Fr. Nate's Letter - December 1, 2024

In various places already, we have begun to encounter the sights and sounds of Christmas. It seems they start earlier and earlier each year. I always thought that this speaks to the fact that there is something about what Christmas promises that humanity hopes and longs for. But at the same time, it almost seems as though society is at a loss at where to find it - it almost seems that the general population is already bored with Christmas by the time we actually reach Christmas Day itself! Could this be because of how they prepare? 

I suppose, for many, preparing for Christmas would involve a list of things that need to be accomplished before the day arrives: preparing for parties, shopping for gifts, decorating the house, cooking for elaborate meals, just to name a few! Checking off all of these tasks are certainly one aspect of preparation, but if that is the only aspect, everything that Christmas promises will be lost. Then Christmas is just a series of celebrations and decorations, and soon enough we’ll pack it all away and forget about it until next year. As Catholics, this season of preparation that we begin this weekend, the season of Advent, invites us to so much more. Advent invites us to prepare for Christmas in another way: to focus on the day and moment when we will in fact meet the Lord. Looking forward to that day we must ask ourselves, “What will you and I do to prepare?”

Christmas Day can so often creep up on us, and I often wonder if it was that way at the first Christmas as well. Not that folks weren’t looking for the Messiah - they were - but there was also an awful lot going on in those days. I sometimes wonder to myself if that’s the case with all of us, and that day when the Lord will come. You’ve probably heard the comment - I certainly have, and I believe it, too - of “how fast life goes.” We just do and do and do and we don’t know how the time slips away, and suddenly there seems to be more time behind us than in front of us. Maybe the situation that plays out each December - when Christmas Day more or less just suddenly arrives - is just a short tale of our lives? The season of Advent is a beautiful invitation, asking us to stop and re-evaluate what we would hope to do, to straighten out, or to fix up in our lives before we meet the Lord. You will notice that many of the prayers we hear at Mass this season speak to this meeting.

We prepare for all sorts of things in life - as we should. We might even try and prepare for the unexpected - I don’t know that we will ever encounter anyone who likes being caught unprepared! We prepare for so many things that are part of our lives and our futures, so all the more reason for you and me to accept the gift that Advent is and put our efforts into preparing for the Lord. It leaves us with that same question: how will you and I prepare for the Lord, not just at Christmas, but even more so for that day when we will meet Him face-to-face? 

The Advent wreath makes some suggestion on how we might go about this. The candles have come to represent hope, love, joy and peace, and we might look where we are with these virtues in our lives. We know from the Scriptures that the hope we find is in the little Child who is coming. You and I become rays of that hope by allowing this little Child to work in and through us. 
Advent invites us to prepare. Preparing well for Christ’s coming at Christmas can help us prepare well for His coming to each of us. And in doing so, all the wonderful things that Christmas promises won’t be lost on us.

Happy Advent! Wishing you all God’s blessings this week!

Keeping you in prayer – and say one for me!

- Fr. Nate