Waiting for Christ

When the Advent season sets in, we are actually already looking forward to Christmas. We get busy with preparations: decorating our homes, updating our gift list, buying clothes and stuff, etc. This is a period of joy and excitement, given the long holiday period, which is also a time for get-together with loved ones and friends.

But Advent calls for a deeper preparation. The word comes from the Latin ad-venio, which means "coming to" (Catholic Encyclopedia). Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God-with-us, is coming, and we have to prepare ourselves to be worthy of receiving him. It is a period for spiritual housecleaning, to take stock of our relationship with Our Lord, and if need be, to reform our lives. A dominant voice we hear in the season’s readings is John the Baptist's as he cries out, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths" (Mt. 3:2-3; Second Sunday of Advent, Cycle A). From Our Lord come these words: Be watchful! Be alert! (Mk 13:33; First Sunday of Advent, Cycle B). Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand (Lk 21:28). Be vigilant at all times and pray that you may be ready to stand before the Son of Man (cf Lk 21:36).

Advent invites us to open our hearts wide to welcome Christ. As Pope John Paul II said, let us take the risk of following him. “Do not keep quiet about Christ's truth: cry it out loudly!” (Homily, Dec. 11, 2001). We have to come out of our indifference, our feeling of self-sufficiency, our way of living that may be straying off the path of our faith. Following Jesus demands a renunciation, a conversion, a renewal.

There is no other person to look for except Jesus who is the way, truth and life. To the question of John the Baptist’s disciples, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus points to the signs of his presence: “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them (Mt 11:5; Third Sunday of Advent, Cycle A). Jesus was true to his word, fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah that he read in the synagogue at Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord" (Lk 4:16-21). And blessed are you who believe that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled (Lk 1:45; Fourth Sunday of Advent, Cycle C).

In response, we are prompted to ask ourselves. Do I live as a child of God should? Is there anything in my behavior that is not in keeping with the commandments of God? Do I practice my faith, living daily with an eye toward heaven, which is my final home? Do I always show love to my family? Am I a positive influence to the people I meet?

Christ is asking us not only to be with him but to be like him to others -- to be a sower of peace and joy, a force of healing, a source of encouragement by our own words and deeds.

Our life here on earth is, in a sense, a continual Advent, a relentless struggle for holiness, a never-ending fight against the passions and the attractions of evil that try to bring us down. And if, through our own weaknesses, we fall down, our trust in the mercy of God urges us on to get up and begin again. A good way of beginning is to make a good confession, the sacrament of divine mercy. Confess our sins to the priest who sits in the confessional in persona Christi, in the person of Christ, who is always waiting to embrace us back to his love. Be not afraid, but have the courage, or, as St. Josemaria would say, the courage to be a coward, “-- to flee from the occasions of sin; going to the sacraments frequently, particularly to the sacrament of Confession; sorrow, contrition and reparation after one's falls” (Friends of God, 185). Show to the priest the wounds of our sin, with all the ugliness, so that the priest can apply the proper remedy of forgiveness, heal our broken relationship with God and move us to a new beginning. “You revealed your past wounds — full of pus — in Confession. And the priest dealt with your soul like a good doctor, like a conscientious doctor. He made an incision where he had to, and would not let the wound heal over until everything had been cleaned out. Be grateful” (Furrow, 168).

As we wait for Christ’s coming on the day of his birth, we are urged to fill our minds and hearts with the things of God. “Deo omnis gloria. All glory to God. It is an emphatic confession of our nothingness. He, Jesus, is everything. We, without him, are worth nothing: nothing. Our vainglory would be just that: vain glory; it would be sacrilegious robbery. There should be no room for that 'I' anywhere” (The Way, 780).

May Christ find our hearts ready to receive him.