|
The word "Advent" is derived from a
Latin root and means "coming" or "arrival." Advent is a season
of the Liturgical year; it lasts only four weeks and is,
actually, the shortest season of the church year. It is,
traditionally, a season of hope, characterized by a quiet and
joyful and joyful expectancy as Christians look forward to the
coming of God's Son into the world. But Advent, in the natural
world, is a season of diminishing light, a season of harsh winds
wailing against barren trees, reminding us that we have left
behind the warmth and brightness of summer days, only to
penetrate more each day into the darkness and gloom of winter.
But Advent is also a season of
expectation, pregnant with the hope that with the coming of
God's Son into the world, he who is the the light of the world,
will shed light into the caves and crevices of our lives, of our
world. And this light that we so long for is a spiritual light
that touches and illumines our souls, bringing with it hope for
the future.
Advent, then, has a two-fold character:
it is a time of preparation for the feast of the Nativity, when
we recall the coming of God's Son into the world, and a time of
quiet reflection in which to assess how well we are prepared to
receive him. The season of Advent calls us to conversion, to
preparation for his coming, and a sense of watchfulness.
Mary herself, Jesus' own mother, is the
best and most profound example we have of the meaning of Advent.
Just imagine, for a moment, the scene that began the whole
journey to the birth of Christ: Mary visited by the angel
Gabriel. When Gabriel told Mary that God had chosen her to be
the mother of her Son, Mary responded by saying: "I am the
handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to me."
(Luke 1:38) Now, what was Mary actually saying? I think she was
saying, "I don't know what all this means, but I trust that good
things will happen." And so, of course, they did.
The angel's words to Mary were very
few. he aid nothing about how, when, or where what he had
announced would come about. But Mary's response tells us that,
in spite of her confusion at Gabriel's words, she was open to
all possibilities; she could trust what was going to happen
simply because she trusted God. Mary's kind of trust is, indeed,
rare and somewhat radical; she was trusting that whatever was to
happen to her was far beyond what she could possibly imagine. "I
am the handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to
me." And with these words Mary gave up control of her future,
letting God define her life. This is really to say that Mary
trusted God to mold her life in whatever way he wished. God's
love enfolded her.
We are about to enter the season of Advent, a
season of quiet and joyful expectancy, a season of waiting. The
spiritual life is, indeed, a life in which we wait, hoping and
expecting that new things will happen to us, things that, like
Mary, are way beyond our ability to imagine or predict. But we
do not wait alone for the whole Christian community waits with
us. And the Christian community is a community of support, a
community of celebration in which we celebrate and prepare for
the coming of our Savior.
To truly live in the season of Advent,
is to live with hope and trust in the God who loves us. To live
patiently means to live in the present moment and to wait
there./ Nurture the days of Advent as Mary nurtured the child
growing in her womb.
|
