Advent – a Time to Overcome Our Emptiness – Existential and Noogenic Vacuum.

Advent season is when many people are driving themselves nuts about shopping and shopping....eating and eating...only to make more waste. This will not result in filling our noogenic emptiness deep within but only landfills. Let us return to what Advent really means.

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December - This time of the year is often characterized with lots of eating and gift exchanges.  In materialistically rich nations, such as the United States, I am afraid that this time turned out to become a season of gluttony, following excessive eating on the Thanksgiving Day.

Of course, gluttony is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It is indeed an irony that this great sin has been committed during this season of preparation for the coming of the Messiah and an ecclesiastic season of penance, as inspired by the preaching of John the Baptist in Luke’s Gospel and Mark’s Gospel.

In his recent encyclical, “Laudato Si”, Pope Francis, also hinted that our gluttonous consumption life style has been critically damaging not only our souls but also our common home, the Earth, in his evidence-based argument on the effects of our rapidly increasing excessive production and consumption, following the industrial revolution.

The truth is that we are no longer waiting for the birth of Christ, as it already took place about 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, near Jerusalem.  Our Christmas preparation, known as Advent, is actually observed in anamnesis.

It is not these stockings materialistic culture prompts children to become obsessed with, it is not our gastronomical bags our inherent weakness with flesh tends to concern greatly, that we are to fill during the Advent season and the Christmastide.  Rather, it is the emptiness within us that we are called to fill during this post-Thanksgiving holiday season of Advent into Christmastide, by praying, practicing Examen in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola,  and heeding to the Word of God . 

The Gospel reading for the Second Sunday of Advent on Cycle C, Luke 3:1-6, reminds to fill our inner emptiness, as our way of making the way of the Lord, in our Advent efforts to prepare for the “adventus” of the Lord, through these words:

Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.   Luke 3:5

In this context, “valley” can be understood as a metaphor for our inner emptiness to be filled, while “mountain” and “hill” can be metaphorically pointed to our rising ego, namely, our disposition for narcissistic arrogance.

The Greek word in the original text for “fill” is “preloo”, and it also means “completeness”.  In fact, these words in Luke’s Gospel were the word that John the Baptist cited from Isaiah 40:3, to prepare for the coming of Christ to begin his public ministry, about 2,000 years ago, by the River Jordan. In the original Hebrew word in Isaiah 40:3, what is written in Greek as “preloo” in Luke 3:5, is  “nasah”, and this means to “lift” and “bear”.  Therefore, in saying, “every valley shall be filled or raised”, during Advent, we are called to fill our inner emptiness and feel lifted as the rising Holy Spirit prompts, while keeping our ego low. Otherwise, we may fall into what Paul Tillich calls “existential crisis”, leading to  what Viktor Frankl calls “noogenic neurosis”. According to Frankl, this is a problem of existential vacuum that characterizes materialistic culture, in which the carnal desires dictate our mind to fill “red stockings” and our gastronomic sacks, for contentment. Frankl also warns that untreated existential vacuum may lead to the psychospiritual quagmire of tragic triad of pain, guilt, and death.

In my past blog article, “Advent Season Preparation Juxtaposition: John the Baptist and St. Nicholas (a.k.a. "Santa")”, I compared  the red stockings, which Santa fills for good children, to our inner emptiness that God fills with the greatest gift of all.  The arrival of this gift is Christmas. The gift is Jesus, the Emmanuel, the Son of Man, the King of the Universe, the Messiah, the Son of Mary, the Living Bread of Life placed on the manger, to feed not our stomach but our heart and soul. This way, God can ensure that we will not suffer from what Frankl calls tragic triad of pain, guilt, and death, and our society will not be characterized with existential vacuum.

Spinoza argued that one of the human characteristics is the fear of emptiness, “horror vacui”.  Out of this fear, we make various attempts to fill emptiness we recognize. However, if you live only a life of flesh (i.e. Romans 8:6), you tend to fill the void within with materialistic objects, which often lead you to addictive downspiral, compared to idolatry, all the way to self-destruction. On the other hand, if you live a life in spirit (Romans 8), transcending the sphere of carnal influences (the domain of a life in flesh). After all, it is Jesus who said these words to remind us of the importance of the Holy Spirit, upon inviting us to receive the Living Bread of Life:

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.  John 6:63

Is your Advent focuses on the Holy Spirit, which can be juxtaposed to the Word of God, as written in the scriptures, especially spoken by Jesus, as “rhema”?

If our heart’s desire for Christmas is to receive Jesus to fill your inner emptiness, then, we overcome what flesh desires, while repent and cleanse our heart, to make the way of him to come fill and lift us. This way, we do not let our ego be raised by addictive materialistic pursuit and gluttony.  Let us be awaken to the light of the Holy Spirit – to the sound of “rhema” or “dabar”, comparable to the “pneuma” or “neshmah” in the form of “logos”, the Word. 

As we become awaken to the increasingly nearness of the adventus of our saving Lord, we are naturally inspired to let our inner kindness be known by our works of mercy.