The season of Advent has a rhythm that presents itself in the gospel readings.  We begin the season of Advent with a reading from the gospel that is eschatological in nature, reminding us that the adventus or coming of the Lord that we are to prepare for in Advent is a two-fold coming.  The first coming is the coming of the Christ child, the event of the Incarnation, in which the Word takes flesh and comes to dwell among us as Jesus the Christ.  The second coming that we are to prepare for in Advent is the second coming of the glorified Jesus who will come again to judge us in the Final Judgment.  Thus, the beginning of the Advent season presents us with a joyful hope of our Lord’s coming at the end of time and our need to ready ourselves for his coming through watchful waiting.  The key term of the first week of Advent is “watch”. 

     Our next couple of Sundays presents us with the figure of John the Baptist who is the herald of the coming of Jesus into our lives.  This coming of the Lord challenges us to prepare a place for him in our hearts and in our lives.  John is the voice in the wilderness of the world that calls us to preparation through a reorientation of our lives to God.  The Word has already entered into the world and is preparing to speak, to teach and to reveal to us God’s plan of salvation.  Through the coming of the Word, Jesus, we gain a knowledge of God and are able to live our lives in true wisdom and understanding, in a conscious way allowing our lives to become a light that is set on fire through the words and teaching of Jesus who has come to reveal the Father to those who are ready to receive him.  The key word for our second week is “repent”.  We must move away from the darkness of our former way of living and begin to prepare to become children of the light. 

     John continues to guide us through Advent with his ministry of baptism in which we are invited to enter into a new way of life through the waters of baptism.  Baptism cleanses us from the effects of the darkness of sin in our lives and allows us to live in the freedom of the children of God.  Now that we are free and cleansed we are ready to receive the seed of the Word in our lives and to begin to allow the Word to grow within us until it comes to bear its fruit of new life in our lives. 

     Then, in the final week of Advent, Mary comes to guide us into full incorporation into the life of God and complete our rebirth into Christ.  We hear in the gospel how the Spirit is to overshadow her and fill her with the presence of Jesus Christ.  As we remember Jesus tell Nicodemus that we must be born again in “water and the Spirit”, we have passed through the water with John and have received the Spirit with Mary.  The key word for our final week is “fiat”, yes, let it be done in me according to God’s Word.  Now we are full of Advent and ready for the coming of Christ.

     St. Paul orients us today with Advent thinking with his challenging words:  “what sort of persons ought you to be.”  Our reflection for Advent moves us from the darkness of our sinful nature to the glorious possibility of new life in the light of Christ.  What sort of persons ought we to be if we are truly to live as light in the world today?  Paul has some great suggestions for us to examine our lives against: “conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.”  While we watch and wait for the coming of the Lord we must busy ourselves with conduct that exhibits holiness and devotion, that shows that we already are sharing in the very life that we await in the coming of God’s kingdom.  Our Advent hope now becomes clear and well founded.  Advent hope is not wishful thinking, like filling out our wish list for Santa, rather it is a confident and certain hope that is based upon the fact that we already share in the very thing that we are hoping for, a full share in the divine life of God.  As God is holy and devoted in love so are we already sharing in his holiness and devotion.

     As we prepare for the coming of the Lord into our world, a light that will dawn in the darkness, a child that will come to lead us to new life, as we prepare for the birth of the Christ child, we pray also that Christ will be born again in our hearts and that we will live in the newness of life in him like little children filled with the joy of the season.