ADVENT IN A NUTSHELL

First Sunday of Advent (December 3, 2023)

• Central to the celebration of Advent is the need for a vital space for God in our hearts. Advent as a preparation for Christ’s coming is nothing more and nothing less than a self-emptying patterned upon the self-emptying of Christ himself. (Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil 4:7).

• We must thoroughly empty out something that is to be filled. If you want to be filled with good, empty out evil. St. Augustine puts it so well when he wrote: “Suppose that God wishes to fill you with honey [a symbol of God’s tenderness and goodness]; but if you are full of vinegar, where will you put the honey?” [Cf. In 1 Ioannis 4, 6: PL 35, 2008f].

• Once Advent is over and, when we have fully emptied ourselves of the vinegar of the old man, then we shall taste the sweetness of the honey of the new man. Then and there, we shall have an authentic Christmas.

F.L. Antonio, OAR