Happy New Year, as the church year begins, with the great winter fast of Advent. Like it’s twin, Lent, Advent is a pilgrimage of preparation towards a great festival. It is made difficult by coinciding with the most festive time of the non-Christian year, as those around us feast, party and shop intensely, ubiquitously and noisily. It is a true test of the strength of a peaceful soul, to quietly pursue the pilgrimage amid the clamor.
It may require ear plugs or isolation, but it can be a time of introspection mixed with contemplation of the way God cares for his world. We can review the tragic history of mankind, ourselves included. We can likewise consider God’s action to save a world so hopelessly lost in its own failures, with no chance to save itself, and observe the love driving the offer of salvation gifted to us.
Christmas will arrive on schedule, and the roles will reverse, as we celebrate and the world recovers. Among us, the story of the Incarnation will again be told. Angels, shepherds, barn animals and the Holy Family will be in focus. We live in a cycle of fasts and feasts, all of which both strengthens and gladdens our Faith and indeed our life.
Beyond the cycle, we know God’s intervention at Bethlehem is hardly breaking news. Jesus will not be born this Christmas. That event happened several thousand years ago. The Incarnation, confessed in the Creed every Sunday, not just at Christmas, is a fact of life, “mission accomplished,” even as our journey through the Church Year continues all the way to Pentecost. That is a good thing. It allows us to understand the Christian Good News in a balanced and organized way.
But this Advent, may I suggest the actual event and the long history leading up to it is also worth a focus? Adam and Eve’s rebellion, an attempted coup to become gods instead of living in intimate harmony with God in the Garden as his beloved, has changed the world for a very long time. In response, God has instituted the plan of salvation to counter the impact of sin. At its center are the key historical interventions of the Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection, which make it possible. Although we celebrate these events separately in our annual remembrance, they are really different phases of the one action of God.
Thus, Advent is not about preparing to welcome God into his world. As the Spanish entrance hymn puts it, “He has already arrived (ya llego).” In fact, he has always been present among us and in the whole of his creation. The Incarnation is a special act, taking upon himself flesh and blood, becoming one of us, for the unique purpose of accomplishing our salvation, done once for all, to last all eternity.
Because the greatest impact of sin is to alienate us from God, the most important task is to heal that separation. Thus, instead of concentration on your sin in your introspection, ask yourself the question, “How can I heal the gap between God and myself?” This is the question that religions often answer by attempting to propitiate God with offerings, ranging from those similar to the Old Testament sacrifices of animals to sacrificial acts of various kinds to gain God’s favor, to establishing rules and then trying to follow them, to prove to God that I am righteous (as self-defined by the rules made up) and, thereby, deserving of God’s approval.
Over thousands of years, none of this has worked. While that doesn’t seem to discourage people from still trying, a reflective viewpoint is open to considering other options. One option is to decide it is hopeless, as Camus expresses in “No Exit,” or as Ecclesiastes designates as “vanity.” Some may even decide to ignore God, announce that he does not exist, and continue without him, with the same logic that a three-year old uses, that if he closes his eyes, you are not there in front of him.
Not surprisingly, these options don’t work, either. No wonder the “Holiday” season is the time when depression peaks, as the gap between the reality of our world and the paradise of God widens.
The consequent next step in Advent review is to ask, “God, how can this gap between you and me be healed?”
The answer is, “The plan is in place, permanently. The enabling acts have been achieved in the life work of Jesus Christ.” What remains is for you and I to accept the healing gift offered.
For some, this happens in a dramatic way, when God breaks through suddenly, and you are confronted quite directly with the gift of salvation. But for most of us, the gift is bestowed in baptism, often administered so early, there is no conscious memory of it. At whatever age, that, the crucial point is that it is entirely God’s action, and thus totally effective. It need not be ever repeated and cannot be improved on, nor does it depend on how you feel about it.
This Advent, return to that moment of God’s loving action, whether you can remember it or not. Begin your Advent pilgrimage by noting that baptism is indelible. You cannot remove it. You can deny it, reject it, ignore it, rage about it. There is no rite of debaptizing. For those who wish God would go away, this is irritating. But it is of immense comfort and reassurance for us sinners who yearn to come closer to God, to know that we remain God’s children forever despite our sin.
Thus, with your baptism as the foundation, begin your pilgrimage. Know that the presence of God goes with you, “he has already arrived.” Nor is he alone. Christianity is “where two or three are gathered,” if you are hoping for a “me and Jesus” experience, you will be disappointed. The pilgrimage of life is a road travelled together, with God and with your brothers and sisters from around the world, indeed with “angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.”
Key to this is participation in the Advent Eucharists, which themselves are journeys into the Kingdom of Heaven, again with your brothers and sisters, some gathered around you, some in far corners of the world as we all rejoice in the Eucharistic celebration, and receive the Incarnate Christ through material means of bread and wine perfectly entwined with his real Presence. Nearer to God you cannot come, this side of Heaven.
With the Presence metastasized within, the pilgrimage continues for another week. The goal is called “theosis,” the process of incorporating into the Body of Christ as completely as he has incorporated into you. The role model for the action of your life is the Trinity, three whose love is so complete and pure that they fuse seamlessly as one. Alas, our love is not so complete, our sin remains to distort, distract, destroy. Yet we walk with a loving and understanding God, “who desires not the death of a sinner.” To stumble and get up again is the nature of this pilgrimage walk, indeed, to stumble and be helped up.
When the festive day then arrives, we rejoice and once again sing with the angels and each other, praising God for that incarnate arrival among us all those centuries ago, but praising him nevertheless anew, as his grace is ever new. We also arrive at the heart of our God , the epicenter of the Body of Christ, who is ever near and ever delighting to hear us express our love and praise, as a father is gladdened to see his children happy and loving.