Tuesday Top 5: Why You Should Stop, Drop, and Roll a Little Old School Advent into your Unaffiliated Winter Festivity Preparations

If you don't celebrate the holy day of Christ's mass, this post isn't for you.  If, however, you are interested in really preparing for this defining mystery of time, please read this rather unusual version of Tuesday Top Ten.

You don't have to turn on the Peanuts' Christmas Special to see that Christmas in America has gone to the dogs of commercialism.  While trying to keep the Christ, and for that matter, the mass, in Christmas, we Christians can lose sight of the fact that we have melted the bracing preparatory time of Advent down to a sparkly puddle of secular Deck the Halls.  Somehow the time between Thanskgiving and Christmas has shifted from a contemplation of our need for the saviour to a pre-holiday extravaganza of parties, lights, and shopping.  I don't intend to harp on and on about the excesses of modern culture in the name of "the spirit of the season"- you can see that for yourself- instead I really want to focus on why we should return in our homes to the true meaning of Advent: the time of spiritual longing, patient prayer, self-examination, and mortification that the Church intended when instituting this season of the liturgical year.

The church year mirrors the history of salvation, Advent brings us back to the Garden of Eden and reminds us why we need a saviour. We cannot understand the intense joy of Christmas, the beginning of  creation restored through the Incarnation, if we do not understand how the creation came to be broken.  When we gaze in wonder at God made man our wonder infinitely increases as we come to grasp that the reason for such a paradox is that man gave up being with God to go his own way.  God created man for himself, and man gave up that relationship for his own pride.  Man's selfishness in the Garden and continued selfishness throughout time has wounded his relationship with God past man's ability to heal it.  Advent brings us back to the prophets, the time when "God was about to come to the wilderness which had been impenetrable and inaccessible for a whole age.  For all the nations were empty of the knowledge of God: access to them had been prohibited to all the men of God and the prophets." (Eusebius of Caesaria) Only when God himself in the person of Christ became man could man ever hope to reconcile with God.  This becomes clear only in the light of man's original sin and continued sin that cuts him off from God.    A well-built bridge can be beautiful, but how much more so when it is the only way home across a raging river.  When you see the noxious flood of sin cutting off mankind from God and when you realize that man called forth this torrent, you can fully appreciate the bridge of Christ. That is why the remembrance of sin during Advent, our own and our ancestors', prepares us for the coming of Christ- it reminds us why it is so truly miraculous, why it was so very needed.

Each liturgical year ends with the Gospel reading of the last judgement, reminding us of the four last things, heaven, hell, death, and judgement, which are always to be before our eyes.  In a way, the beginning of the spiritual cycle starts here as well, because in waiting for the celebration of Christ's first coming at Christmas, we also are to wait for his second coming at the end of time, the coming where he will judge heaven and earth.  Traditionally and today, the liturgical readings and Church fathers remind us that Advent prepares for more than one coming of Christ. St. Augustine preaches: "therefore let us hate our sins and love him who will exact punishment for them."  To prepare for Christ's judgement, we ought to examine ourselves, repent, and obey."If you wish to receive mercy," Augustine instructs us, "be merciful before he comes; forgive whatever has been done against you." We recognize our need for His mercy through self-examination, we ask for it in confession, and receive it along with the grace to continue in mercy until he comes through the Holy Eucharist.  The sacraments prepare us for His coming at the end of time and should be the cornerstone of Advent.

In preparing ourselves for Christ's second coming through Advent, we are making "straight the way of the Lord" in our own lives by "repenting for the kingdom of God is near" as St. John the Baptist called in the desert.  We are to be ridding ourselves of earthly desires, not indulging in them. When we turn from sin, we turn to Christ. "Christ's coming is ever nearer than it was. O that, as he comes nearer earth, we may approach nearer heaven!" says Blessed John Henry, Cardinal Newman.  We are supposed to be preparing ourselves for heaven, which as Newman points out in his sermon Holiness Required for Blessedness, means working with God in making ourselves into citizens of heaven.  Focusing on Christ's Kingdom to come fits in perfectly with Advent, because in His first coming he reveals to us that His kingdom is not of this world.  We then should choose Advent as a time to particularly renounce the things of this world and look for new ways to devote ourselves to the work of God's kingdom.

When the prophets of old prayed for the coming of Christ, they consistently received hope by drawing themselves away from the distractions of the flesh and laying their despair before God.  They first realized man's fallen position, then repented with physical manifestations such as fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.  They finally received an answer by listening for the Words of God and following his commands.  We too can feel the hope of Christ's coming when turn with prayer and mortification of self to God.  St. Charles Borromeo puts it this way: "When we remove all obstacles to his presence he will come, at any hour and moment, to dwell spiritually in our hearts, bringing with him the riches of his grace."  These obstacles are sin, the world, and the devil; more importantly, they are our own selfish attachment to these things.  If we mean to invite the Christ child into our homes and hearts at Christmas, we must first prepare those homes and hearts spiritually as well as physically.

After we truly understand the need of mankind for Christ and when we prepare ourselves for his coming through repentance, prayer, sacrifice, and self-denial, then our preparations will have made our joy in his Incarnation as complete as it can be on this Earth.  The Church encourages, even compels celebration at the defining mystery of human existence.  It urges us to take our fill of the wonder of the Incarnation and to draw hope for the final peaceful reign of the Prince of Peace at the end of time.  That is why the Christmas season lasts so long!  Christmas only begins on the feast day; the celebration continues for twelve days until Epiphany and the Christmas season ends at Candlemas, February 2nd.  Through the Church, Christ calls us to mirth by giving us a season of unrestrained Christian joy.  Our homes will be true centers of joy and charity throughout the whole of that mirthful season if we have prepared them spiritually through the solemn time of Advent.  

I am not asking you to give up the outward signs of Christmas or to give up being excited, I'm merely suggesting you consider new ways to prepare your spirits as homes for the Christ child and not just your house for the celebration of His Birth.  Here are some ideas:  Start out the liturgical year right by examining yourself on this past year.  Say the O Antiphons or other prayers for Advent.  An Advent wreath or Jesse tree can be a good physical reminder in your home.  Fasting and abstinence are tried and true physical methods no longer required, but still strongly encouraged, in Advent.  Read a work of spiritual or devotional literature before Christmas.

My husband grew up in a family that had the old Catholic mindset about Advent and I hope I can encourage this more fulfilling mindset to characterize future Christmases in our little family.

One stacking cup in each hand, ready for anything.

 Today is: The Feast of St. Cecilia, patroness of music!

Finn is: 4 months and 8 days old

Mama is reading:  The Temeraire books by Naomi Novik (The Napoleonic Wars, but with dragons.  I needed a short break for light reading)