Peter Espeut | Advent – waiting for Christmas

Three businessmen – a Catholic, a Protestant, and an atheist – were discussing what Christmas means to them. The Protestant said Christmas means a 50 per cent increase in profits. The Catholic says Christmas means a 20 per cent increase in earnings after taxes. The atheist says that the Christmas business is so profitable that on Christmas day, he and his friends gather around the Christmas tree, hold hands, and sing, “O what a friend we have in Jesus!”

In the above anecdote, the “Christians” are no better than the atheist, who at least knows that it has something to do with Jesus! I am sure that almost all who fight against the teachings of Jesus by advocating for the right to abortion will in some way celebrate in a few weeks the birth of this baby boy.

The Christian celebration of Christmas has been appropriated by secular interests, who have turned it into an orgy of shopping and commercialism. In an effort to make even more money, they contrive for the Christmas season to begin with December; some put up their artificial evergreen trees even earlier, and want to hear the Christmas Carols in November to create “The Christmas Spirit”.

The symbol of the evergreen tree at Christmas – which takes place during the winter in northern climes – is life and colour in the midst of monochrome snow and ice, when most trees have long shed their leaves. It is no accident that Christmas takes place at the darkest time of the year (short day), to emphasise the condition of the fallen world before its liberation. As John says at the beginning of his account of the Gospel: “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1: 4-5).

And so we put up lights in our houses and our yards to testify that the true light has come to conquer the darkness.

John goes on: “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him” (John 1: 9-10).

SUPERFICIAL AND FRIVOLOUS

That is still true today. Many who observe Christmas do not recognise the one whom Christmas is about. And the secular celebration of Christmas is empty and superficial, and even frivolous.

The four weeks prior to Christmas – we are now in the middle of it – is called “the Advent Season”, when we try to put ourselves in the place of the people of Israel waiting for the coming of the Messiah – the anointed one – who would save them from their sins and its consequences. They had broken the covenant made with their God who had brought them out of slavery in Egypt; and they were still in slavery to sin.

The prophet Jeremiah had foretold: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31). The old was to give way to the new. “You have heard it said … but I say to you”. No more Old Law with its “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth”. No more Old Covenant with its circumcision, and dietary laws, and day of worship!

The people of God were in waiting mode – which is the spirit of the Advent Season: waiting, hoping, expecting. One of the best icons of Advent is the pregnant Mary, full of potential and possibility, waiting to give birth. The one who came, ushered in a new era – a New Covenant. Things would never be the same!

Of course, Advent has a double meaning: waiting for Jesus to be born, yes, but waiting for him to come again as he promised. All Christians are Adventists in this sense; but we do not wait for his coming as if we are Jews, keeping the Old Law; we wait as Children of the New Covenant, born again in water and the Holy Spirit, aware that “it is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of a man” (Matthew 15:11). Paul told Christians in that pagan city Corinth, where all manner of meat was sold in its meat market: “Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience” (1 Cor 10:25). It did not matter what meat it was, or whether it had been sacrificed to idols, nothing was now ritually unclean.

FOCUS ON CLEANLINESS

Under the New Covenant we circumcise our hearts; we rend our hearts and not our garments; we focus on the cleanliness of what we think, say and do – that which comes out of us. We heed the words of John the Baptist, the Star Guy in the Advent Season: “Repent! For the Kingdom of God is at hand! Police and soldiers: no brutality! Be content with your pay. No extortion! Tax collectors: No corruption! Collect no more than you are due” (Luke 3:10-14).

There is, of course, a third way that Jesus comes – a very personal way – into our hearts. “Prepare the way of the Lord” we are told; “make his paths straight” (Luke 3:4). It is appropriate during Advent to examine our lives, and to make ourselves ready for his coming. This is true for nations and for individuals. It is a cleansing time of year.

Let us not rush into Christmas, and let us not buy into the commercial hype. Let us make ourselves ready by buying the ham and the sorrel and the gungo peas. But let us also ready our hearts by opening them wide to others – the least of his brethren – who may not have the wherewithal to be merry.

Peter Espeut is a Roman Catholic deacon. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com