Don't Open Until Christmas?
I wonder how many tantalizingly wrapped packages there are in
the mail, or perhaps already somewhere in your house, protected from greedy
hands with nothing but those four hexing words: "Don't open 'til
Christmas!"
Some might even suggest that those words express the whole theme
of Advent, this Church season of the four Sundays before Christmas, this sacred
time of preparation for the comings of Christ, when God's people are invited to
read anew the Scriptures which once prepared the way for the Lord's historical
coming in the fullness of time, and still prepare God's vigilant people
awaiting the second coming of Christ at the end of time.
Yes, those presents do need to be left alone until Christmas,
and, in the spirit of Advent season, singing Christmas carols is indeed more
properly saved for Christmas season, as is the full glorious array of holiday
home decorations, and best festive dress, and the whole arc of yuletide
celebrations.
But that's not to suggest that everything around and about us is
now stamped "Don't open till Christmas." In fact, there are a few
major items that, by all means, should be opened today at the beginning and
throughout the whole of this Advent season.
First of all, our eyes need to be opened! This doesn't mean that
we need to open our eyes to snoop around for presents coming our way, not is it
a matter of keeping a sharp lookout for last minute bargains. Our eyes need to
be opened so that they can be used for the very reason God gave us sight: so that
we can look for Him!
And our hearts too need to be opened, so that they can be used
for the very reason God knit together our inmost being: as a humble home, yet
sacred temple, in which to welcome Him!
And our arms also need to be open, so that they can be used for
the very reason God invests us with the raiment of all our strength and
abilities: so that we can embrace Him!
We look for Him in our past, as we read anew the words of
Jeremiah and the other prophets of the Old Testament, and recall how God
promised to raise up a just shoot for the House of David. Open your eyes to
that, and to the other prophecies which once prepared His chosen people to
recognize His Son, and see how God likewise prepares us to recognize Him in
Scripture, in sacraments, in His Church, in prayer, and in the least of His
brothers!
And when our open eyes recognize His presence in all these ways,
then can we receive Him all the more into our hearts. But not if there's no
room in the inn of our hearts! For didn't Christ Himself warn us: "Beware
that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the
anxieties of daily life!" So first, our hearts must be opened (if
necessary, perhaps even pried open!) in order to be emptied of unworthy and
troublesome tenants: evict all evildoing, oust anger and bitterness, dislodge
despair, serve notice to selfishness, then cast them all out in the
confessional! Only when we live every day as God teaches, will our hearts then
open as a welcoming and stable home, a loving place for Him to lay His head. As
St. Paul writes, ".... strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness
before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord....."
And when our open hearts receive Him wholly into our lives, then
at last the future appears of the fullest divine embrace. For too often in our
past, we've held the Christ Child close to us but a moment, then set Him aside
to free our arms to hold lesser things. But now, this Advent, we open our arms
to meet those arms of Christ nailed open for all ages, and we pray to be taken
up fully in His loving embrace when at last the Son of Man comes in a cloud
with power and great glory.
So indeed there are some things we must not wait to open till
Christmas! Instead, today, and more and more during this Advent season and
throughout all coming seasons of our lives, may our eyes be open to see God
clearly in the many ways He comes to us, may our hearts be open to receive God
completely in the many ways He comes to us, and may our arms be open to embrace
God fully in all the many ways He comes to us!