Advent

Advent is the time when the dominant religious and spiritual tension of our times is revealed. Our ancestors in faith knew Advent as a time for people to reconnect with their deep religious instinct, the longing in their hearts for something awesome, beyond imagining. They remembered the forgotten homeland of their souls and God’s gracious care of creation. Most of all they knew it as a time to meditate on the meaning of life and our destiny in the fullness of time. These themes are easily ignored and rejected today when so many have forgotten God, when the grandeur of Christ is ignored, and the idea of waiting for him to come again is treated with cynical indifference. And, of course, the religious meaning of Christmas is marginalised in secularised consumer societies. What about us? Are we ready for the ancient challenge, standing for God in these Advent days?