Advent Contra Mundum

Like all the Seasons of the Church Year, Advent is a bold proclamation to the world that time is Christ’s and we, as His Church, will primarily order our lives according a Christian Calendar and specifically, it is a season of prayerful and penitential anticipation for both Christ’s Nativity and the Final Judgment in His Second Coming.  As I’ve been reflecting on the meaning of Advent and its intrinsic relationship with Christmas, I’ve been convinced that if we are to celebrate Christmas, we forget Advent to our detriment.

We find ourselves in the midst of this wonderful albeit quiet season but parallel to these humble days of ours stands our culture’s well-established (and well-funded) rival season — the oddly simultaneous preparation and celebration of a secularized and commercialized “Christmas”, one in which Advent has no part.  Every one knows what I’m talking about.  The Christmas season according to Macy’s liturgical calendar officially begins in the wee hours of Black Friday when the laity of Mammon storm into stores everywhere, desperately eager to grab the sacrament (i.e. flat screen tv’s) before everybody else — use violence if necessary.  Now after all the mayhem, the crazed shopping isn’t over by any means — this is merely the call to worship — and the following month is a blur of consumerism and faux-festal decorations all under a sentimental veneer of the “spirit of Christmas”.  Then, after the wrapping paper has finally been laid waste to on Christmas morning, it is imperative that one’s Christmas tree (if real) be upside down sticking out of a trash bin on the curb and the lights be in process of removal no later than sundown the next day.  Thanks be to God.

Now, while I must confess that it’s rather fun to get snarky about all that, it’s unfortunately not the laughing matter it should be.  American culture has a clearly defined liturgical formulary for how one prepares for Christmas, described above, yet all to often, all that American Christians have in response are some trite platitudes about Christ being “the reason for the season”.  Nothing is neutral and to disregard Advent is not to float around in an untouchable bubble but to passively defer to whatever dominant alternative happens to exist.  Christmas will be anticipated in one way or another and if not in the historic Christian rhythms of Advent, then in the “orgy of consumerism” described above whether we consciously assent to the vices or not.

“Contra Mundum” is a Latin phrase that translates “against the world” and for church history buffs, the phrase will remind them of St. Athanasius’ venerable nickname “Athanasius Contra Mundum” (Athanasius against the world) which describes his bold defense of orthodoxy against the overwhelming specter of heresy that he challenged.  It is something to which all of us Christians should aspire, to be contra mundum.  And the Church resists the patterns and structures of the world by simply being the Church, a city unto herself with her own vocabulary and rituals that rival those of the world.  Advent is contra mundum because while the culture around us feeds its addiction to consumerism under the guise of “Christmas cheer”, bypassing the very season for repentance of such sin that would enable a joyous Christmas, Christians observing Advent are quietly and penitently awaiting the coming of Immanuel, the Incarnation of the Logos.  There is no better antidote to the chaos our culture takes for granted than that.

Even if you aren’t officially observing Advent, I encourage you to be mindful of the ways you go about preparing for Christmas.  Resist the urge to frantically rush through the chaos that the advertisers impose on you and, though this will be a later post, bear in mind that Christmas doesn’t start until December 25 and the celebration continues until January 6 — the 12 Days of Christmas!

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