A Christian Adventurer in Advent

Staff Writer

Every year we anticipate, expect, and approach the four weeks before Christmas with the wholeness of memory that is past, experience that is in the present, and a hope that looks to the future.

Advent comes every year. Is it taken for granted? I do not think so. Like every other thing that happens once a year, it is expected, imagined, and welcomed. A typical example is a birthday. When your birthday comes, it is a day you remember and celebrate no matter how big or small the celebration is. It is momentous and symbolic. You cast your mind back to the birthdays of yesteryears, compare the previous with the now, and perhaps, imagine what the future birthday will be like.

Advent stands for the coming of something or someone important. In Christian tradition, it is the expectation and preparation for the Second Coming of Christ. It is also a time for dedicated prayers and spiritual preparations for the celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas. In Western Christianity, it marks the beginning of the liturgical year. 

Why do we have to expect, wait, and anticipate during Advent? It is all about the future. We do not wait for the past. It is gone. We do not expect it in the present. It is now. We expect someone or thing to be, to come, or to happen. It is all about the future. Advent cannot be in the past or present. We cannot live in the future now. We have left the past. We are in the present.

Writing about being in the present, imagine how you have changed since your last birthday. For better or for worse? You can separate your past from your now:

  • You have a new partner or lost one.
  • You have a baby or lost a dear one.
  • You gained weight, or you lost weight.
  • You have a new job, or you lost one.
  • You are a Christian, or you cease to be one.
  • You moved home, or you remain where you are.
  • You found love, or you resent everyone.

All you do is always in the present. From the present, you get to the future. From the known, you get to the unknown. You cannot get to the unknown from the unknown. This can never be realized. Nor can you get from the known to the known. This does not require any progression. The present is constant. It is stationary. The known does not change. Any changes are contained in the present. The known has no future; it is not in anticipation. The unknown is predictive. It is precarious. It is uncertain. It is full of risks.

Advent tells us about the future, the unknown, and the uncertain. It is uncertain in the sense that you, the adventurer is the candidate for uncertainty. Not Christmas or Christ’s Second Coming. Christmas is certain. Christ’s Second Coming is certain in the eyes of faith but you as an individual have not got the surety of seeing the Parousia. The risk associated with Advent is with the adventurer, the Christian adventurer.

Etymologically, Parousia means ‘being present’ but technically, it means for the Christians ‘the Second Coming.’ Aspiring for the future and hoping to see the Second Coming of Christ, your spiritual forecast may be exposed to some risks. It is a kind of spiritual risk. Who do you give your soul to? God or Mammon? It is a risk; if you give it to God then you must follow him all the way. If you give it to Mammon, then you cut ties with God. The irony of it all is that it is in the present that you decide whom to give your soul to before you can realize the happiness of the future. Your soul is given in the present, not in the past or the future. Parousia begins in the present from the known.  

So, Advent is a continuous reminder that we can only decide now about what we expect or anticipate in the future. We can wait for it in the present, not in the past. The past is gone, the future is far, but the present is here. To a Christian adventurer, Advent is the known unknown. Therefore, put your house together in faith, settle your spiritual debts, dust your cupboards of hateful mites, clear your soul of webs of envious thoughts, open your doors of goodwill, and sprinkle the shower of love. 

 

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