeks ago. Even the Jean student center was fully decorated by November 15! Over the next four weeks we will be surrounded by all the signs, sounds and symbols of Christmas. In the coming weeks the television, the radio, newspapers, magazines and the shops will be telling us to move faster and spend more on those must have presents, toys and gifts and that unless we have these things, we won’t have the perfect Christmas, as if such a thing exists.
Increasingly we speak about getting ready for Christmas as if it is a thing or object or that Christmas is just one day rather than a season of joyful celebration.
As followers of Christ we live and move and have our being in a very fast moving and changed world and society. However, we are called, invited and even challenged to prepare a way, to keep watch and to hope. In our Gospel for the first Sunday of Advent, Jesus says to each of us stay awake.
My first spiritual director, Bishop Bill Wack CSC, was the first to challenge me with the following thought. “While it might be important to ask, what are we being asked to prepare? It is a far deeper and prayerful question to ask, for whom are we preparing.” If there is no other time during our busy year, Advent should be the time we prepare our hearts. The readings and prayers of Advent call us to prepare for a person, not a thing. Christmas is the celebration of Christ. Christmas is the celebration of Emmanuel; God with us.
The readings over the next four weeks will point and lead us to Jesus. They will alert and prepare us for his arrival. John the Baptist will ask us to change our ways, and to prepare a way for the Lord. In addition to shopping and buying presents, we are also called to listen to the words of Jesus, stay awake and prepare. If we can create a space for God in our homes, families, our daily lives and our communities during Advent, then we will be well on our way to being ready to welcome Jesus with joyful hearts when Christmas finally arrives.
As we begin our Advent journey, let us pray for each other that we will stay awake and prepare with faith and joy as we wait in joy for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. God Bless you all this Advent season and always.