Last week,
as you may recall, I introduced the following theme for the four
Sundays of Advent this year: “Turn
back to the Lord and prepare His way. Let us rejoice, for the Lord
is coming among us.” I then went on to talk about how we must turn
away from our life of sin and put our whole focus on Jesus Christ as
He comes to us in the upcoming Christmas Season. Today, I would like
to talk about preparing for the coming of Christ.
I'm sure we
are all familiar with the idea of preparing for something big that is
coming up. From all the preparations for the Thanksgiving feasts
last week to the preparations that have already begun for many people
for the Christmas celebrations that will take place in less than
three weeks, we are in a time of the year in which many Americans
spend a great deal of time preparing. But what are we really
preparing for?
We live in a
society that is both secular and consumerist. That is, the focus of
so many in our society is not focused on God or religion, but on
consuming and acquiring as many material objects as possible. This
society would have us believe that we are already in the Christmas
season and that all these preparations we are making at this time of
year are meant to build up to one big celebration on Christmas Day.
The Season of Christmas would seem to end at the stroke of Midnight
on December 26th.
Some may pay lip service to our Christian beliefs by saying pious
sounding words here and there like, “Jesus is the reason for the
season”. However, it becomes obvious that their focus is not on
the pure joy of the birth of the Savior, but rather on the vain
pursuit of happiness through material goods. It's all about finding
happiness on earth.
Our Catholic
Christian faith gives us something much more meaningful to prepare
for during this busy time of year. The Christmas Season doesn't
begin until the 25th
and then goes on until the Baptism of the Lord on January 11th.
The Church, in her wisdom, gives us these four weeks of Advent to
prepare our hearts and minds and souls for the coming joyful season.
The idea is for us to spend four weeks preparing and then spend a
little over two weeks celebrating. Now, that doesn't mean that we
can't listen to Christmas music or do any Christmas decorating during
Advent. I for one enjoy listing to some Christmas carols this time
of year. However, if we spend our entire four weeks of Advent
prematurely celebrating before our Lord's birthday, it's no wonder so
many people promptly stop celebrating after Christmas Day: they're
too tired and rundown to continue the celebration. The Church offers
us a much more spiritually healthy way of entering this season. Let
us prepare the way of the Lord, so that we may celebrate His birth
properly.
God intended
from early on to have a time of preparation and even sent a man
before His Son to teach us to prepare properly. Even the prophets
spoke of this time of preparation and the one who would go before our
Lord. We see this played out in our first reading from the Prophet
Isaiah. We hear the famous line, “A voice cries out: In the
desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a
highway for our God!” Isaiah is speaking about the return of
Israel to Jerusalem from exile. This will require preparation for a
long journey through desert and wasteland. He is also foreshadowing
the coming of the Messiah, the Anointed One, who will come to save us
all. He will bring us closer to God and to His holy throne in
Heaven. But first, the prophet explains, there will come one who
will announce the Messiah's coming. In this instance, “preparing
the way of the Lord” is not talking about a physical journey that
we have to make, but a spiritual journey that will make us ready to
meet the Messiah when He comes.
Fast forward to the Gospel. The beginning of the
Gospel of Mark introduces us to a rather wild and somewhat unsavory
character who is called John the Baptist. St. Mark the evangelist is
making the very bold statement that St. John the Baptist is
fulfilling what was written in the passage we just hear from Isaiah.
“A voice of one crying out in
the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'”
John is described as being in the desert as well, proclaiming a
baptism of repentance. He is also quoted as saying, “One
mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and
loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he
will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
We have ourselves a very clear message to prepare and make ready for
the coming of the long awaited Messiah.
We know that
we must prepare, but the question remains, how do we make proper
preparations? How do we, “Prepare the way of the Lord?” We
covered a part of if last week in talking about turning back to the
Lord, seeking forgiveness and leaving sin behind. That is certainly
a part of preparing.
Part of our
preparation is also looking at how we spend these 24-plus days before
Christmas. As I mentioned before, this can be a very busy and very
overwhelming time of year. But if we can take a few moments as
individuals and as families to make this a time of preparation, I
firmly believe it will make a world of difference for us all. Prayer
can be a big part of this, whether you take an extra minute or two to
say a few extra “Our Fathers” or “Hail Marys” each day or
pray through one of the booklets that we have available in the
vestibule or some other type of devotion. Families can purchase or
make their own Advent wreaths and can pray together as we journey
through Advent. I highly encourage all of us to make prayer a part
of our Advent. Even if it is just a quiet moment, perhaps at the end
or the beginning of the day, to just ask God to help us prepare and
be truly ready for the coming of Christ, I think we will be well on
our way in this Advent journey. Come, let us prepare for His coming!
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