ADVENT AND PENANCE?

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Most of us Catholics think of Lent as a time of penitence, a time to reflect on Jesus' suffering and death as we prepare for Holy Week and the celebration of the Resurrection, Christ's victory over sin, suffering and death. 

I've been reflecting recently (see my previous post) on the penitential side of Advent. The message of John the Baptist rings out during Advent: "Repent! The Kingdom is at hand!" So the Advent season is one of joyous anticipation of the coming of Christ at Christmas, but it has always included the dimension of repentance as part of answering the Baptist's call to prepare the way for the Lord. 

Nowadays most of us think that repentance and joy as opposites, and that you can't experience both at the same time. It seems that in the past the penitential practices of Advent always had a festive character. Our ancestors in the faith understood the concept of "the discipline of joy" -- they had a good time keeping Advent even though they were fasting and abstaining from meat, and so on. For us moderns it's an "either/or" situation rather than a "both/and". As a result, we've let go of the penitential aspect (preparing the way, making the paths straight for the Lord to come) and have kept just the celebration part.

So we fill the pre-Christmas season with parties and Christmas carols and miss the experience of "waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ." There was wisdom in the original way of celebrating Advent -- joyful penitence that would make the celebration of the feast on December 25 that much more festive.

We shouldn't be afraid of including in our "celebration" of Advent some practices such as giving to the poor or having a simpler or meatless meal now and then. A wise celebration of Advent in our homes and churches is certainly a great antidote to our culture's frenzied mindless rushing, the stressful, exhausting round of shopping and partying in preparation for Christmas.