St. Cyril of Jerusalem, an early Father of the Church, put it this way, he says: “At the first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. At his second coming he will be clothed in light as in a garment. In the first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming he will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels. We look then, he says, beyond the first coming and await the second.”
This is why this season is full of symbols and actions that are both similar and unique from other seasons. It is why everything is now purple and why all priests are wearing purple, to point to the penitential nature of the season, like Lent, once known as it was as a mini-Lent, but also to symbolize royalty, since, in ancient times, purple was a rare color and only those who had the economic means could have made it.
This, too, is why we exclude the Gloria since it is the triumphant hymn of His birth, which is also why the music that we do sing is that of hopeful expectation and waiting. It is also why we have a calendar, a special calendar to mark and count down each of the days in anticipation of His return, and, lastly, why we have a special Advent wreath, a symbol of God’s eternal love and eternal mercy for us, with each candle to remind us of the light that has come and will come again He who, indeed, is the light of all the world.
And, while all of these symbols point to the importance of Jesus’ return, of His coming, it is, indeed, the wreath itself that can help us to understand the importance of this Advent season.
In fact, we began this Mass by going to that wreath, and by lighting the first candle of the four, which we will now do every week. And the light, though dim right now, will get brighter and brighter each time.
I used to teach 3rd grade religious ed., and, one day, I brought in an Advent wreath, turned off all the lights and had the kids gather around the wreath. One by one I lit the candles and each time asked them what they noticed. They said the light was getting brighter and the darkness was becoming less.
They understood it was a symbol of the coming of the light of Christ and that, ultimately, at the end of the four weeks, the darkness would, indeed, be scattered and there would be nothing but light, the light of Christ.
That same light that also dwells within us as well, so that each week, as we light another candle upon that wreath, each week we should start to see more and more of ourselves, more and more of what is inside of us, in our hearts and in our souls, so that the brighter it gets, the more we see, seeing, in essence, our very souls the way God sees us.
And though for some of us that might cause us to be anxious, we should know that we have nothing to fear, because even the darkness of sin and the seeming shadows of hopelessness are cast out and made anew in the light of Christ. In fact, St. Paul, in our second reading, puts it beautifully, he says: “the night is advanced, the day is at hand.” Therefore, as he encourages us all: “Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
This is why Jesus tells us be prepared in our Gospel today and to always be ready, because we have been given this beautiful time of preparation, this new year of the Church, this Advent season, looking forward in hopeful expectation for His return, be it in anniversary of His first or in joyful anticipation of His second.
Today then, let us look within ourselves and see what that first candle has brought to light within us, so that, in the end, we can confidently turn our backs on the darkness, and in the words of Isaiah, always “walk in the light of the Lord.”
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