Christmas and Advent Season- Rev.M.D. Rogers

The word Advent derives from the
Latin word meaning coming. The Lord is coming. We may reflect that every year
at this time we celebrate his coming , so that in a sense we can lose the
feeling of expectancy and joyful anticipation, because at the end of the
season, everything seems to return to pretty much the same routine. If that is
the case, then our preparation may have been lacking and we have therefore been
robbed of much of the true meaning of this season.
During Advent we recall the
history of God's people and reflect on how the prophecies and promises of the
Old Testament were fulfilled. This gives us a background for the present. Today
we can reflect on the past track record of God and so begin to understand what
it means to us now for the sake of what is to come, in our own future and that
of our world.
The theme of
readings and teachings during Advent is often to prepare for the Second Coming
while commemorating the First Coming of Christ at Christmas. With the view of
directing the thoughts of Christians to the first coming of Jesus Christ as
savior and to his second coming as judge, special readings are prescribed for
each of the four Sundays in Advent.

Advent is a time
of joy tinged with penance. Joy, because we can imagine nothing more sweet than
the Christ Child and His Mother Mary's bliss at His coming to light. Penance
because we must strive to be properly disposed to receive so great a gift of
His presence. In the millennial tradition of the Church, we faithful have done
penance before great feasts. Christmas and Easter each have their penitential
seasons in anticipation, Advent and Lent. The liturgical color used in the
Latin Church for the liturgy during both Advent and Lent is purple, a sign of
penance. In some places people may see blue used, which is done without the
Church's approval. The Latin Church also emphasizes the penitential dimension
of the season by directing the use of sparse ornaments in church and by
legislating that instrumental music should not be used, except to sustain
congregational singing. This is a kind of liturgical fast, which makes the joy
and celebration of Christmas all that much more powerful by the contrast of the
lean and muted season of Advent. Advent is a time of great joy, because we look
forward to the beautiful feast of the Nativity, but it is joy stitched through
with somber and focused spiritual preparation by doing penance.
He is comes to us
in different ways. First, Jesus came to us at a specific point in history at
Bethlehem about 2000 years ago. But in the Church's great feast of Christmas He
mystically comes again. Second, the Lord, Alpha and Omega, will come to judge
the living and the dead in the Second Coming. Third, the Redeemer comes to us
in grace. He speaks to us in our consciences, he comes to us in the Eucharist
and in the Word of God proclaimed. He arrives in the person of the begger, the
needy, the suffering, the oppressed. We must be ready to receive and welcome
Him when He comes, however He comes.