Today, December 2, the First Sunday of Advent, the Church begins a new Liturgical Year.
Advent literally means “coming” but in church language (and tradition) it has more than a “futuristic” nuance. It rather brings together three moments – the past, the present and the future. How could that be possible? It’s because this “coming” is not so much as time-framed as it appears. It is rather conditioned by a person – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has come, who is ever present and who will come at the end of time.
That’s why the main attitude that the Church asks of us in this season is vigilance – keep watch, stay awake, or in our highly psychological age, we say, live consciously. (cf http://crossings.org/theology/theolo641.htm)
I’d like to suggest another attitude which could help increase our awareness: contemplate! One author suggests (Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi, I think): consider the root of this word: temp, as in tempo or temple or temperate or temporary. A temple is a holy place, measured out. To contemplate is therefore to mark out a measured space, a temple, and thus to survey or look attentively or consider carefully. From this, in Christian use, contemplatives are people who see the hand of God as they survey the order of the world, while at the same time, finding within themselves their own due measure and achieving a temperate balance – avoiding extremes, sensitive to and respectful of differences, attentive to the what goes on exteriorly and interiorly.
It will be good to awaken then this sense of contemplation in us as we enter the Advent season. And to complete it, we need to focus on the center of this Advent and Christmas contemplation – Jesus Christ:
A man, like all others, marked by limits of time called birth and death,
characterized by spatial, temporal, linguistic identity
and yet, different from all others because,
in him time is eternal,
his space embraces every height, width, depth
his words never end,
his works are of God,
his love is infinite,
his humble birth - a cosmic revelation,
his death – life for all.
May our Advent contemplation and Christmas preparation reach the “central point” of this season and more, may this new Liturgical Year, bring us into a new intimacy with Christ-living-in-us.
Advent literally means “coming” but in church language (and tradition) it has more than a “futuristic” nuance. It rather brings together three moments – the past, the present and the future. How could that be possible? It’s because this “coming” is not so much as time-framed as it appears. It is rather conditioned by a person – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has come, who is ever present and who will come at the end of time.
That’s why the main attitude that the Church asks of us in this season is vigilance – keep watch, stay awake, or in our highly psychological age, we say, live consciously. (cf http://crossings.org/theology/theolo641.htm)
I’d like to suggest another attitude which could help increase our awareness: contemplate! One author suggests (Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi, I think): consider the root of this word: temp, as in tempo or temple or temperate or temporary. A temple is a holy place, measured out. To contemplate is therefore to mark out a measured space, a temple, and thus to survey or look attentively or consider carefully. From this, in Christian use, contemplatives are people who see the hand of God as they survey the order of the world, while at the same time, finding within themselves their own due measure and achieving a temperate balance – avoiding extremes, sensitive to and respectful of differences, attentive to the what goes on exteriorly and interiorly.
It will be good to awaken then this sense of contemplation in us as we enter the Advent season. And to complete it, we need to focus on the center of this Advent and Christmas contemplation – Jesus Christ:
A man, like all others, marked by limits of time called birth and death,
characterized by spatial, temporal, linguistic identity
and yet, different from all others because,
in him time is eternal,
his space embraces every height, width, depth
his words never end,
his works are of God,
his love is infinite,
his humble birth - a cosmic revelation,
his death – life for all.
May our Advent contemplation and Christmas preparation reach the “central point” of this season and more, may this new Liturgical Year, bring us into a new intimacy with Christ-living-in-us.
