Catholic Things - Advent

I should have mentioned is last weekend, but happy new year to all the Catholic readers out there. 

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Last Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, which is the start of a new liturgical year. Advent, from the Latin adventus (arrival/approach), is the season of waiting and preparing for Christmas. If you aren't Catholic, you may have heard about advent because of advent calendars. But advent isn't just about a countdown to Christmas, it's about preparing.

Advent is marked by the advent wreath (pictured on the right). It contains 4 candles - 3 purple, 1 pink. The candles represent the 4 Sundays before Christmas. Each week you light a new candle. Purple is used because in Catholic culture it represents waiting, preparation, and is a color of royalty (Jesus is the king of literally everything). The pink candle is lit on the 3rd Sunday of advent, called "Gaudete (rejoice) Sunday." Pink is a color for joy and happiness. On Christmas, the pink and purple candles are replaced by white candles because white represents purity, holiness, virtue, and great joy. 

During advent, we try to prepare ourselves for the spiritual Christmas. Celebrating Christmas isn't about celebrating Jesus's birthday (if it was we'd have birthday cake). It's about inviting him to, as the song says, “be born in our hearts.” What Catholics seek at Christmas is a rebirth of the love of God for humanity. Christmas is, theologically speaking, almost the biggest of deals. The creator decides to step into creation in order to be closer with us. God, being omniscient and fully aware of all that's involved in being human, decided to join us in a life experience that includes unpleasantries such as diarrhea, physical pain, puberty, illness, hard work and all the rest. That's solidarity.

At our best, Catholics strive for solidarity with others, especially the poor. The big message of Christmas is that God loved us so much that he wanted to be with us. We are called to love others just as strongly, just as wildly, just as intensely. That kind of love isn't easy. So we prepare during advent, reminding ourselves especially of the Virgin Mary – the brave young woman who said yes to God when she had every reason to say no. We remind ourselves that God allows us to say yes (which means we are also allowed to say no) to what he offers. Saying yes is scary. Last time I said yes I ended up leaving my family and friends to move to another country. But we remind ourselves that saying yes will be life changing, even world changing.

 This isn't the easy yes of “would you like a free donut, sir?” It's the hard yes. And so it takes preparation. That's why we do advent.