Today is the first day of the New Year, the liturgical church calendar year that is; have you ever taken notice of the fact that our year starts eleven months into the secular calendar and four months into the academic year, etc. Civic, academic, or financial year calendars are useful and important, but the church calendar has a larger perspective spanning the whole cycle of salvation from creation to the end of days. Within that calendar of the yearly cycles from Christ’s entry into our world to his reign over all creation which we observed just last Sunday.
Today we begin the Advent season as we look forward to the birth of our savior, marking his entering into human history. But, wait a second; how can we anticipate something which has already taken place? We know that Christmas is not that far away; are we simply playing a yearly game of “let’s pretend”? If we are just pretending then perhaps we are missing the point of the season. Maybe, as John Kavanagh has pointed out, Advent is not about “let’s pretend” but “let’s get real.” At its core the Advent season, as indeed all the seasons of the Christian year, has an overarching theme which is to invite us to journey deeper into the mystery of the divine presence of our Lord.
As we prepare to recall the entrance into human history the God-anointed shepherd who comes to gather his scattered flock, we are acknowledge that Jesus comes to seek us, all of us, where we are. You and I never stop growing, never stop learning, never stop learning more about ourselves. There are always new places, from towering heights to dark valleys, from private retreats to lonely corners, to explore. Even for mature faithful Christians there are places in us which our Lord has yet to claim. His love it is which will not let go of us. So, as the Advent season begins, let us get real about embracing the mystery of our Lord’s presence in and among us in worship, in the Eucharist, in our living and loving, in our arising in the morning and our going to sleep at night. “O come, let us adore him.”
