Dec 02 2008
Remaining Watchful During Advent
From In Conversation with God: Volume One: Advent and Christmastide, First Sunday of Advent:
“At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time will come … Watch, therefore — for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning — lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch!” (Mark 3.33-37)
To maintain this state of alertness we need to struggle, for we all have a tendency to live with our eyes fixed on the things of the earth. Especially during this time of Advent let us not forget that our hearts are darkened by gluttony and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and so loose sight of the supernatural dimension which every action of ours should have as its milieu. St. Paul compares this guard over ourselves to that of “the well-armed soldier who does not allow himself to be taken by surprise.” This adversary tries to wreak havoc in whatever way he can; and since he does not devise his tactics without attention to detail, neither should we.
We will remain at the ready if we are attentive to our personal prayer, which enables us to avoid lukewarmness and the dwindling and cooling of our desires for sanctity. We will be constantly on the alert if we do not become slipshod about those little mortifications which keep us awake to the things of God. We will remain attentive through a refined examination of conscience, which makes us look to those points at which, almost without noticing it, we are departing from our path.
We normally don’t think of Advent as a penitential season. In fact, I must confess that in past years Advent for me has been little more than a countdown to Christmas. This year, however, I’m making a point to be more serious about entering into the spirituality of the season itself — to live it as a time of anticipation and preparation. I found that the above passage not only provides the rationale for such an attitude (we are tempted by many things during this time of year, and therefore we must pay attention to the details of our spiritual life), but at it also offers some solid points on how to live this season (an attentiveness to prayer, mortification, and our examination of conscience).
If there’s any point in the liturgical season during which the Church calls us to an attitude that is at odds with our culture, it is Advent. Society, in general, is focused on slowing down for the holidays and putting off things until next year, whereas the Church calls us to be more attentive to the basics of the spiritual life. And during a time in which we are to make lists of “all the things we want,” part of our meditation is on a family who had so little that their first and only child had to be born in a cave, swaddled in rags, and placed in a trough for a bed.
Though I’m not sure how I’d change my family’s celebration of Christmas — with a wife and kids, not to mention grandparents and two aunts, I can’t just call it off — but I am thankful for feeling ill over how far removed our Western culture in general and my own circumstances in particular are from the spirit of Advent. Perhaps that’s how it should be.
