Everest Academy Lemont Blog

Take a Lesson from the Advent Wreath

Happy New Year!  Along with the beginning of the Advent season, the Church inaugurated this past Sunday a new liturgical year dedicated to our reliving in time the central mysteries of the life of Christ.  Christ is “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev 22:13), and the Church has us begin each year focusing both on the end and on the beginning  so that we might better live the present.  Advent is the season in which we prepare for reliving the beginning, Christ’s coming in the past in Bethlehem; the season in which we prepare for the end, his coming in the future on the clouds of heaven to judge the living and the dead; and the season in which we embrace his coming in the present, in so many ways, but especially in the Eucharist. 

One of the beautiful Advent traditions that Catholics have lived for centuries is the practice of having an Advent wreath in the Church and at home.  One of the primary questions the Lord asks us during Advent is whether we are being vigilant for his coming again, or whether we have fallen asleep.  The Advent wreath that we bless and light each year is meant to be a symbol and cause of our  readiness.  The most important part of the advent wreath is not the color of the candles, which symbolize the hopeful spirit of the weeks, or the evergreens, which symbolize God’s eternal love.  The most important part is the flame, which symbolizes our vigilance for Christ’s coming.  Just like the five wise virgins we read about in the Gospel, whose lamps were always burning in anticipation for the return of the Bridegroom, so the flame of these candles symbolizes and reminds us of our need to wisely await Jesus’ coming.  

Through the Advent wreath, we spiritually unite ourselves to the Jews in their anticipation of the Messiah.  Isaiah said that they were a people “walking in darkness” (Is 9:2), awaiting the light.  St Matthew says that that prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus: “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and darkness of death, light has dawned.”  That light of the dawn is Jesus, the Light of the World.  Both in Church and at home, the Advent wreath is meant to help us to remain always ready, vigilant for Christ’s light to irradiate our entire lives.  Like people who light up their doors at night whenever a guest is coming, so we light these candles announcing that we’re expecting the arrival of the Divine Guest.  This is the vigilance that will allow us to become the good gatekeepers Jesus calls us to be, ready and alert to open the gate as soon as the Master returns.  Like the flame on the candles, we are meant to continue to burn for Christ’s coming, never to fall asleep, never to be extinguished. 

The surest way for us to be ready for Christ when he comes in the future is to be ready for him NOW.  The best litmus test to determine how we would have responded two thousand years ago in Bethlehem is how we respond to his presence TODAY.  The same Christ whom the shepherds and Magi adored in Bethlehem comes to us in the Eucharist at every Mass, in an even more humble disguise that he assumed in the manger. Our response to Jesus in the Eucharist now is the true indication of whether we are awake or asleep, whether we’re imitating Mary and Joseph, the Shepherds and the Magi, or whether we’re behaving more like the inn-keepers, scholars of the law and Herod.  This new liturgical year is a gift from God to help us enter into the reality of Christ’s presence ever more intensely.  

May the Lord help us to make this New Year a true year of the Lord. 
Fr. Matthew Kaderabek LC