Can You Feel It?
“God is coming! God is coming! All the element we swim in, this existence, echoes ahead the advent. God is coming! Can’t you feel it?” ~ Walter Wangerin
School is coming! Vacation is coming! The start of a new job is coming! Christmas is coming! God is coming! Whenever we hear words heralding an imminent approach of anything, we can find ourselves overwhelmed because the response often given to some “is coming!” is a definitive “But I’m not ready!”
That is what we might say at this point in time. Christmas is coming! It is Friday of the third week of Advent. Christmas will be here in slightly over one week. And we might be far from ready.
As we hear that Christmas is coming, our “unreadiness checklist” might be shouting at us: “Finish the shopping! Do the baking! Send the Christmas cards! Clean the house!” Those more secular tasks might well overtake the spiritual tasks that should be close at hand for Christmas is not a secular holiday. No, not for those of us who call ourselves believers. Christmas is not a secular holiday. It is a religious holy day and we need to be prepared for that.
That is why the adherence to our Advent practices becomes that much more important. Christmas IS coming. Do your best to keep yourself focused on Advent instead of becoming totally distracted by the secular nature of this time of year.
Now, I’m not saying that you can’t shop and bake, send cards and clean the house. I’m just saying that while you do those you also should go to Mass, pray, sing, and do the myriad of things that can be done to keep yourself focused spiritually. One of the ways to do that might be to remind others that Christmas is coming and to encourage them to be ready.
FAITH ACTION: Reach out to others today and try to share with them your joy for the coming of the Lord.