With its First Sunday we begin the season of Advent, and the Catechism has this to say:
When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor’s birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (no.524).
Throughout his pontificate, Pope St John Paul II spoke at length and in a profound way about Advent. In his Angelus Address of Sunday 2, 2001 of the First Sunday of Advent, he reiterates the same point when he says:
With today’s first Sunday of Advent, a new liturgical year begins. The Church takes up her journey again, and invites us to reflect more intensely on the mystery of Christ, a mystery that is always new and that time cannot exhaust. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Thanks to him, the history of humanity proceeds as a pilgrimage toward the fulfilment of the Kingdom which he inaugurated with his Incarnation and victory over sin and death (no. 1).
Within the same catechesis, Pope St John Paul II magnificently unites Advent with the virtue of hope. He also explains it in an unique way.
For this reason, Advent is synonymous with hope: not the vain waiting for a faceless god, but concrete and certain trust in the return of him who has already visited us, of the “Spouse” who with his blood has sealed with humanity a pact that is an eternal covenant (no. 1). John Paul II is careful to stress and brings forward the thought of Advent as a privileged time of vigilance, particularly in prayer and charity. He says: It is a hope that stimulates vigilance, the characteristic virtue of this special liturgical season. Vigilance in prayer, fostered by a loving expectation; vigilance in the dynamics of concrete charity, aware that the Kingdom of God comes close whenever men learn to live as brothers (no.1).
Already from this stance we can easily conclude that for Pope St John Paul II Advent is time wherein we are to devote ourselves to prayer more. In his General Audience of Wednesday 20 December 2000, he said:
Preparing ourselves to receive him requires first and foremost an attitude of intense and trusting prayer.
Another way of fruitfully preparing for Christmas during this Advent is that of repairing the division in our shattered world by keeping sowing peace and building bridges with our neighbour. In his General Audience of Wednesday 19 December 2001, Pope St John Paul II openly challenges us with the following words:
We should be converted to peace; we should be converted to Christ, our peace, certain that his disarming love in the crib overcomes every dire threat and plan for violence. With confidence we need to continue to ask the Child, born of the Virgin Mary for us, that the enormous energy of his peace might drive out the hatred and revenge that lurk in the human soul. Let us ask God that the good and our love might overcome evil (no.3).
The third fruitful way thanks to which we can spend a spiritually beneficial Advent is our constant obedience to God’s will in our lives. In his General Audience of Wednesday December 18, 2002, Pope John Paul II said:
Mary, who in this novena of preparation for Christmas, guides us towards Bethlehem.Mary is the Woman of the “yes” who, contrary to Eve, makes the plan of God her own without reservation. Thus she becomes a clear light for our steps and the highest model for our inspiration (no.4).
The last flourishing pathway Pope St John Paul II shows us for a grace-filled Advent is to not just preparing for Christ’s birth in our hearts but also for his eventual Second Coming. In his homily at the presentation of the Bull of Indiction of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 on Sunday, 29 November 1998, Pope John Paul II said: The exhortation to be watchful resounds many times in the liturgy, especially in Advent, a season of preparation not only for Christmas, but also for Christ’s definitive and glorious coming at the end of time. It therefore has a distinctly eschatological meaning and invites the believer to spend every day and every moment in the presence of the One “who is and who was and who is come” (Rv 1:4), to whom the future of the world and of man belongs. This is Christian hope! Without this prospect, our existence would be reduced to living for death (no.4).
Pope Benedict XVI’s reflection on Advent is both theologically and pastorally very tangible. He said that Advent, which is God’s visit to us, is a powerful liturgical season which asks of us silence. He also invites us to keep an interior journal to record and meditate deeper on God’s love for us. In his homily at the celebration of First Vespers of Advent, on Saturday 28 November 2009, at the Vatican Basilica in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said:
The meaning of the expression “advent” therefore includes that of visitatio, which simply and specifically means “visit”; in this case it is a question of a visit from God: he enters my life and wishes to speak to me. In our daily lives we all experience having little time for the Lord and also little time for ourselves. We end by being absorbed in “doing”. Is it not true that activities often absorb us and that society with its multiple interests monopolizes our attention? Is it not true that we devote a lot of time to entertainment and to various kinds of amusement? At times we get carried away. Advent, this powerful liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention he has for each one of us. How often does God give us a glimpse of his love! To keep, as it were, an “interior journal” of this love would be a beautiful and salutary task for our life! Advent invites and stimulates us to contemplate the Lord present. Should not the certainty of his presence help us see the world with different eyes? Should it not help us to consider the whole of our life as a “visit”, as a way in which he can come to us and become close to us in every situation?
Finally, Pope Francis also offers to us his reflection on Advent. In his Angelus address of Sunday 27 November 2022, the Holy Father said:
How can we recognize and welcome the Lord?We must be awake, alert, vigilant. Jesus warns us: there is the danger we may not notice his coming and may be unprepared for his visit. I have recalled on other occasions what Saint Augustine said: “I fear the Lord who passes by” (Sermons, 88, 14.13), that is, I fear that he will pass by and I will not recognize him! Indeed, Jesus says that those people in the time of Noah ate and drank “and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away” (Mt 24:39). Let us pay attention to this: they did not realize anything! They were absorbed in their own things and did not realize that the flood was about to come. Indeed, Jesus says that, when he will come, “two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left” (v. 40). In what sense? What is the difference? Simply that one was vigilant, he was waiting, capable of discerning God’s presence in daily life, whereas the other was distracted, lived day to day, and did not notice anything.
Brothers and sisters, in this Season of Advent, let us be shaken out of our torpor and let us awaken from our slumber! Let us try to ask ourselves: am I aware of what I am living, am I alert, am I awake? Do I try to recognize God’s presence in daily situations, or am I distracted and a little overwhelmed by things? If we are unaware of his coming today, we will also be unprepared when he arrives at the end of time. Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us remain vigilant! Waiting for the Lord to come, waiting for the Lord to draw near to us, because he is there, but waiting alert.
With so much richness at our hands let us start this Advent fully aware that Jesus’ accompaniment will help us celebrate this special time of the year with great faith, hope and love. Our Popes St John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis are supporting us in this important faith journey as a preparation for the Jubilee of Hope.