A thought for Advent

Sunday, December 14, will be the third Sunday of Advent. As Catholics know, four Sundays before Christmas are set aside as Advent Sundays in the Church calendar. They also know that Advent is a state of waiting for the first coming of Christ or for his second coming.

It is said that a Christian is always doing some waiting insofar as his faith is concerned. He waits for the birth of the Savior. He waits for His resurrection. After Easter he waits again for the coming of the Spirit. Then comes another waiting, this time long and undefined, for Jesus' second coming.

In ordinary sense waiting implies a passive act like when one waits for a bus or for the arrival of a guest. But the kind of waiting at Advent is spiritual in nature and being so it is an "active" waiting. Jesus said "Be alert and watch, for you don't know when the time will come..."

He was talking of course of the second coming when the Son of Man will come to judge the living and the dead. To drive home the importance of active waiting Jesus told the story of the five foolish virgins who failed to meet their master coming home from a wedding feast because they ran short of oil for their lamps. On another occasion he told his disciples how important it was for servants to stay awake and prepared when their master would come home from a journey. To these dutiful servants rewards would be given while those who abused their privilege and spent their time drinking and making merry would be given the punishment they deserve.

Active waiting therefore means doing the will be God and engaging oneself on works that please Him. At the same time it means avoiding words and deeds that are contrary to His commandments.

At Advent our wait is of course only ceremonial in nature because the Nativity has been an accomplished event. The Lord had been born, had undergone his passion, had resurrected and had ascended to Heaven. The whole affair is in the realm of remembering, yet remembering is what our faith is all about. That's why the major happenings in the life of Christ have been the focus in the solemnities of the Church because through these their significance is underscored and (hopefully) understood.

This explains why during the four Advent weeks the liturgy of the Word is oriented towards the coming of the Lord. For instance, the reading about John the Baptist says that John was sent to prepare the way for the Lord. His job was to smoothen the pathway through which the Divine Feet would tread. Other readings have to do with the Annunciation of Christ's birth and of the Visitation of Mary. All these are signs inspiring spiritual awakening in an atmosphere of fulfilled hope and pure joy.

Filipino Christians also do some waiting during Advent. Unfortunately such waiting is usually of a different genre than what is described in the Scripture. Influenced by the drum-beat of a highly secular milieu their anticipatory activities are oriented towards conspicuous consumption and enjoyment. Thus plans are prepared for partying - what food to serve and whom to invite. Or such plans may be for a vacation in some highly rated places far from the coal mines of the day. Or they could be something in the form of cursory charity for the underserved and the infirmed.

Mundane in nature but these are also forms of waiting whose spiritual import is only peripheral and accidental. Yet what is asked of every Christian is a more interiorized kind of waiting. It is an alert, joyful waiting, with the heart full of hope and remembering.

Remembering how for millennia the world longed for the Messiah. Prophets after prophets had foretold His coming but they all passed away without the gift of the Lord's birth. Darkness, spiritual darkness, had veiled the human heart, burdened as at was with the original sin. Where was the Light to give it the hope of salvation and the joy of a divine presence?

There in Bethlehem one cold night more than two thousand years ago appeared the Light. And man became once again a child of God.

At Advent therefore our waiting should be more than what the secular world calls for. It should reflect this prayer of the psalmist: "Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior. For you I wait all the long day because of your goodness, Lord."

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