(by Lorie Codispoti)
It’s Advent season, and each week is set apart to focus on the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love.
The word Advent comes from a Latin word that means “coming / arrival,” and each theme is marked with a sense of expectation. It is considered a season of light during the dark days of winter. Each week we symbolize and celebrate the light of Christ by lighting one candle for each theme.
But for some of us the winds of heartache have blown out the light, filling our days with a blinding darkness that has turned Advent into a sadvent. Expectations have been crushed by unrelenting pain and loss. And what of hope, peace, joy & love? Well, they feel like empty Christmas card sentiments that may make their way to our mailbox, but sadly remain distant from our hearts.
I understand. I’ve been there.
Suffering can be spiritually and physically debilitating. Our losses are traumatic, pain is relenting, and change is hard to accept.
So, how do we exchange sadvent for Advent? Is it possible to invite the virtues of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love to reignite our sense of expectation when our heart is broken?
I think we can do both.
How?
By revisiting the time-honored truths of Advent, and contemplating the paradoxes that only God can harmonize.
Advent serves as a countdown to Christmas. And while we enjoy our modern day calendars with their special compartments that house delicious chocolate treats and trinkets to enhance the idea and create an air of anticipation among children, the spiritual significance of Advent goes beyond the superficial.
For centuries Christians have observed the tradition of Advent, marking it with many weeks of preparation that involved fasting, prayer, and reflection. Each Sunday, believers offer prayers and readings that focus on one of the four virtues, and during this time of waiting to celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of the Christ child, alongside the anticipated second-coming of Christ, the bonds of all believers are solidified and unity is fostered. In the Old Testament we read of those who faithfully waited for the prophesied Messiah, and in the New Testament we read of the King’s return to rule and reign forever.
This hope continues for us today.
The fact that the Prince of Peace will return is the confident expectation that believers have had for centuries. Throughout time the he collective of believers celebrate together the first coming of Christ (the incarnation), and we anticipate, with confident expectation, His second coming (Parousia).
This is Advent!
Hope, peace, joy & love are faith-defining hallmarks of the Christian walk, and believers have been traveling this well worn road for centuries now. We walk and we wait. But, we don’t walk in the darkness, nor is our waiting without purpose.
One writer encourages us to fathom the paradoxes of Advent - dark and light, emptiness and fulfilment, ancient and ever new - and to do it patiently standing firm in our faith, as James 5:7-8 encourages.
I encourage you to do the same.
Contemplate the lives of those who have gone before us - both inside and outside Scripture. (I like to do this by reading biographies. I’m currently reading about John Newton to my grand-littles, and it’s encouraging ME!) You will discover men and women who walked through great suffering; sometimes so gut-wrenching that it had the potential to destroy their faith.
But God!
Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can not only stand strong and weather the storms of adversity, but we will emerge on the other side testifying of how the paradoxes of Advent harmonized and to strengthen our faith, not destroy it.
Therefore, rejoice with me! “…look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Lk.21:28b)
Invite the beauty of this special season to fill your heart and home with Hope, Peace, Joy and Love (all in caps), because these virtues are also characteristics that describe our King - who came, and is coming, to turn your sadvent into Advent.
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