With Thanksgiving now over, the season of Advent is here, starting on Sunday, December 3rd, and lasting for four Sundays up until Sunday, December 24th Christmas Eve. What is the Season of Advent you might ask? Advent comes from the Latin word “ad-venire” meaning to come towards. Advent is a time when we not only remember Jesus’ first coming and birth over 2000 years ago but also prepare ourselves for Jesus’ second coming. It is a time of hope but also of self-reflection, a time where you recognize your faults and prepare yourself to receive the Lord in the second coming. We interviewed Father Roy Joseph, S.J., to ask him about this advent season and how we should prepare our hearts for Christ Jesus.
What is Advent and its significance in the Catholic church?
Father Joseph
“Advent is the first season of our liturgical year. And in the Catholic Church, you may know that we start the liturgical year with the most important event for us, which is the event of Jesus in general. And so the entire logistical year is centered on Jesus’ life. And so we’re not going back into eternity, we’re starting with the incarnation of Jesus, which happens during Advent. We go through the entire life of Jesus from this time until next November. The significance for us as Catholics in particular is we are in a time of preparation for one of the two great feasts we have: Christmas and then of course Easter. Because these are the two greatest feasts we have, there needs to be some reflection on this. And so we are following the example of Christians over the centuries, and in particular the example of the important people at the time. So at the time, it was Mary and she was very reflective, and she was preparing for the coming of Jesus. The word advent comes from the Latin Adventus which means coming. And so we are celebrating the coming of Jesus in the past. We’re also celebrating the coming of Jesus in the future at a second coming, but we’re also celebrating the coming of Jesus to us now.”
Luke
Through the Holy Spirit?
Father Joseph
“I would say in the different ways that Jesus makes himself manifest we experience Jesus through the love of others, through the sacraments. Yes, you could say it went through the Holy Spirit, and he went through God the Father in different ways. So we experience Jesus and the kingdom of Jesus, the kingdom of God. Now in other words, the church wants us to think that it wasn’t just this event 2000 years ago, and it’s not just this event way in the future. Jesus is present now in the world. It may not be as clear and tangible because Jesus isn’t physically like a little baby, or he’s not like this great king who will come, but that’s part of our faith experience, and that’s why we have these reminders every year of remembering that Jesus is here also now in various ways through sacraments with the church, through people, and through the saints.”
Are there any common misconceptions about Advent such as people not focusing as much about Christ and instead more on his birth instead of about the second coming, about preparation?
Father Joseph
“That’s a good point. The preparation isn’t just for Christmas Day and celebrating with friends or family, as important as that is. It’s not even just to celebrate Jesus and his birthday, like a birthday party, you know? The celebration is a celebration within us. And so I think sometimes people forget, when we’re doing all these things and we’re even giving, which is good. We need to do that to other people and for other people. But ultimately Jesus comes to each of us individually. I mean, that’s part of the revelation of Jesus when Jesus came into the world, it was so that we know that God is very close to each of us individually. He’s not way out there. He’s not just at church. He’s with us very close. And so that one-on-one intimate close connection with someone that we can even hold like a little baby and touch on, that’s a big part of our experience. And sometimes people forget about people. Sometimes people think this is simply a time of preparation, um, in ways that aren’t spiritual. So I think that spiritual aspect should be remembered. The reason for the season a lot of people talk about.”
Luke
I know one of my neighbors used to have a big sign that would say, keep Christ in Christmas.
Father Joseph
“Yeah, otherwise you just have a mess or a mess. Dressing up, putting lights up, putting decorations up, I mean, there are other times we can do that. And we do, and that’s great, but all that should be pointing to Christ and the value of Christ in our life and in our future and in our past. “
Are there any challenges in celebrating Advent and Christmas properly in this hyper-commercialized society?
Father Joseph
“I think the way you ask that question, you almost know the answer, right? I mean, this is sort of the challenge for all Christians, and I think at a young age, we get a sense of the tension between what’s most important and what’s less important. And often the less important is highlighted which is the commercialization. Again, it’s nice that people are doing things externally. But that can’t be the end of it. And unfortunately, the external signs of Christmas often have financial gain for certain people. And so you have chocolate companies and toy companies and all kinds of companies, you know, cashing in literally on this piece. And people get so focused on that. So that’s certainly a challenge, the commercialization. If it’s commercialized in such a way that people are thinking more about Jesus and worship and proper preparation. That’s great. And we do see that kind of commercialization too, like signs and advertisements and things to that effect. So that’s great. That keep Christ in Christmas, that kind of stuff.”
Luke
“You don’t want to lose the meaning in that.”
Father Joseph
“Yeah. And I think we don’t want to lose the meaning in any aspect of our life, but especially about these most important moments in the life of Jesus and in the life of the church, which means in our life.”
How does the season of Advent encourage spiritual reflection and preparation among Catholics?
Father Joseph
“For one thing, I would say we’re given three, four weeks and we don’t just celebrate Christmas as soon as the liturgical year begins, you know? I mean, it’s about to begin next week and we don’t celebrate like a day or two, or even three days later. It’s more like three, four weeks later. We’re given time, and I think time is important. People forget so often, especially in this hyper-commercialized, busy culture, the importance of silence and the importance of time and the importance of waiting and patience. And I think in this way our mother, Mary, the mother of Jesus, can be a good guide for us because she had to wait, and she had to be patient, and she had to pray, and she was reflective. What is this new life going to be? And the church is asking us to walk with Mary in a similar way, to be reflective and more attentive to our life and the life around us, and not just pass by and not just get busy with the last school projects and tests and preparation for Christmas parties and vacation afterward, and service projects. All those things are good, but if we don’t think about the one who is coming, the reason why we even are celebrating this way then we’re missing a lot of the point. “
Luke
“It’s almost all for nothing.”
Father Joseph
“I would say almost all for nothing. Yes, it’s certainly not for something that it was intended.”
How can we prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ this Advent season? Are there any prayers or spiritual exercises you recommend?
Father Joseph
“I think this is an important question because we can talk about spiritual things and we should be more spiritually attentive. And that can almost sound mysterious, like what does that even mean? So it’s important that we are very practical and down to earth, just like Jesus, how he came to us down to earth. And so in terms of practical things, we can do prayers. I would certainly pick up a rosary at this time of year and pray with Mary because she is a great model for a good advent. I think it’s important to remember that Advent requires some waiting, but we don’t want to just wait wildly, buying, doing. We don’t want to wait wastefully, wasting money and time, or wistfully. We want to wait well. And waiting well means waiting with the right people in the right way. So certainly walking with Mary praying with Mary, I would say the rosary, that’s a classic prayer.
Another spiritual exercise, is scripture. This is a time to listen to God’s word more attentively. And in both Matthew’s Gospel and Luke’s gospel, the first two chapters recount the infancy birth, and early life of Jesus. And so I think reading those throughout you know, there are about roughly, this year it’s more like three weeks, but usually they’re about four weeks, and so you know, one week take Luke chapter one. Second week, take Luke chapter two. So something like that.
Another thing that can and ought to be done in terms of spiritual and practical things, I would say all Christians, and all Catholics should be going to mass every Sunday. But maybe one other day or more. Here at the school, we have mass every day at eight o’clock and I’m always celebrating mass at eight o’clock and Father Sylvester is there typically on Mondays and I’m with him. Choose a day. Just as a way and dedicate the day that way, one day or more if you can. Next week [12/4 – 12/9] we’re actually gonna have confessions. And so that’s a very important way of preparing for Advent.
One of my favorite songs and one of the first Christmas songs I ever learned is Joy to the World. And I love that line that says prepare him room, and that’s a joyful thing. And heaven and nature sing with that. So all of our hearts are to prepare some room for the Lord. And so what does that mean? Certainly with prayer with scripture, but also sacramentally with preparing our hearts and in a way, expanding our hearts. The Church fathers talk about expanding our hearts so that we can have the capacity to receive Jesus in the way he wants to come to us. And so it is for us this year a way of being open to growth. We want our hearts to grow, and the way we allow our hearts to grow is to be fed with the sacraments with God’s word, and with some time in prayer. Lastly, it doesn’t just revolve around us, of course, it’s also going out there. And so there are different things that we can do. There’s lots of opportunities for giving and so to be engaged.”
Luke
“Such as giving and Service?”
Father Joseph
“Exactly and so there should be at least one thing we can point to as part of our preparation for Christmas this advent. Go out one day and go to a soup kitchen and start to make sandwiches, and help package gifts. Maybe buy a gift. Visit little kids. There’s lots of things that you can do that take us out of ourselves.”
Are there any final comments or things you want to tell Jesuit students?
“We are called in this time of Advent to have great hope that this next year is going to be better than any year in our life and that should make us joyful.”
That concludes the interview. A big thanks to Father Joseph for talking to us about Advent and how we should prepare our hearts.
