Advent

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This is the time when we are especially asked to prepare for the coming of Christ to us and to the world. Of course, Christ comes into our lives daily through grace and, in a very special way, in Holy Communion. He promised us:

If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him. (John 14:23)

Advent is a time when we can ponder this promise and ask ourselves whether we do love Jesus, and to what extent we live according to God’s will. In order to help us, Advent has two distinct parts during which we are given Scripture readings that allow us to reflect on the two great physical comings of Jesus Christ into the world-Christmas and the End of Time.

From the First Sunday of Advent until the 16th of December, the Church focuses our minds on an event that has not yet happened: the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time, ‘to judge the living and the dead,’ as we profess in the Creed. The readings are urgent in mood, asking us to get our lives in order so as to be ready for judgement, and to leave nothing to chance.

The second part of Advent starts on the 17th December, and the focus shifts to the first Coming of Christ as a baby in Bethlehem, the Divine Word made flesh, the clear, emphatic expression of God’s love for us, a declaration so immense it is barely comprehensible. As we await this event of overwhelming love, with its promise of salvation, the mood changes to one of increasing joy, and so it is that we Catholics put up cribs and decorations only on or after the 17th December.