The old church year came to an end with Christ the King Sunday and with the 1st Sunday of Advent we begin a new church year. The whole month of december we find in many places decorated buildings, houses and eletric illuminations. People are in a happy mood to prepare for Christmas. But in the liturgy we hear in the readings about the shaking of the powers of heaven, about the fears of men and the surprising coming of the Son of Man in glory. Christians interpreted this as the second coming of Jesus and as the end of the world and time. The Bible reports many signs of these end times, but no date or time of the end times. For 2,000 years, many Christians have thought that the end times are coming soon. This thought about the imminent end times motivated people to think of Christ and God and to wait for and prepare for the coming of the Lord.
This report of the evangelist was interpreted as the immediate coming of the Son of Man and the end of the world. Although the hope of the coming of the Son of Man and salvation could be understood in the context of war, persecution and suffering of that time the evangelist Luke says clearly that the end is not yet happened and the end may not come immediately.
I don’t believe in such an immediate end literally, as you read and hear; but I believe that everything that has a beginning also has an end. But eternity is connected to the beginning and the end. Therefore, we need not be afraid of either a beginning or an end. End, beginning and eternity belong together.
The Latin word advent means arrival or presence. If we consider the period of first December till 25th December as the period of the hope and expectation for the coming of Christ we could hope that God is present among us. Emmanuel! God let us experience his presence among us where ever we are. The first candle of advent reminds us of this presence of God in uns during our busy and stresst days.
When we think about the coming of Jesus in Advent, we don’t want to think about the end times, but rather about the beginning. The beginning of Advent is for us the beginning of waiting for the coming of Jesus and the beginning of the preparation for Christmas, where we celebrate Jesus’ birthday. By celebrating Christmas we want to experience more intensely the joy, peace and love that God can give us.
The children and young people are especially invited to take part in the church services in order to prepare for Christmas and to look forward. Advent is actually intended for us to reflect and to think about and to plan our tasks. Unfortunately, Advent is also known as a time of intensive work, but there are many events that often distract us from the essence of Advent. I would like to invite you to make Advent this year a time of prayer and waiting, a time of conscious life and conscious love.
These thoughts are particularly important for children and young people. What you want and do should not be because others act that way or your friends want it that way or do it that way, but because you want it and it suits you. During Advent you can learn to adapt your own wishes and your own activities to the needs of yourself and to the situation of your family. We are sometimes unconsciously a follower in the crowd. The many advertisements, the modern media, temptations and bad motivations from others have a lot of influence on us. Then we forget to think for ourselves and forget to wish, plan and decide consciously.
In Advent this year, I wish all of us the motivation for an intensive, contemplative time of preparation for Christmas.
Fr. Joseph Pandiappallil MCBS