The seasons have changed on us again. The tress have changed color, our favorite TV shows always show scenes of pristine snow and around us it is has dipped down into the frigid 70s. There are parties at work and get-togethers with family. For many of us, this is one of the few times in the year we get to see most of our family, often in one place all together.
In my large Italian family this is the time of the year when my family cooks some my favorite recipes that only happen around the holidays. Between them and the Eggnog it’s a golden opportunity to gain 10 pounds in a month! As bad as these festivities are for my waistline – they are good for my soul. It is good to see my family and be surrounded by those I love. But now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, we are in that in-between period. The Thanksgiving festivities have ended, and the Christmas ones are still a few weeks away.
What will occupy the airwaves, the TV shows and unfortunately 90% of our time for the next few weeks will be that dreadful thing that comes in between Thanksgiving and Christmas – Secular Christmas.
By Secular Christmas I mean a time that has nothing to do with Christ. It’s the Feast of 50% off, the Feast of special door prizes for the first few shoppers in the door at 4AM at Sears. The time when we show our love for one another by spending money we don’t have and putting it on our credit cards.
This is the time when, unfortunately, Western Society does its best to make sure that our poor and outcast feel as lonely as possible, as the media tells them to buy, buy, buy while they must hope for the charity of others just to get by. Now, I don’t think the retail business world intended to cause seasonal depression and stress us out, but they do intend to shout at us until we listen to them.
Eventually this will pass, and the true Christmas, the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord will be upon us. We will pray together as we remember that God loved us so much He came down from heaven as a defenseless infant, dependent on the love of His Mother and father here on earth. We will share this Love that God has given us with each other. We will love our children and parents just as God the Father and God the Son shared their love. We will glory in the love of our friends just as God looked at all of His creation and said it is good.
Yet until this Feast we have to deal with what the secular world will throw at us, and persevere in our prayers. I think that at no other part of the year is it clearer that we are citizens of a different city. The City of Man tells us “Seasons Greetings!” and “Buy today and save half off!” while we here in the City of God we sing “Christ is nigh! Let us be wakened by that solemn warning, from Earth’s bondage let us rise!” (Hymnal 59)
Instead of being bullied into thinking this is the season of sales, we know this is the season of preparation for the Lord.
Advent has the distinction of being the one season that is both joyous and yet quite penitential at the same time. It ages past you and I would be in the midst of a strict fast from certain foods for this entire season. Yet even today when we deny ourselves during this season in some way, be it giving up something food wise or simply not saying Alleluia, we can’t but help be a bit joyful too. The day of God’s Incarnation among us is just around the corner, and that reminds of us how much God loves us.
The three readings for today show both the joyous and penitential aspects of this season. They remind us that this season is not just about sacramentally remembering and making present God’s Incarnation in Bethlehem, but also His second coming in great Glory at the end of ages.
In St. Matthew’s Gospel we encounter Jesus as he is telling his disciples of the end time, the days before he comes to judge the quick and the dead and usher in the fullness of His Kingdom. In today’s Gospel passage Jesus tells his disciples what the world will be like before he comes back. He is quite explicit in telling them that there is no one other than the Father who knows when this will all happen – but Jesus tells us what the world will be like before it happens. It will be as in the days of Noah… “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark.” (Matt 24:38) In other words it will be time when most of the world goes on, serving itself and ignoring others except for a select few who are actually listing and looking for God. It sounds a lot like today….and it sounds like almost every other age of mankind. For all that God does in the world; a good chunk of humanity will be so focused on itself that it will ignore everything else.
Knowing that this has been the state of the world, and knowing that there is no way to know exactly when Christ is returning, many a Christian has asked – what do we do in the meantime? St. Paul’s addressed this in his Epistle to the Romans. St. Paul, obedient to Christ’s teaching that we are not to know when the exact time is tells the community in Rome that he doesn’t know when it will happen, but he thinks it is soon. In light of this, he instructs those in Rome to live their lives accordingly. He tells them “Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” (Romans 13:12) Now the end did not comes as soon as St. Paul seems to have expected it, but his message to us remains the same. We are to live knowing that His return is soon, soon in God’s time, and we are to live in that knowledge. Living a life showing forth our faith Jesus Christ, striving to live a good life by the commands of Our Lord; not just because we expect impending judgment, but because it shows forth God’s love to the world.
For all that we don’t know about the timing of Christ’s second coming in glory we do get a glimpse of what this world, perfected by God, will be like. Isaiah prophecies about a time when people will “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4b)
That is the glorious vision of the future, and that is a reason to be joyful in Advent. We await the ushering in of that spectacular world of love, peace and charity. Yet here we find ourselves, living in a time just as Jesus predicted, where the world is paying attention to itself and ignoring God. The good news is that although we find ourselves in a time just like those of Noah, we know that God has promised that he will deal with us differently than he did with people of Noah’s time.
To us he gives us a Divine Church, full of the Holy Spirit, to bring the world back to God. To transition the world from its own ways to the ways of God; to change the calls of “Sale! Sale! Sale!” all through December to “Salvation! Salvation! Salvation!”
Towards this purpose we will be ending our service of Morning Prayer with the ancient Great Litany. I wrote an article in the Window last week giving the history of the Great Litany, so I want bore you the history of it again. I will say though, that I can’t think of a better way to sum our prayers for the world in this season than the Great Litany.
The Great Litany is quite comprehensive. It leads us in prayer about every facet of our life and the life of the world. It names many of our fears and prayers that we in a polite society are often afraid to voice in such an explicit way.
Jesus has told us that we don’t know when He will return, but maybe THIS is the last Advent. Maybe this really is the final season of preparation, and He will come back to usher in His Kingdom in just weeks. In this spirit I invite you to join in the litany and all the prayers that follow, praying along with the whole church the we may be ready for Him when he comes; and that entire world and every single person in it, aided by our prayers will say yes to the grace of God and able to stand before Jesus and say, “Yes, Lord. Your will be done.”
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