Advent helps us better understand God’s love

As the end of our Church year approaches with the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (Christ the King), my thoughts and prayers seem to almost automatically concentrate on the first great solemnity of our new year, Christmas. While that is not bad, I have to force myself not to “jump the gun” so to speak but to first concentrate on the first weeks of our new year, Advent.
 
I cannot fault the Church for all of her efforts to remind us of how important Advent is and ought to be for all of us. The Church’s readings from Sacred Scripture for each day of Advent, all of the proper Mass prayers for every day of Advent, and the beautiful spiritual and devotional customs of Advent all try to keep our minds and hearts focused on what has not only happened for us already, but what will still happen for us at a time in the future and, most especially, Who is responsible for all of it.
 
This is why the Church teaches us about Advent. “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor’s birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’” (CCC, 524)
 
The almost total secularization of Christmas by the culture in which we live and the absolute commercialization of Christmas which begins long before December 25 make the observing of Advent for us especially difficult, but not impossible. If we really do want to keep Advent as it is meant to be kept, we certainly can by making good use of all the Church offers. Then we can still keep the nice customs of Christmas and I think they will take on a whole new meaning in the gifts we give to others, the nice meals we share with others, and the good wishes we offer to so many people. Why do I say this?  Simply put, our keeping of Advent as it ought to be kept has helped us understand a little better just how much Almighty God loves us with an eternal love.
 
God actually became in time one of us to save us from what we did to ourselves and without Him and what He did, we would be and are lost for eternity. We have the greatest Christmas gift in human history and it does not break or go out of style or ever get old, it is Jesus. How can we not prepare ourselves in Advent to receive Our Father’s gift, Jesus, His only Son?
 
Please know of my prayers for you and all whom you love and cherish during this holy season of Advent, and may all of you have a most Blessed and Merry Christmas!