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Advent As
Preparation For The New Millennium Advent anticipates the feast of Christmas. Advent began as an ascetical preparation of prayer and fasting for the feast of the Epiphany, which still remains in many countries as the more significant event commemorating the birth of Jesus. When given a place in the liturgical life of the church, Advent, with its penitential practices, was reduced to a four-week preparation here in the western Church with its center at Rome, it served as preparation for the feast of Christmas December 25. Advent is very similar to the season of Lent in its effort to ready the hearts of the faithful for Easter. The spirit however is not as rigorous in view of the different circumstances represented by Advent and Lent. The meaning in the scriptural readings for Advent are fundamental. Here are the beautiful lyrics of the Prophet Isaiah expressing Israel's longing for the Prince of Peace while the gospels call attention to the role and message of John the Baptizer: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Seasons such as this carry a number of themes. These, being mystical, do not easily accommodate their messages to the logical flow of time. Advent referring to the past recalls the hope that looked forward to the coming of Christ. Advent celebrates the present - held in tension between the Christ who has come and the Christ who will come. Advent celebrates the future by way of preparation for the immediate coming of Jesus' birth and Jesus' final coming at the end of time, the last Christmas of the world. Mary designated to be the Mother of the savior shares the limelight with John the Baptizer as an Advent figure. This fits the scriptural example used by Jesus to portray the nature of human life in terms of the pain endured by a pregnant mother at the birth of her child and the joy resulting from the birth that brought new life into God's world.
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