What are We Afraid of?

I think we've all noticed it. Every year, starting sometime before Thanksgiving and lasting until all the gifts are open on December 25^th, we celebrate Christmas. It’s a time filled with music and shopping, baking and trying to find the ugliest of sweaters to wear. It’s an overall joyful time. Even amidst the consumerism, people are more generous, more joyful, and tend to finish out the year with a bang.

However, we also hear in nearly every homily how we need to be celebrating Advent more. We need to be preparing. We need to be treating this time as the "Little Lent" it is meant to be. Jesus is coming, and we need to prepare our hearts!

And it makes sense right? I mean, the Church seems to know what she’s doing. It makes sense to keep Christ in Christmas; I mean it started because of him. But we still have to shop and prepare. Family is coming! What’s the harm in going to the Christmas parties and wearing those terrible sweaters? There is a practical preparation that needs to happen as well!

So, as a result, we do a really good job of celebrating Christmas and a really poor job of celebrating Advent. Partially because Advent gets lost in the hustle. Partially because we don’t know exactly what it means to prepare our hearts. But I think there is another element that we don’t like to talk about.

To truly prepare for the Infant Christ scares us.

Now I don’t mean the porcelain Jesus you place in the manger or the baby that Mary is holding in the picture on the wall. I mean the living, breathing, crying, squirming, delicate, newborn Baby Jesus of Nazareth. Here is the baby who’s very birth split history. Here is the baby who knew exactly who he was before he could even talk. Here is the baby who, as he lays in your arms and looks into your eyes, knows who you are, and what you have done, and what he will do for you. Yet, despite how much bigger he is and how sinful we are, consents to trust himself to your care.

As we prepare for the Season of Christmas, don’t just think of Advent as some obligatory time of quiet before we can finally celebrate. It’s not just a season of pipe down. Advent, and the preparation it offers, is the period in which we ready our hearts to accept the gravity of Jesus’ birth. It’s a time to take a deep breath and calm our shaking hands so that we can hold him more securely. Advent allows us walk with the Holy Family to Bethlehem, sit in the cave, and await the Newborn King of Kings.

So, absolutely prepare for Christmas. Buy the gifts and bake the cookies. But also prepare by taking time to meditate on how big a moment the Nativity will truly be, and open your arms wide to our delicate and humble Lord.

Happy Advent

St Joseph, father of the Holy Family, Pray for us

God, Father of our Savior, bless us

What Now...?

Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Lord of the Universe, is dead and laid in the tomb. Imagine that you are one of his disciples. Yesterday Jesus was beaten, scorned, insulted, gored, and hung on a cross to die naked in front a crowd of those who hated him and celebrated his demise. And what did you do? Maybe you ran. Maybe you hid. Were you afraid for your own life? Did you think, maybe they would do the same to you if they found you? How do you feel today, Saturday? What do you do when the man you gave everything for is gone?

Scripture doesn't really tell us much about what the apostles did on Holy Saturday. We know from Luke (23:56) that they rested according to the Sabbath. Did they go to the temple? If they did, they must have tried to remain inconspicuous. The voice of Jesus must have still been ringing in their ears when he said, "No slave is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you... they will do these things to you on account of my name" (John 15:20-21).

The Apostles together on Holy Saturday

They must have felt lost. They must have thought to themselves, "what now?". Maybe the words of Peter came to mind. "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." (John 6:68). Imagine the quiet emptiness that they must have felt. Imagine the feelings of abandonment. Imagine what it must have felt like to give three years of your life to a man and his cause, only to see him die. Not only that, but to know that you just ran away; to know that you valued your own life so much that you weren't even there to comfort him. I'm sure that Peter is not the only one who denied knowing Jesus that day.

We do know some things, however. We know that they returned to the upper room and stayed together. Indeed, on Easter Sunday, Jesus finds them there together (Jn 20: 19, 26). They were supporting and consoling each other. They must have been praying for a next step. We know that Mary of Magdala was there. When they saw Jesus, it says they returned to the upper room to tell the apostles (Jn 20:1-2; Mt 27:7-8; Mk 16:7; Lk 24: 7-8).

We can also assume that Mary was with them. John took her into his home (Jn 19:27), and as they were all together, she must have been there too. Imagine the comfort she must have been to them. She had a faith that surpassed all of them. She knew from the moment she gave her 'yes' to the angel (Lk 1:38), and from her encounter with Simeon in the temple those many years before (Lk 2:34-35), that this day was coming. She was their mother now (Jn 19:26). Yes, she was mourning  Yes, she must have been in more pain then any of them, but she knew that her son would come through. She believed.

Mary the Comforter

So, on this day of quiet contemplation, on this day of quiet desolation as our Lord rests in the tomb, I encourage you to be seek comfort in the arms of Mary, our mother. She is a model of faith. She is a model of patient perseverance. As we entered the tomb with Christ last night and stay there today, ask Mary to pray for you. Ask her to dry your tears and lead your prayers. Let yourself be buried in her embrace and allow her to bring you deeper into the Paschal Mystery. That way, when the bells ring tonight at the first Easter mass of the year, we can truly experience the joy of the Risen Lord as Mary and the apostles do.

Mary, mother of the Church, pray for us
God, Father in Heaven, bless us