Why Advent? Why do we take a whole month of the Church year and set it aside to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ-child at Christmas? We’ve probably already set up our Christmas trees. (It’s okay! We should enjoy them.) The rest of the world around us is already aglow with the symbols and busy-ness of Christmas.
We take time to prepare, spiritually and mentally, because we are about to commemorate and celebrate arguably the biggest, most important moment in human history: We celebrate at Christmas the reality of the Incarnation, the Christian belief that God took human form in Jesus Christ. The word “incarnation” literally means “into flesh” or “taking on flesh.”
Take some time to reflect upon the awesomeness of the fact that God, in the second person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus the Son of God, the Eternal Word, stooped down into human history and became man in order to save us and raise our fallen human nature back up to the dignity of the divine. - Read that sentence a few times and just ponder the reality of what that means. This is what we celebrate at Christmas. Jesus, fully Divine, also took on a fully human nature as a baby born of Mary at Bethlehem.
The incarnation is such an awesome reality and central belief of our faith that we bow when we say the words of the Incarnation when we recite the Creed at Mass: “…by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” The rubrics (instructions) for the liturgy call not just for a “bow” (of the head) but a profound bow (a bow of the body, from the waist) at this important confession of our faith. This serves as a physical reminder to us and a sign to those around us of our understanding of what the Incarnation means for us. (c.f. General Instruction of the Roman Missal 275.)
In fact, the rubrics also ask us not just to profound bow, but actually to genuflect at the words of the Incarnation as we recite the Creed on two special days of the liturgical year: At Mass at Christmas and on the Solemnity of the Annunciation (March 25, 9 months before Christmas Day, when we commemorate when the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive and bear Jesus.) In this way, on these two particular days, we show an even greater sign of our understanding of the awesomeness of the Incarnation via our genuflection.
What makes us different is that we use Advent to prepare for the reality of the Incarnation that we commemorate at Christmas, and we’ll use ALL of the Christmas season to celebrate it. (From the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord on Christmas Day, through the Octave of Christmas to the Feast of the Holy Family, to the Epiphany and the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord… all the way to ‘Candlemas,’ the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary on February 2.) If you REALLY want to be countercultural, leave at least your Christmas tree or your Nativity set (or both) up all the way to February 2, the traditional end of the Christmas season! Use the whole season to reflect upon the awesomeness of the Incarnation.
This Advent season, may we follow Mary’s example of humble faith. As Mary bore the Incarnate Word, let us also prepare a place in our hearts to carry Jesus.
Let’s form Saints for the next 150 Years!
Yours in Christ the Servant,
Michael Halbrook