“Smile— It’s Advent”

I love the Advent season. It’s a season of hope and anticipation of great things to come; it seems balanced with a certain amount of repentance, but not overwhelming like Lent. We know there is sorrow and trials and uncertainties affecting the holy family, and that they are poor and needy and cold and homeless, yet we know that heaven is providing everything including the choir of angels, the three kings with some wonderful gifts…. and it ends with Christmas and the birth of our savior.  The Advent season really ends well. 

On a human side, I love the “Advent Lights” showing up after Thanksgiving and turning into  “Christmas Lights” as we draw near to Christmas Eve. I even like the  weather changing….. we begin to experience a chill and then maybe a bit of snow and even a “White Christmas”. I still remember as a young boy going to Christmas Midnight Mass, singing in the school choir, coming home in the cold and opening a present. Moments of joy, yet the moments passed.  I remember the letdown as the days following Christmas returned to the very ordinary.

The desires of the heart are much deeper than the fleeting pleasures of temporary gifts. No matter how great a day may be or a gift might be, if it’s temporary, it just doesn’t satisfy. 

Today’s reading from Isaiah 25 strikes something deeper in my soul. 

“On this mountain the Lord of hosts/ will provide for all peoples/A feast of rich food and choice wines,/ juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines./On this mountain he will destroy/ the veil that veils all peoples,/ The web that is woven over all nations;/ he will destroy death forever./ The Lord God will wipe away/ the tears from all faces;/ The reproach of his people he will remove/ from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken. On that day it will be said:/ “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!/This is the Lord for whom we looked;/ let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!”/ For the hand of the Lord will rest on this ­mountain.”(Is. 25:6-10)

Wow, a feast of rich food and choice wines, death destroyed, tears wiped away (and all that brought those tears), no more reproach, and most of all the Lord who we’ve been looking for to save us is there. This is the eternal day. There’s no “day after” when all you have is a memory of the great day.  It’s eternal. The greatest of days is not going to end. 

This passage touches something deep within my soul. This passage brings me peace. It’s what my soul has been longing for.  Advent puts some “meat on the bones” of our coming salvation. The solution to the deepest longing of my soul is here. The people in darkness have seen a great light. The veil is lifting. The deepest longings of our soul is coming into focus. I can feel my heart beginning to become lighter. This feeling in our soul must be nourished. We know a lot more of the story…. we know of the birth and life and resurrection and ascension of our savior. We know a lot of what is coming. But, we need to hold tight to the light and hope that shows up in Advent. This feeling needs to be nourished. But how?

The Advent season should put a huge smile on our face. If we ponder the greatness of the eternal day that is coming, we should stand up and do a little dance….. no a BIG dance. Most of all we are going to be standing next to our magnificent Savior and He is going to have his arm around us and he’s going to be smiling at us and telling us that we have no more reason to fear and that we will spend all of eternity together (the eternal day) as he satisfies every desire he has place in our heart. There will be no more chance of sin, of sorrow, of tears, of heartache, of pain, of loss. There is no “day after” when this goes away. As C,S, Lewis wrote, “heaven –  where every new day is better that the last”. And Advent is the clear announcing of this eternal day that is coming. Wow, what Good News.