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I grew up in a home without Advent. There was Christmas, certainly; but there was no season set apart to prepare for the celebration of Christ’s arrival among us. The little congregation to which we belonged had little if any inkling of the liturgical year. When it came to times and seasons, we and our neighbors mostly took our cues from nature’s rhythms combined with the secular, commercial calendar. We would rush headlong from Thanksgiving Day right into “the most wonderful time of the year” and conclude the holidays on December 25 with a mixture of exhaustion and relief.
It was when I left home that I first discovered Advent. And what a discovery it has continued to be! This season has us consider how Christ comes to us in the future, past, and present. Going against our too-often harried pace and penchant for the spectacular, it bids us to slow down and wait, and to pay attention to the sublime and the essential. Since nothing is more sublime and essential than love, we are to prepare for Christ’s appearing by continually putting into practice love of God and love of neighbor.
Nothing about this practice is easy, however, whether it be during Advent or any other season. As an acquaintance of mine once observed, “When it’s all said and done, more is said than done.” Still, even in the face of repeated failure, we are to persist in putting such love into practice. To alter a phrase from Moravian Peter Boehler in the 18th century, “We are to practice love until we have it; then, because we have it, we will practice love.”
As you grant us your greatest gift, O God,
guide us always to love you and our neighbor
and so prepare for Christ’s appearing. Amen.
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