Skipping Advent is Not a Good Idea
By: Father Oscar Cortes
The feeling of Christmas is all around us even though we have four weeks more to anticipate it. I imagine that many of you will have taken advantage of Black Friday to buy Christmas gifts and that many of them are hidden at home waiting for Christmas Day.
Television commercials always seem to anticipate a holiday long before it comes: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. Just as soon as one holiday passes, the commercials are on to the next one. It seems that people do not have time enough to enjoy one event before thinking about the next one.
The same happens frequently with Advent. We run the risk of not enjoying it. If we ask people how many of them focus on Advent, probably the answer will be not very many. Everyone looks forward to Christmas (or rather I should say to Christmas gifts), but few enjoy and live out Advent. It seems that we prefer to celebrate Christmas without experiencing the anticipation of the Advent season. Too often we forget that Advent and Christmas are both part of the same mystery.
Brothers and sisters, let us not long for Christmas so much that we forget to live Advent to its fullest. Advent is a time of grace, a time to cultivate a peace-filled interior disposition, a time to collect and recollect. It is a time of anticipation, reconciliation and forgiveness. Let us take advantage of this sacred time to enjoy it and share it with our family and friends. Trying to celebrate Christmas without Advent is like trying to get to the other side of the river without using the bridge. It’s like living eternity without having experienced life on earth. It’s like sharing in the resurrection of the spirit without experiencing death in the body. We need the first to fully enjoy the second.
This will be a true Christmas if we live Advent completely. Let us experience in our bodies and souls, the joy of each day in Advent — each day of anticipation and longing. Let us rejoice in every Advent symbol and sign. Let us use the bridge of confession to celebrate the joy of reconciliation.
Advent is our time of grace. If we take full advantage of it, we will experience Christmas as never before.
— Father Cortes is Parochial Administrator of St. Rita of Cascia Parish in Aurora
Click Here to Read "Worth the Wait - A Guide for Advent"
