Arriving at Advent by Michelle Tan

As we draw near to the end of the calendar year, we find ourselves in a season of preparation.

Many of us may already be winding down and preparing for year-end holidays with our families, while others may still be busy in school preparing for P1 orientations, or P6 and Sec 4 graduation and prize-giving ceremonies, and prom nights. Still others are preparing students for the ongoing O and A level exams.

Yet, how many of us are preparing for the start of the new liturgical year and the season of Advent—a time of preparation for the arrival of Christ, not only His First Coming as a newborn babe at Christmas, but also His Second Coming as the Lord of lords and King of kings in the end-times?

Why we should prepare for Advent

We seem to be more diligent in preparing for Lent than Advent – we plan quite early on what we’re going to fast from or what extra we’re going to do, which spiritual or corporal works of mercy we’re going to undertake, and to whom to give alms and how much. Church ministries also begin preparing for more meaningful Lenten events and spiritual reflections for parishioners.

Yet why are we less intentional about Advent? After all, as Fr Ignatius Yeo observed in a Catholic News article, “both seasons employ the use of purple vestments, have a ‘rose’ Sunday – Gaudete Sunday in Advent and Laetare Sunday in Lent – and eliminate the Gloria during Mass. Furthermore, both seasons lead up to an important solemnity of the Lord – Christmas and Easter respectively. This is why they are both sometimes identified as penitential seasons.”

However, as Fr Yeo pointed out, the difference between the two is that, while Lent is a season to join ourselves to Christ by our repentance, confession of sin, and participation in His redemptive sufferings, “our joyful Advent ‘penance’ is primarily focused on removing anything that blocks Jesus from entering our hearts at Christmas.”

Advent is rooted in the Latin adventus or “arrival”, which in turn derives from the Latin ad + venire, which means, essentially, “to come to” or “to come toward”.

Last year, the whole of Catholic Singapore, and many non-Catholics too, was abuzz with expectancy and excitement at the imminent arrival of Pope Francis, the successor of St Peter, and elaborate preparations were made accordingly. What more the preparations for the imminent arrival of the Christ, St Peter’s Master?

Indeed, the Church teaches, “The coming of God’s Son to earth is an event of such immensity that God willed to prepare for it over centuries.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, CCC 522) “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Saviour’s First Coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for His Second Coming.” (CCC 524)

To prepare for Advent then, we should, like wise bridesmaids, stay spiritually awake, ensuring the lamps of our souls are filled with the “oil of gladness”, and the wicks of our consciences trimmed, so that upon the bridegroom’s arrival, the light of our faith will illuminate the Way for others to “arrive” with Him to the great wedding banquet in heaven (Matthew 25:1–13).

How we could prepare for Advent

Apart from buying materials to craft our Advent calendars, Advent wreaths, Jesse trees and Nativity scenes, let us remember American Catholic theologian Dr Scott Hahn’s wise counsel: “If we want to advance in the spiritual life, we should first retreat.”

A good way to prepare ourselves seriously to advance spiritually into Advent is to literally go on retreat. How so and why?

1. We find silence

Going on retreat means intentionally leaving the Martha in us for an extended duration and letting our Mary choose “the better part”.

We need to unlock our eyes from the different-sized screens of our mobiles (S), laptops (M), TVs (L), movie theatres (XL) and turn our gaze upon God in the Blessed Sacrament, in the holy (hardcopy) books of Scripture or in the great canvas of Creation.

We need to detach from our fast-paced, noise-polluted and rest-deprived daily routines to seek refuge in Christ in the solitude, stillness and silence of our hearts.

Perhaps we simply need the peace and quiet of a good night’s sleep: “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives sleep to His beloved.” (Psalm 127:2)

2. We are prepared for mission

“‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” (Mark 6:31)

We obey the Lord by making a mini retreat every time we go to Mass: together with other members of the People of God, we exit the world to pray, listen to the Word of God, allow the Holy Spirit to fall upon us “like the dewfall” and touch Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.

We leave, sent on mission, to bring what we have just received – the real presence of Christ – into the secular world, as living proof through our love and witness that “The Kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21).

But nemo dat non quod habet – no one can give what they do not have. Originally a legal maxim in commercial and property law, we can use it to illustrate how head knowledge of Christ is not enough – if we do not have heart knowledge of Christ as our Teacher, brother and friend, how can we share Him effectively with others?

How much more would going on an extended retreat prepare us to become better missionaries!

Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights preparing to receive the Ten Commandments before giving them to the people to prepare them for entry into the Promised Land.

John the Baptist spent all his life in the desert preparing to prepare the way for Christ.

Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert to prepare for His preparation of the Apostles for the Great Commission.

Peter, James and John were on the Mount of the Transfiguration with Jesus to prepare them for the Passion and its aftermath (Matthew 17:1), and Paul spent a very intense three days and nights with the Lord in his temporary blindness to prepare for his apostleship to the Gentiles and his preparation of the converts to become the earliest Christians.

3. We attune ourselves to God’s will

Pope Francis teaches that God calls each of us to be saints. “Each saint is a mission, planned by the Father to reflect and embody, at a specific moment in history, a certain aspect of the Gospel.” (Gaudete et exsultate 19) Before we can be His saints, we must know His will and His mission for us.

The Lord’s voice may be difficult to distinguish in the cacophony of noise both within and without ourselves. God had to call Samuel several times before he could recognise God and respond “Speak Lord, your servant is listening,” and even then, only with the priest Eli’s guidance. The kings of Israel and Judah preferred to heed the voices of the world rather than that of God’s through the prophets. Judas was deaf to Jesus’ voice of love and mercy incarnate.

In retreats, the Lord aligns our spiritual antenna to His wavelength. Through His Word contemplated in private prayer, preached or spoken through spiritual directors, proclaimed in the beauty of creation, audible in the soft, gentle promptings of the Spirit (like Elijah on Mount Horeb in 1 Kings 19:11–12) or even when sleeping (like St Joseph in Matthew 1:20), God recalibrates our will to be in synchrony with His.

“Be still and know I am God” is why many faithful are drawn to silent retreats. Robert Cardinal Sarah wrote: “Nothing will make us discover God better than His silence inscribed in the centre of our being. If we do not cultivate this silence, how can we find Him?”

4. We are refilled with the Holy Spirit

In human warfare, when an army retreats, it is usually because it is in danger of being overwhelmed by its enemy.

Jesus retreated to lonely places when He was tired, grieving the death of St John the Baptist, or preparing for the Cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the Old Testament, Elijah retreated to Mount Horeb for 40 days and 40 nights after doing battle with evil Queen Jezebel’s prophets of Baal.

In much the same way, the life of discipleship today is often a seemingly endless battle against secularism and subjective moral ambiguity. Just as soldiers retreat in war to rest, regroup, wait for reinforcements and re-strategize, we too, like Jesus, need to “retreat” from the spiritual battlefield of the world to report to our Commander-in-Chief, receive new directions from Him, have our wounds tended to, and be refitted with the armour of God and re-armed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 6:10–17).

Thus recharged and re-empowered, we can continue fighting the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12) which St Paul charged us to do “without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in His own time.” (1 Tim 6:14–16)

5. We never retreat alone

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.’” (Genesis 1:26) We were created for Trinitarian communion.

The fruits of Pentecost Sunday were that 3,000 more believers were added to the fledgling Church. “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2). How the Church grew after that is His-tory.

Those of us who retreat to devote ourselves to contemplation of the Word and Church teaching, to receiving Holy Communion and to prayer, also find the opportunity to forge new friendships and draw closer to God and to one another through shared experiences and fellowship, and being on mission together thereafter.

Remember that, during Advent, Mary, Joseph and Jesus in Mary’s womb were journeying as a family to Bethlehem in preparation for the Incarnation; and the Magi were on a joint pilgrimage towards the manger, preparing to do homage to the newborn King of the Jews. How they must have prepared for their respective long and hazardous journeys!

As Jesus would rhetorically ask later, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?” And “Suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?” (Luke 14:28, 31).

As we must have told our students a thousand times, “Preparation is the key to success.” But do we practise what we preach? How will Christ the King find the state of our hearts at the end of the liturgical year?

Let us seriously consider making preparations for Advent and the Lord’s imminent arrival at Christmas one of our liturgical new year resolutions.

Adapted from an article first published in the 28 Nov 2021 issue of Catholic News.

To find out where and when any retreats or Days of Recollection are being held this Advent and throughout the year in Singapore, you may try inquiring with Archdiocesan Commission for Catholic Schools (ACCS), the Catholic Leadership Centre (CLC), the Catholic Spirituality Centre (CSC) or retreat centres such as Montfort Centre, Lifesprings Canossian Spirituality Centre, the Cenacle Mission Singapore, Kingsmead Centre, the FMM House of Prayer, San Damiano Franciscan Centre and La Salle House. Life Direction Singapore has links to all the above at: https://lifedirectionsingapore.sg/links/ There are also many retreat centres overseas.