This Time Again

What do we often do when we are waiting? We watch the time. The Advent Wreath, be it in our churches or in our homes, is a great way to watch the time during this season packed with anticipation and joyful hope. As the candles burn they grow shorter, as does the time. When I grew up we lit the candles of the Advent Wreath at home before every evening meal. We speculated on whether or not the violet candle of the first week would last long enough. As the weeks went by we sometimes blew out its flame before we were done eating to help make it last.

Candles spending their wick and wax as they disperse the darkness of winter remind us that time once spent cannot be retrieved. We can measure it, but we can’t control it. And despite the immortality of our souls, we experience time on this plane of existence as limited. Too often we find we don’t have enough time to accomplish everything we’d like.

But the wreath of Advent also gives us another way of looking at time: time is cyclical. We approach Advent and Christmas as seasons most of us have been through before. The circle of the wreath reminds us that we’ve done this before — not in a déjà vu fashion, but in a comforting way, like a familiar blanket, a comfortable shirt, or the smell of baked goods can evoke a memory or a feeling.

For those who’ve seen many Advents and Christmases, the readings will be familiar. The prophets offer the hope of a world made new by God reigning among us.  There is promise that God will respond and act definitively to establish peace and justice. But more than that, the readings of Advent and Christmas are not just familiar, they are repeated often. The story of the Annunciation and the genealogy of Jesus are repeated more than once in the liturgies of these seven weeks. The First Letter of John, read during the weekdays of Christmas seems to cover the same ground repeatedly. The readings from the prophets may seem interchangeable. The repetition testifies to the common hope we hold, and the way we revel in hearing good news more than once. 

The round wreath and the repetitious readings will tell us we’ve been here before; the diminishing candles and our daily lives will tell us there’s something different this time around.  And hopefully we can say “I never heard it like that” or “saw it that way before”. Hopefully we’ll find that re-visiting this trusted path of Advent and Christmas will lead us to know God as we haven’t before. And though God hasn’t changed, we may feel like we can this time.

It is a joy to offer you these reflections and suggestions for your own prayer during Advent and Christmas. I pray they will help you find new insights into your relationship with Jesus Christ, born for us.