The Joy of Advent and Christmas

Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

-O Holy Night

One of my favorite times of the liturgical year is the Christmas season and the preparatory season of Advent that leads up to it. While the Paschal Mystery we celebrate during Holy Week and especially on Easter Sunday is really the central mystery of the Christian religion, I find that Christmas reveals another aspect of the Gospel message in a very beautiful and touching way. Christmas is fundamentally a feast of Christian hope, making Advent a season of hope. Perhaps that is why the Holy Father Pope Benedict released his encyclical Spe Salvi, Saved by Hope, one day before the start of Advent this year.

The effects of original sin are apparent everywhere we look, and especially every time we turn on CNN or open a newspaper. Before the birth of Christ we were slaves, dying in our sins with no hope of redemption. At times it appears that this is still the case, and we are tempted to proclaim with Qoheleth, "all things are vanity and a chasing after the wind." But Advent announces that a child is coming who will "hear the groans of the prisoners and free those condemned to die" (Ps 102). At Christmas, God reaches across the infinite chasm that separates man from himself and breaks into human history in a radical way: by becoming man, so that he might reconcile us to himself.

When life seems to be nothing more than a valley of tears, Advent reminds us that we have hope, because God has not forgotten us. When Christmas comes, we can peer into the manager and see the face of Emmanuel, God with us, the Prince of Peace, and have hope, for our salvation is near.