Being Advent-urous and Advent-itious

A Christian is an Advent person: Advent-urous and Advent-itious

Reflection for Advent

By Fr. Maximilian Buonocore, OSB

There are two Advent-words that I would like us to apply to ourselves this Advent season: Advent-urous and Advent-itious. Christian life can be seen as a great Advent-ure, and the Christian is called to be Advent-urous. As Christians we are Advent people called to engage in the great Advent-ure of bringing Christ to birth in our daily lives through our deeds of love and acts of mercy. During this season of Advent we are called to be extra Advent-urous, Advent-uring out of our comfort zone and into the zone of incarnational life. One of the ways that we can be Advent-urous is by making our home a microbrewery of holy BEER and drinking lots of that homemade holy BEER. That is what Newark Abbey is: a microbrewery of holy BEER. The monks consume an abundance of this holy BEER. The Rule of St. Benedict calls the monastery a school of the Lord’s service. But if you read between the lines you can see that what he really meant was that it is a microbrewery of the Lord’s service - a microbrewery of holy BEER. And what is this holy BEER that we brew and consume? The beer brewed at this monastery is B.E.E.R.: Bible; Eucharist, Expressions (Encounters) of love, and Reconciliation.

Bible: We read scripture daily in order to activate and enliven in our minds and hearts the mystery of the incarnational life through which God lifts us human beings in his Incarnate Son to a share in his divine life. During this Advent season, let us spend extra time meditating on Scripture, not just the nativity narratives, but others that teach us how the Incarnation impacts us personally. Let us spend extra time with scripture learning about what the Incarnation is all about: the expression of GOD’s desire to lift humans to a share in the divine life. The Bible tells us that Jesus shared in our human life so we could have a part in the divine life of GOD. That is the mystery that we are celebrating during this season, and we deepen our conscious connection to this mystery through our daily meditation of Holy Scripture. Next,

Eucharist: During this season we should not only foster an increased awareness of how we translate our faith in the Incarnation into incarnate expressions of love, but seek to be empowered to transform all of our encounters with other people into loving encounters with the Incarnate One in and through our encounters with other people, especially with those who are suffering. We foster this awareness, and empowerment by attending mass frequently and receiving the Holy Eucharist. Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ as the spiritual food of our souls is no mere commemoration of the Incarnation, but is a continuous making present of this great mystery in our lives. We are created to be eucharistic people, to be thanksgiving people, who continually in every moment, in every word, in every action, invite God’s loving transformative action, in and through us - to consecrate everything that we do, to “eucharist” everything that we do, uniting everything that we do to the great Eucharistic Sacrifice - the thanksgiving sacrifice of Christ’s Body and Blood, and thereby sacramentalizing it, so that everything that I say and do may be a sign of God’s presence, and a moment of grace, birthing Christ, as it were, in every moment, in every action of my daily life. Next,

Expressions of love: With the increased awareness and empowerment that I receive through the Holy Eucharist, I am able to better translate my faith in the Incarnation into incarnate expressions of love, especially to those who are suffering. This is the highest way that I can, in this life, respond to the promptings that flow from the image and likeness of God in me, and thereby incarnate God in the world as members of the Body of Christ. I can also hear in the sounding of the word Adventurous: Advent-you’re-us. That is, Advent-you-are-us. In a real sense, we are Advent: we are created to be Advent people. We make Christ come in the here-and-now. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them,” says the Lord. (Matthew 18:20) We make Jesus come especially by our loving service. Each of us, being created in the image and likeness of the Word of God, is a kind of Advent: to make the Word manifest in the world, to incarnate the Word in the world. Yes, all of us, individually and collectively, are an Advent of Christ in the world. Whenever we make an expression of love, whether it be a kind word or a kind deed, we are communicating from the deepest truth of our being, of who we are as a human being, a being created in the image and likeness of God: an Advent being. We should use this season not only as an opportunity for growth in faith, but especially in its “incarnation” through Charity. And finally,

Reconciliation: – During this season, be reconciled to one another and to God. Most, if not all, of us will make an examination of conscience and participate in the sacrament of reconciliation during Advent. But I think it is also very important that we reflect, during this season, on any need that there may be for reconciliation with any person in our life that we may have offended or that has offended us. The most important message of the Advent season is the coming of - the Incarnation of - the loving mercy of God. Let us all be reconciled with one another during this Advent season so that the mystery of the incarnation of Christ will shine even brighter through each of us, and in our community life, during this Christmas season and beyond.

The other word that I would like us to apply to ourselves as Advent people is the word Advent-itious. When we incarnate the mercy of Christ, we are being adventitious. Giving flesh to the mercy of Christ is adventitious because it does not come naturally. It requires the divine intervention of grace. [According to Merriam-Webster, adventitious means “coming from another source and not inherent or innate.”] Forgiving is adventitious because it is not the result of a natural, innate tendency in us. We are not able to carry it out simply according to our natural tendencies, but we need an adventitious force/power, that is, grace. We are being Advent-itious whenever we engage in some activity that involves self-sacrifice that we are not naturally inclined to do. It is Advent-itious because it requires grace. It is Advent-itious because it incarnates Christ in the moment. As you know, the Incarnation is the begetting in creation, in time, of the divine Son begotten by the Father in eternity. But incarnation is not just something that happened 2000 years ago and is completed, but it is something that is an ongoing process with ongoing consequences. Incarnation is the ongoing action of the love of the Creator in and through the human beings that he has created in the image and likeness of his eternally begotten Son. Whenever I perform an act of love I am incarnating the divine Son in the moment.

So, let us go forth living our call as Christians to be Advent-urous. During this Advent season let us be Advent-urous as we drink joyfully and abundantly of holy BEER! And let us also be Advent-itious, being reconciled to one another; forgiving and being forgiven, and stepping outside our comfort zone to engage in self-sacrificing service to other people. That is how we can be truly Advent people, not just sitting around waiting for the coming of Christ, but actively - Advent-urously and Advent-itiously - bringing Christ to birth in our own lives and in the lives of others.

All for Jesus,

Fr. Max