Last week I was chatting pleasantly on the phone with a member of the parish. She mentioned in passing that the Mayan calendar is due to expire soon. Unfamiliar as I was with the Mayan calendar, I researched it on the Internet. It’s a 5,000 year-old calendar devised by the Mayans of Mesoamerica, and it will indeed run out on December 12, 2012 after about 5,120 years. As I went from one blog site to another on the subject, I noticed other sites, too. They had to do with the end of the world. So as I say, it’s happening again.
It happened after 911. It happened as we approached New Year’s Eve of the new millennium. It happened during the lead up to the first Gulf War with Iraq. It happens almost every time there’s a significant crisis or anticipated disaster of one sort or another. And it happens when people encounter personal crises, as well. So we might have seen it coming this time, too, if we had seen the crisis coming, that is.
What am I talking about? What happened?
Once again, some people are saying that the end of days is coming – the end of the world as we’ve known it. There’s an apocalyptic rustle on the grapevine again. Why? Well, as I say, it happens every time there’s some crisis or impending disaster: climate, weather, earthquake, international conflict, civil unrest, epidemic or economic distress. And the economic distress we’re currently undergoing is the worst we’ve seen in 70 years. So it’s only natural that we should start hearing about the end of human history again. And some Christian blogs are seeing it in terms of the return of our Lord.
I suspect there are more than a few people out there who, for one reason or another, get fascinated by the idea of the end coming. It may be that they don’t care for their lives very much, and are looking for escape. It may be that it’s their worst fear and they’re obsessed with it. Or I suppose it may be that they’re sci-fi buffs, who get a kick out of such things. Whatever causes people to get excited about such ideas, those who do tend to try to link events to find proof that the end is coming. So, naturally, those contemporary apocalyptic clarions link this current severe economic downturn, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the election of Obama (whom some Fundamentalists are speculating to be the antichrist, yep, because of his public speaking abilities, no less) as well as environmental issues and none other than the expiration of that 5,000 year-old Mayan calendar. They conclude that there will be a profound transition in human history around 2012, perhaps even the return of our Lord Jesus Christ at the end of time.
Well, you don’t have to wait four years or four thousand for the coming of our Lord. We can meet Him right now. Christians know that Jesus is always coming to us – to meet us where we are and to transform us when we let Him. That’s the point of Advent. Every year Advent reminds us that the Lord is coming and that we should prepare to meet Him. The season of Advent was established to remind us of that each and every year. The Lord is coming and we do well to be prepared to meet Him!
There are three ways of looking at Christ’s coming and different ways to prepare for it. Like Dickens’s Christmas Carol in which there were three spirits who visited Scrooge – Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come there are three ways in which Christ comes to us – past, present and future. Christ comes to us in the past. Obviously Advent is a time to prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Christmas is simply that – a birthday party for Jesus. It celebrates God’s incarnation -- that God loved us so much that He gave Himself to us by becoming one of us. The way Christ meets us in the past is when we remember the 2,000 year old story of His birth. We can prepare to meet Christ in the past by reading the stories leading up to and including His birth, and then reflecting upon Jesus back there and then. As we contemplate Jesus in the past, He becomes present to us now as we attempt to live the life his story teaches us.
Christ comes to us in the present. Advent can also heighten our awareness that Christ is always present to us and comes to us in all sorts of different ways in the course of our daily lives. Medieval Christians emphasized this reality far more than modern Christians tend to do. What they understood is that each encounter with another person, especially each person in any need or difficulty, is an opportunity given us by God to see and respond to Christ. Recognizing Christ incognito, coming to meet us in the needs of others, is a discipline that all of us can cultivate simply by reminding ourselves of what Jesus said, “As you do to each of the least of these you do to me.” Preparing ourselves to meet Christ involves responding to Him by trying to help those in need in ways great and small. Jesus becomes present to us whenever we recognize Him in our exchanges with others.
Christ will come to us in the future. All of this is not to say that Christ will not come to us in the end. He will. Our faith tells us so. The gospels and other New Testament writings echo that truth time and again. All life has a beginning and an ending, and so will human history on this planet and Earth itself. It is important to live in the light of that reality and to make the most of each day when it comes to living our faith by putting it into practice with love. Christ will come to meet us when we die or when history is finished. This should not cause us fear, apprehension or obsession, but rather hopeful anticipation. The conviction that Christ will come to meet us in the end is meant to be a source of hope and encouragement as well as an incentive to motivate us to make the most of the time we have to live for Christ and to do good throughout our lives.
So hear the message of Advent and let it live within you: Christ is coming; be prepared!
Affectionately in Christ,
Phil +