On the eve of a new calendar year, the new church year is already a month underway, thanks to the season of Advent. That is a blessing in this northern latitude, where darkness once robbed my winters of energy and peace. During Advent, along with other Christians, I look forward to celebrating not only the birth of Jesus, but anticipating his return at the end of time.
Mark 13:33 (NRSV) Alberta sky ~ æssmith photo
In a month where the long waves of red morning light either stutter across ridges of frozen ground or are shut out altogether by grey gloom, Advent brings warmth and brightness into my heart. It is there in the Advent wreath candles lighted on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas:
- the first for hope,
- the second for peace,
- the third for joy,
- the fourth for love.
On Christmas itself, the Christ Candle becomes the fifth to be lighted, announcing the birth of Christ, the light of the world.
This time of waiting for the light to shine in the deep darkness of winter paradoxically draws the light itself into my everyday life. In the midst of preparing for the Christmas celebration, the feast and the sharing with others, the giving and receiving of modest but thoughtful gifts, that light is always there, an armour against the cold and dark.
Before the rhythm of the church calendar became second nature, the beginning of the end of winter did not begin until the early days of January, when nights begin to shorten at both ends of the day. At this 44th latitude, that specific day happens to be the morning of Epiphany, which celebrates the revelation of Jesus Christ as God incarnate.
By that time, the new beginning of the end of winter is more than a month behind me. Now another light finds its way into the rhythm of my days, the light of Christ’s Resurrection. Through all the cold days yet to come, through days of fasting and abstinence, through mourning the awful death of the Son of God who told us all to love, that light is also drawn into each day, shining through sadness and routine alike.
It all begins with the light in Advent. Christians have waited for the end of time for two thousand years, with its promised coming of Jesus Christ in glory. It would be easy to think of this as more tradition than preparation, but the holy light brings the same message it proclaims each year: “Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.”