Advent Sunday: The journey to Bethlehem begins

The First Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of the journey to Bethlehem, which will culminate in the arrival of the Magi and conclude with the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Candlemas. The entire season is about preparation as well as celebration.

At Advent we look to the Second Coming of Christ; at Christmas we rejoice again at his first coming in the flesh.

It is one of the great divides between the Church and the world that the Church’s year begins when it does, at the beginning of Advent, while the secular year begins on 1 January, which sits within the Christmastide season as one of the feasts of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Indeed, the Church’s time has never been so much at odds with secular time. At a stage when Christians are preparing – we hope, devoutly – during Advent, the rest of society – certainly in Britain and Ireland – is busy prematurely celebrating with parties and Christmas lunches.

When we get to the real beginning of the feast, at Vespers on Christmas Eve, many people are exhausted. Advent carols are rarely heard, but Christmas carols are played on a loop from the middle of November.

In the secular world, on New Year’s Day, the tinsel and the mince pies are abruptly displaced by salads, smoothies and a dispiriting regime of diet and exercise.

Catholics should have none of this.

Even if we do not fast during Advent, we should remember that it is a time of preparation. When it comes to Christmas, we should celebrate it for the whole season, climaxing on the vigil of the Epiphany, Twelfth Night. Then the season should wind down gradually until Candlemas on 2 February.

Christians are meant to be a sign of contradiction in the world; well, our contradiction means that we will abstain (perhaps just a little) when others are celebrating, and celebrate when others are fasting. We wish all our readers every blessing for Advent and Christmastide.

Photo: ‘The Magi Journeying’ (‘Les rois mages en voyage’), 1886–1894, by James Tissot (France, 1836–1902). Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper. (Credit: Brooklyn Museum.)

This is an edited version for online of an article that appears in the Advent and Christmas December/January 2024 double issue of the Catholic Herald magazine. To subscribe to our award-winning publication and have independent, high-calibre, counter-cultural Catholic journalism delivered to your door anywhere in the world click HERE.

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