My  Advent

By REV. JOHN P. ROSSON- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

My Fitbit is worn around the wrist and keeps track of many things: steps taken, floors climbed, heart rate. It operates when I sleep.

Last night was a big deal: eight hours of deep sleep. Deep sleep is represented by a dark, deep blue, close to purple.

When I am in light sleep, the color is light blue. When I'm awake, the color is red.

My smart phone tells me how long I was in bed. Time in bed is not sleep.

Time....We hear in the Gospel, "You do not know the time," referring to Christ's second coming.

There are two types of time. The Greek language uses "chronos" to refer to time in the sense of 10 a.m., 11 a.m. or noon. It refers to time in sequence: dawn, noon, afternoon, evening.

Another kind of time is called "kairos." Kairos means the right time, when everything comes together.

Happy New Year! Here we are, near the end of the calendar year, months into the fiscal year and the academic year, just before our actual New Year. We are about to start our new liturgical year.

Would it be better to sync the Church year with the calendar year? I think not.

Our liturgical year transcends all those other cycles. The interruption reminds us that the Christian community lives out time in a wholly different framework. While the world around us is already singing, "Have yourself a merry little Christmas," the Church is wonderfully out of sync.

Advent is a time not to deck the halls, but to clear the decks. There is a little verse which expresses it well: "I plan for the future, I yearn for the past, and meanwhile the present is leaving me." Author Leo Tolstoy called this "the snare of preparation:" always preparing for life, but never living in the present.

Thus, Advent grabs our attention with this strange Gospel: "Be alert, keep awake, wait and be vigilant."

Use Advent to discover what is important. Create a scary thing called "space" and let the Lord's presence fill it. Make Advent my season of awareness: my Advent.

(Father Rosson is pastor of St. Mary's parish in Cooperstown.)[[In-content Ad]]