Advent

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
29 Nov 2009

Christmas decorations have been on display in some shops for weeks, but the Church season of Advent only starts today.

Is this an example of the Christians being behind the times or another example of moderation and balance, enough but not too much?

Organizations driven by profit are regularly tempted to excess.  Are we threatened by too much commercial pressure before Christmas?

When reminded, Christians know that Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas, the most popular religious and holiday season of the year.  But after that, we have a variety of approaches.

Nearly two thirds of Australians are Christians and one third of the remainder follow the other great faiths.  One in five does not identify with any religious group.  This diversity is reflected in the Christmas festivities, but just about everyone unites to ignore the spiritual tasks of the Advent season.

We admit that gardens need to be weeded, that plants need to be cut back, that no one wants to become like a garden run to seed.  But our daily life sweeps us along, so that we are too busy or distracted to pause.

When people are seriously unwell, most find it difficult to pray or reflect religiously, but when the sick are recuperating, we have a different situation.  In the enforced inactivity and silence God often speaks personally through others or through events.

That is what we are anticipating at Advent: preparing religiously to celebrate that God has spoken to us, come among us and lived with us.  We need to pause and listen.

Christians don't espouse a vague religiosity, an undemanding reverence for the universe.  The feast of Christmas celebrates the fact that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the same God of Moses and Elijah sent his son among us as a little child 2000 years ago.  This is not a fairy tale, not a myth, but a truth claim.

Much of the commercial advertising for Christmas distracts us away from this truth, as even Father Christmas is a fairy-tale successor to an ancient bishop.  But gift-giving is deeply Christian, especially when the less fortunate are included and most of the popular carols have a good message. 

Not many attempt to fast through the series of Christmas breakups and parties, but nothing is preventing serious believers from meditating regularly on the mystery of the one true God coming down to our level as his Son took on human nature.