Preparing to Welcome and Entertain Christ
Advent Reflection
By Fr. Maximilian Buonocore, OSB
Something happened this past weekend which made me think about how housecleaning is so strongly associated with Advent. Father James Flint, at the opening meeting of the visitation, in the chapter room, looked around and asked, “have you renovated this room. It looks different from the last time I was here.“ Father Philip quickly spoke up and said, “we vacuumed [dusted and swept].” At my house, growing up, house cleaning was strongly associated with both Advent and Lent. Those were times of preparation, and housecleaning was no small part of that preparation. My mother would say, “We need to prepare the house just as if Jesus himself were coming as our guest.” Of course I assumed Jesus was OCD like me: If there is a fingerprint on the wall or dust in the corner, he will see it. I would diligently clean the walls and dust areas that were not frequently wiped or dusted to make sure that there were no marks or dust anywhere. The prayer that is said at mass before communion would frequently come to my mind: “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.”
Of course, the housecleaning that we were so diligently engaged in was in anticipation of making the household environment even more welcoming than usual for the many guests that we would be welcoming and entertaining during the Christmas season. Advent is indeed a time for cleaning house in preparation for the arrival of guests, but it is even more so a time when we must be particularly concerned about cleaning our interior house in preparation for the coming of the Lord into the home of our soul, not only at Christmas, but throughout the year. We must pay particular attention to the cleaning out of our interior closets where we manage to stuff away many of our emotional issues and shortcomings that pop out of the closet periodically, and often unexpectedly, to cause us to sin. Yes, if there is even a fingerprint of anger on the wall of my soul, or a speck of the dust of selfish interest in the corner of my heart, the Lord will see it. So I spend a lot of time before the Blessed Sacrament trying to locate and eliminate dirt marks and dust in my soul. This allows me to be on my best behavior, not as a show, but as an outward manifestation of an interior response to the guest of love who makes himself at home in my uncluttered and clean heart.
Speaking about being on one’s best behavior, Beralson Pierre, an alumnus, college student, and an employee at St. Benedict’s Prep, had inquired about the monastic visitation that was taking place at Newark Abbey, curious as to what it was all about. I told him that the visitation involves two visitators - the Abbot President and a delegate - who spend several days at the monastery to observe and listen, and then to write up a report. “You must really be on your best behaviour?” said Beralson earnestly. I told him that that would defeat the purpose of the visitation. The visitators are not here to judge us, but to help us to see things that can use improvement. Jesus does not come at Christmastime as a judge, but as a child to grow in us and with us, and help us to grow individually and as a community. It is quite appropriate that it was taking place during Advent. A visitation is a kind of Advent exercise even if it does not take place during the liturgical season of Advent. The Advent exercise of a visitation prepares the monastic community for the coming of Christ, the child of love, in our midst, so that he may grow in and through us both individually and as a community, until, as St. Paul says (Ephesians 4:13), we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature adulthood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
In addition to house cleaning, Advent is for me a time to work at overcoming my indolence to self-sacrificing service. I liken my time spent before the Blessed Sacrament every morning to time spent at Fr. Asiel’s “espresso bar” (he makes great Cuban style espresso). Getting juiced-up, as it were, with caffeine energizes me physically to overcome my tiredness helping me to engage with greater energy in the challenges that I am faced with during the day in the school. Likewise, at the start of every day, getting juiced-up with sacramental grace and the excitement associated with the Gospel images that I meditate on, helps me to overcome my spiritual indolence to self-sacrificing service, and helps to make me more likely to respond with patience and charity in the most challenging situations that arise in dealing with both youngsters and adults.
So let us, during this Advent season, be Advent-urous, zealously doing our house cleaning, both outwardly and inwardly, preparing to welcome the guest of love, and daily drink of the stimulant of sacramental grace to overcome our indolence to self-sacrificing service in order to allow that guest of love to feel at home in us as he works the miracles of his merciful love in and through us in the world. And finally, let us make our lives this Advent a visitation like the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45). After she received the message from the Angel Gabriel that she would become pregnant with the Savior she went in haste to visit and stay with Elizabeth who was pregnant with John the Baptist. May the child gestating in the womb of our heart - that is, the first movements of love in our heart - like John the Baptist in the womb of Elizabeth, leap for joy at the presence of the Lord. And may that child of love, being nurtured in our hearts, be born into the world in the form of loving service to others, proclaiming of the saving mercy of Christ. Come, Lord Jesus!
