GIVE ADVENT A CHANCE

The first signs that Christmas was on its way appeared in shop windows weeks ago, but now, as we near the end of November, things are really hotting up. And it's not just the shops and supermarkets.

Its been years since we first complained about how Christmas had begun to squeeze Advent out of our homes and schools and even our parishes. Our complaining seems to have got us nowhere. The noisy, forceful bustle of "getting ready for Christmas" is more insistent than ever, and we may have no one to blame but ourselves.

Do we honestly know what we are supposed to be doing during Advent? Do we know what we mean when we preach about the coming of Jesus, even his second coming? What are we trying to say when we sing of John the Baptist on Jordan's banks? Even if we do get around to an Advent wreath and a Jesse tree, are we all that sure about the message we are sending out?

We had better be careful out there, because there's a lot at stake in the message we give Blaming the festive enthusiasm of our schools and our shops is no excuse.

Of course we are not such fools as to spend Advent pretending that Jesus has not actually come yet and that these four weeks give us just the space we need to show how getting ready for his arrival should really be done. Not such fools? Who says we're not?

If we are not utterly convinced that Jesus Christ has indeed already arrived among us, "the word made flesh" and that in his risen presence he lives and moves among us, then even the very best of our Advent efforts will dissolve into little more than playing a vast game of pretence. "For the sake of the children" we tell ourselves.

What a rotten shame! Advent is an opportunity, a time for adult Christians to grow up. We should not allow the beauty of the daily readings at Mass , or the hymns or anything else we like to bask in at this time, to lull us into doing nothing more than waiting quietly until our various lists, (mailing and shopping), leave us no other option but to join the mad Christmas rush.

To do that would be a tragedy, because faced with the great questions of meaning and purpose all humans must face, those who acknowledge the Risen presence of Christ are given the great gift of a clear way into plumbing such depths. The season of Advent is a blessed time precisely because it helps to focus our attention on the answers we have been given. That, rather than once more playing the usual waiting game; for the children of course.

This blog will try to play its part in this exploration by examining the difference His coming amongst us HAS ALREADY made to our understanding of time, that great umbilical cord that here on earth serves to tie us in to eternity.

We begin our Advent efforts with two posts, one entitled Time Travel and another named, "God is a Slow Mover".

More next week.