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The Coming of the Lord
Happy New Year!
While a month yet remains in the civil year, the Church is
celebrating the beginning of a new Liturgical year with the
First Sunday of Advent. Advent — from the
Latin ad venio, “to come” — is the liturgical season
anticipating the Adventus Domini, the "coming of the
Lord.” While the days grow shorter and colder, we prepare for
the “Sun of Justice” who comes to kindle our hearts with his
light and his love.
The Eternal Word, who is outside of time, became Incarnate in
time, thereby making all time sacred. In the season of Advent,
we await the coming of Christ on all the levels which we
experience time: in the past – as a baby in the stable of
Bethlehem; in the present – as grace in our souls; and in the
future – as the Judge at the end of time.
The Advent season is filled with preparation and expectation.
Everyone is getting ready for Christmas – shopping and
decorating, baking and cleaning. Too often, however, we are so
busy with the material preparations that we lose sight of the
real reason for our activity: the Word made flesh coming to
dwell among us. Christians are urged to preserve the spiritual
focus of Christmas amidst the prevailingly secular and
consumer-driven society.
In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the season, let us
strive to keep Advent a season of waiting and longing, of
conversion and hope, meditating often on the incredible love and
humility of our God in taking on flesh of the Virgin Mary. In
our shopping and baking, let us remember to purchase and prepare
something for the poor. When we clean our homes, let us
distribute some of our possessions to those who lack many
necessities. While we are decking the halls of our homes, let us
not forget to prepare a peaceful place in our hearts wherein our
Savior may come to dwell.
Focus on the Liturgy
There are always
four Sundays in Advent, though not necessarily four full weeks.
The liturgical color of the season is violet or purple, except
on the Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete or Rejoice Sunday,
when optional rose vestments may be worn. The Gloria is
not recited during Advent liturgies, but the Alleluia is
retained.
The prophesies of Isaiah are read often during the Advent
season, but all of the readings of Advent focus on the key
figures of the Old and New Testaments who were prepared and
chosen by God to make the Incarnation possible: the Blessed
Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, Sts. Elizabeth
and Zechariah. The expectancy heightens from December 17 to
December 24 when the Liturgy resounds with the seven magnificent
Messianic titles of the O Antiphons.
The Advent season also has a Marian and pro-life focus . We
meditate on this wonderful mystery of the Word Made Flesh with
as much eagerness as his Mother, Mary prepared and awaited the
birth of her son.
The History of
Advent In 490,
Bishop Perpetuus of Tours officially declared Advent a
penitential season in the Frankish Church of Western Europe,
ordering a fast on three days of every week from November 11
(the feast of St. Martin of Tours) till Christmas. This forty
days' fast, similar to Lent, was originally called Quadragesima
Sancti Martini (Forty Days' Fast of Saint Martin's). The
Readings for the Eucharistic Liturgies were taken from the
Masses of Lent.
By contrast, the Advent season of the Roman liturgy, developing
a century after that of the Frankish Church, was a
non-penitential, festive and joyful time of preparation for
Christmas. When the Church unified the liturgical season, the
non-penitential nature of the Roman Advent conflicted with the
longer and penitential Gallic Advent. By the thirteenth century
a compromise was reached, which combined the fasting and
penitential character of the Gallic observance with the Mass
texts and shorter four-week cycle of the Roman Advent liturgy.
The liturgy of Advent remained substantially unaltered until
Vatican II mandated a few minor changes to more clearly
delineate the spirit of the Lenten and Advent seasons.
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