Well first off, happy new year! At least in the ecclesiastical sense; the calendar just clicked over into Advent this past Sunday, the first season of the liturgical calendar. Advent is a time of preparation for, and reflection on, the birth of Christ. It could even be regarded as a foil for it's close cousin on the calendar, Lent. Although they share the color purple, and people can sometimes get the purpose of these two great season confused, I believe their means to and end are really quite diametric from one another. Where Lent is a season of penance tempered by hope, Advent is a season of hope tempered by penance.
As we approach Christmas and the celebration of the coming of the Lord, we reflect on scripture. Read the first two chapters of St. Luke's Gospel and you can't help but feel the electricity buzzing from the pages as all of Heaven prepares for this event, an event that is the culmination of the thousands of years of prophetic foreshadowing that fills the pages of the Old Testament. Angels begin heralding the birth of John the Baptist and, shortly after, the birth of Christ. You get the joyous and excited exclamations that make up one of the Church's most famous prayers, from both angelic and human sources: "Hail Mary, full of Grace! The Lord is with you!" and "Blessed are you, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb!".
These are profound ideas, once that we could fill pages and pages exploring and fleshing out, but these are also the ordinary attitudes of the Advent and Christmas seasons. This year, however, things are, I feel, slightly different.
As I mentioned above, we are currently about two months into the Year of Faith, where Pope Benedict XVI has sought to refocus the Church on her primary goal of winning souls to Christ. This is a massive push towards what has come to be known as the New Evangelization, a movement.meant to introduce a new generation of Catholics to the good fruits of the faith. The emphasis on catechesis and study, so we can really know our faith and the reasons behind our beliefs. But most of all, the emphasis on action, on the mission to go out, making disciples of all nations. It is this that I believe the Church has missed in the modern age. The active proclamation of the Gospel.
SO here's where the message of Advent ties in uniquely with the Year of Faith. When asked where the term "gospel" comes from, what it means, most people will say that it means "God News". And this is true, it does. But there's a whole lot more to it than that, and it shines a lot of light on the mission of Christianity.
If we follow the root of the word back, past the Old English godspel to its Latin and, ultimately, to its root in the Koine Greek used in scripture, we find that the word is euangélion, literally "good messenger". This was a term that a person living under the rule of the first century Roman empire would find familiar, albeit out of place in relation to a small baby born in a manger. This wasn't a humble term, but one of great imperial weight.
Let me explain. When the Roman army returned from battle, messengers would be dispatched to the corners of the empire to proclaim an euangélion, the victorious message of the glorious expansion of imperial rule. The basic idea was that people would know that the king was on his throne and that he had won.
Now imagine the seeming paradox when the Gospel writer takes this mighty term and flips it on its head. He describes a poor man and woman traveling to a tiny town a few miles away from Jerusalem, having a child in a cave full of animals. And suddenly a heavenly host comes pouring from the sky declaring... an euangélion. The King has won. The mission is complete, the war is over. Which king? Caesar? No no, the tiny baby in the cave. The king of the world is on His throne, and He is victorious.
See, the euangélion is the moral of the Advent story. It's no longer Kyrios Caesar, it's now Kyrios Christos.
So that's all interesting, but how does it tie into the Year of Faith? Our focus on the New Evangelization? Well, look at the words. Evangelization. Euangélion. Hmm. The Year of Faith and the New Evangelization is all about the Advent. We're embroiled in the middle of a new euangélion, a renewal of our faith. So use this Advent time and follow the example of the Gospels. Announce the arrival of the Savior, keep abuzz with activity, learn your faith, and remember that it's all pointing to this: The king is on His throne, and He is victorious.
So what can you do to move forward? A few suggestions:
- Read the Bible. Seriously, just hit about five pages a day and you'll have the entire thing read, cover to cover, in a year.
- Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Again, 5-10 paragraphs a day and you'll have it knocked out in a year. Check out http://www.flocknote.com/catechism and sign up to have a snippet sent to your email every day. It's already about 56 days into it, but you could catch up in a night and take it from thee.
- Study the Catholic faith. There are countless resources on the web. http://www.catholic.com is a good place to start, and there are a number of good books you can get. Also, look up your local Diocese's website, many of them are beginning to provide study materials and online courses for free or cheap. This is a link to the Archdiocese of Washington's adult faith formation program. Lastly, if you're not sure where to go, find a church and give them a call. Sign up for an RCIA class, or something similar.
- Pray. This cannot be stressed enough. You don't need to lock yourself in a silent room full of icons and statues for an hour, just start with ten minutes. Maybe pray the rosary every day, that'll take about that much time. Then, as you feel comfortable, ad another five minutes. Work your way up, and soon an hour wont seem like enough time.
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