Advent is Not for Holiday Stress but a Time of Preparatory Penance and Anticipatory Joy.

As we have begun the Advent Season on Cycle A, let us make sure our Advent will be as what Advent is meant to be. It means that our Advent  will not turn into a time of holiday stress but a time of preparatory penance and anticipatory joy for Christ's coming. 

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Happy New Liturgical Year and Happy Advent! It’s Year (Cycle) A!

A liturgical year (cycle) begins with the First Sunday of Advent on all cycles (A, B, C).  We have just begun a liturgical year of A on this First Advent Sunday on the ABC-3-cycle liturgical calendar.

Because the liturgical color of the Advent season is purple and there is no gloria singing at Mass during this season, just as it is the case during Lent, we regard this preparatory season for Christmas as a penitential. However, Advent is not considered as a penitential liturgical season in the eyes of the Canon Law. Nevertheless, it bears a penitential tone like Lent mainly reflecting a theme of the Second Sunday of Advent Gospel readings on Cycle A and Cycle B (Matthew 3:1-12, A; Mark 1:1-8, B): repent because the Kingdom of God is at hand. For this reason, all the Second Sunday of Advent Gospel readings (Matthew 3:1-12, A; Mark 1:1-8, B; Luke 3:1-6, C) cite Isaiah 40:3, which says the voice in the wilderness is calling to prepare the straight way of the Lord to come. It means that a prophetic voice in the wilderness is calling us to remove all obstacles that may get in the way of the Lord to come, as his Kingdom is at hand. The obstacles are our sins. Therefore, the Second Sunday of Advent focuses on our need to repent in order to truly joyfully prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord on Christmas.

Yes, though there is a penitential tone of this preparatory liturgical season, except for the Gaudete Sunday (the Third Sunday of Advent), which focuses on joy in our anticipation of the Lord’s coming, it is essentially a season to rejoice. Therefore, we can say, “Happy Advent!” in addition to “Happy New Liturgical Year!”

So, we have just begin a new liturgical year with the Advent season of preparatory penance and anticipatory joy on this First Sunday of Advent on Cycle A to set the tone for the season. And it is important to reflect this theme from the Gospel Reading of the First Sunday of Advent.

These are the words of Christ read for the First Sunday of Advent on Cycle A:

"As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
In those days before the flood,
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage,
up to the day that Noah entered the ark.
They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.
So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.
Two men will be out in the field;
one will be taken, and one will be left.
Two women will be grinding at the mill;
one will be taken, and one will be left.
Therefore, stay awake!

For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." (Matthew 24:37-44)

Jesus spoke these words directly to his disciples in Jerusalem during his last seven days before his Crucifixion.

Basically, the above kerygma of Christ emphasizes the importance of being vigilant for the coming of the Lord so that we are prepared to meet his at his arrival. Vigilance – so that we will not be caught being destructed from recognizing signs of his coming and making ourselves prepared to meet him at his arrival, when he actually comes. Yes, he is coming as he promised to the disciples during the Last Supper (John 14:1-3). And, he wants us to be prepared for his coming at an unexpected and unannounced hour (Matthew 24:37).

The way Jesus put this important teaching is that his unannounced coming may be like how the Great Deluge wiped out those who were too ignorant about the coming of the flood (Genesis 6:9-7:24) in Matthew 24:37-39. They did not know that the flood was coming because they had lost faith and had been preoccupied with mundane matters to the point of wickedness. Jesus has given us a warning that we would face this kind of punishment if we are unprepared to meet him when he is coming, and we may be in such a trouble if we were too busy with worldly and earthly affairs to keep our faith in preparing ourselves for his coming.

As the Advent Season progresses toward Christmas, many of us go experience so-called “holiday stress”. We become more stressed during the Advent Season as we become increasingly busy with holiday shopping. We are also very with so many social events that come with heavy eating and drinking during this season of a year. With all these mundane and worldly stressors, how can we really stay focused on Christ and his coming, in preparing ourselves vigilantly for his arrival? How can we keep us from all these distractions and remain focused on making high way for Christ to come to us during the Advent Season?

Imagine you were so busy shopping and partying to a point of sin of gluttony when Christ comes and you did not even notice his arrival. Then, which one would you be: one taken by Christ or one left in this world to be deconstructed (Matthew 24:40-41)? If you let the worldly preholiday and holiday craziness make you off-guard while Christ is coming, you would be left by him when he comes to take those who remain vigilant with him (i.e. 1 Thessalonians 4:17). While those who are taken by Christ with him upon his coming are like Noah but those who are left out will be like those who were washed out by the Great Deluge.

After all, Advent is a season of penance to remove obstacles in our hearts to make straight highway for God to come, as the Second Sunday of Advent reminds us. At the same time, it is also a season of anticipatory joy, as the Gaudete Sunday (the Third Sunday of Advent) reflects. It is not a season to drive ourselves to destructive stress, raising our blood cortisol level.

To make the Advent Season as it is meant to be, in light of Christ’s kerygma for us to prepare for his coming, we must be strong enough to remove all obstacles, which distract our attention from Christ and his coming. Namely, these obstacles are our sins, internally, and are distracting factors, such as unnecessary shopping and partying, externally.

The world, where evil prevails, and its secular norms tempt us with false notion of “joy” but self-destructive down-spiral hedonism and gluttony, to keep our attention from Christ and his coming, making us drowsy to his coming. So, let us remember these words of Paul, “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect”(Romans 12:2). And, the will of God in the Advent context is discerned from the Gospel text of Matthew 24:37-44.

If you find yourself stressed as the Advent Season moves toward Christmas, you are not making a straight highway of Christ to come. In joyfully anticipating the coming of Christ, we diligently and vigilantly prepare the straight high way of Christ (Isaiah 40:3) as we remove obstacles out of the way by way of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so that we can joyfully go on a highway, called the Highway of Holiness (Isaiah 35:8) as take by Christ upon his arrival. 

As our work on constructing a straight highway of Christ’s coming makes progress toward Christmas during the Advent Season, the more light of hope, peace, joy, and love, will replace the world’s darkness of sins. This is reflected on our lightings of Advent Candles on each Sunday during this season. The increasing light of Advent joy with the progress of making a straight high way of Christ’s coming also means our Advent penance is in progress in light of Acts 26:18.

Once again, Happy New Liturgical Year and Happy Advent!