Readings - http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112711.cfm
After many months of Ordinary Time, today with the beginning of Advent, we enter into the "busy portion" of our Liturgical calendar. We have been already "ramping up" since the beginning of November, with the celebration of All Saints and All Souls on Nov 1st-2nd as well as our American feast of Thanksgiving this past week. And things will really not slow down completely until after a number of the Feasts that follow Pentecost (which ends the Easter season) in late Spring. But with the beginning of Advent the pace does certainly speed-up.
Now Advent is a Season of Preparation (for the Season of Christmas). It's theme, of course, is of "joyful expectation." We remember during this season that the people of Israel had been predicting the coming of a Messiah (of an/the Anointed One) for hundreds of years before the coming of Jesus and slowly developing their understanding of what his arrival would mean. In a time when we throw a dish into the microwave and tap our watches while our meal heats up, or feel frustrated when a page does not download immediately on our computer screens from the internet, it's probably very hard to imagine preparing for something that didn't take place for _generations_ or even hundreds of years. Yet that was Israel's experience. And in our impatience we could perhaps learn to respect that experience because some of the great questions of our time may not be settled in the course of our lifetimes.
Then Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas. And so it is a hectic time at home trying to make everything "just right" for the family's celebration of the holiday. Hopefully at least some of those preparations would concern more than just getting the material things ready (the Christmas tree, the food, etc) but also getting ready spiritually -- looking at the relationships that need to be fixed, etc.
And this then touches on the final level of preparation that we're asked to reflect on during this season: Christ's second coming or perhaps more importantly, Christ's coming for us at the end of our lives. We will have to make an account of our lives (in one way or another) and so yes, we are asked to keep (or bring) our lives more or less in order. Again, what are the things or relationships that we need to fix?
Some of these frayed or even broken relationships may seem hopelessly lost. Can we at least be ready to fix them when the time arrives? Jesus does tell us that "The Day of the Lord" could really come at any time: "during the middle of the night," "just before dawn," or "first thing in the morning the next day." We're asked to be ready, or at least work on making ourselves ready.
Finally, the First Sunday of Advent, being the first Sunday of a new Liturgical Year is often a time for changes in various practices of the Church. It's hard to avoid mention that today after many years of preparation we are beginning our use of a new translation of the Mass.
The new translation seeks to be more faithful to the imagery present in the Latin original. And that will be nice because some of the recovered imagery is frankly quite interesting. We will be asking the Lord, for instance, to send down his Spirit "like the dew fall" upon our gifts before transforming them into the Body and Blood of Christ. LIKE THE DEW FALL ... what a nice image really. Usually when we think of God's action we think of lightning bolts. Here, we're asked to imagine God's action coming _as gently_ "as the dew fall."
Another effect may strike fear into the hearts of English teachers everywhere who've previously been the ones casting fear into the hearts of generations of middle and high school students by insisting on a very rigid form of grammar where each sentence was to express only one idea and as a rule of thumb would be no longer than about 10-15 words. The new translation of the Mass simply blows these expectations to pieces as it retains not just its Roman imagery but also much of its grammar. So high school students, from this day forward you'll have an excuse when you write a run-on sentence ;-). And you were right before in arguing with your high school English teacher that sometimes it is impossible to adequately express an idea without a couple of extended relative clauses ;-) ;-).
Indeed, it may be that in the coming years there will be more gentle changes to the English translation of the Roman Missal as even Bishops start to say "The order of this (or that) sentence or is just too cumbersome."
But then, such changes have occurred repeatedly and largely peacefully for decades as the various Liturgical commissions in charge of these things tinkered with the translations for the Readings in the Lectionary.
So let us give thanks for the Big change that has arrived in the Liturgy. Some of the recovered imagery is very nice. And the recovered imagery, like of God's action as coming "like the dew fall" _may_ even change hearts.
But let's also pray that the Bishops become brave enough to allow the text to be smoothened out a bit in the future just like this has been done over the years with our Lectionary.
In any case, change has come. Let us glory in some of the newly recovered imagery. And let us take the time during the Season of Advent to work on the aspects of our lives that we really need to fix as well.
God bless you all and have a happy and blessed Advent!
