I must make a confession: I don\u2019t like Advent. Or – to be more precise – its liturgical aspect. Let me explain why briefly. Across the country, Christmas lights are being switched on in villages, towns and cities. Shops, with very few exceptions, are kitted out in their Christmas d\u00e9cor and have a tempting assortment of goodies and promotions on offer. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have dominated online shopping, no longer confining themselves to those two days but extending well beyond them. It\u2019s virtually impossible to avoid any reference to Christmas, be it in public places, in the media, or in passing conversation. The whole run-up to Christmas seems to be more important than the actual feast itself. And \u2013 generally speaking \u2013 the atmosphere throughout Advent is pretty joyful. Which is good, because Advent, by definition, is a time of eager and joy-filled waiting. Where, then, does my problem lie?<\/p>\n
The biblical readings at Mass during Advent seem to be at odds with such a joyous atmosphere all around us. Think about today\u2019s gospel and the \u2018cheery\u2019 message proclaimed by John the Baptist: \u2018Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees\u2026\u2019<\/i> It\u2019s just a short extract from John\u2019s quite long and rather unsettling rant. My job, as a priest, is to preach; and, as I prefer to stick to the readings for the day, the message that they convey comes right up against the prevalent atmosphere of joy. So, in Advent I\u2019ve always felt like a right party-pooper, a \u2018typical\u2019 minister of religion, bent on being an old misery guts, blunting even the slightest signs of joie-de-vivre by preaching doom and gloom. Until now.<\/p>\n
The first of today\u2019s readings looks like a description of a utopian, impossible world in the future, when all hostilities will cease: \u2018The wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion cub feed together with a little boy to lead them. The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together.\u2019<\/i> If you have watched \u2018Planet Earth II\u2019 on the BBC, you will know how improbable these predictions are. But the prophet isn\u2019t playing the part of David Attenborough in the Bible! The prophet is talking about the animals living in you and in me. These are even reflected in the many words we use to describe people\u2019s behaviour or their attitudes: \u2018sheep<\/i>-ish\u2019, \u2018bull<\/i>-y\u2019, \u2018cow<\/i>-ard\u2019\u2026 Christmas is a magical time when we try to tame the animal within us and to coexist peacefully even with those we cannot stand all the year round. Sadly, quite often these efforts of ours may not last much beyond Christmas dinner\u2026<\/p>\n
In a couple of weeks\u2019 time millions of people around the globe will set out, some of them on journeys of thousands of miles, facing up to the uncertainties of travel and of potential industrial action, in order to meet up with their families and friends. Others, like myself, unable to go away at this time, will spend hours on the phone or the Internet talking to their loved ones in distant lands. It will be an admirable effort. It could be even more exquisite if it didn\u2019t stop after Christmas Day! Taming the animal within is an ongoing process that never, ever stops.<\/p>\n
An old Cherokee was teaching his grandson about life. \u2018A fight is going on inside me,\u2019<\/i> he said to the boy. \u2018It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.\u2019<\/i> He continued, \u2018The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.\u2019<\/i> The grandson thought about this for a minute, and then he asked his grandfather, \u2018Which wolf will win?\u2019<\/i> The old Cherokee simply replied, \u2018The one you feed.\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I must make a confession: I don\u2019t like Advent. Or – to be more precise – its liturgical aspect. Let me explain why briefly. Across the country, Christmas lights are being switched on in villages, towns and cities. Shops, with very few exceptions, are kitted out in their Christmas d\u00e9cor and have a tempting assortment of goodies and promotions on offer. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have dominated online shopping, no longer confining themselves to those two days but extending well beyond them. It\u2019s virtually impossible to avoid any reference to Christmas, be it in public places, in the media, or in passing conversation. The whole run-up to Christmas seems to be more important than the actual feast itself. And \u2013 generally speaking \u2013 the atmosphere throughout Advent is pretty joyful. Which is good, because Advent, by definition, is a time of eager and joy-filled waiting. Where, then, does my problem lie? The biblical readings at Mass during Advent seem to be at odds with such a joyous atmosphere all around us. Think about today\u2019s gospel and the \u2018cheery\u2019 message proclaimed by John the Baptist: \u2018Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees\u2026\u2019 It\u2019s just a short extract from John\u2019s quite long and rather unsettling rant. My job, as a priest, is to preach; and, as I prefer to stick to the readings for the day, the message that they convey comes right up against the prevalent atmosphere of joy. So, in Advent I\u2019ve always felt like a right party-pooper, a \u2018typical\u2019 minister of religion, bent on being an old misery guts, blunting even the slightest signs of joie-de-vivre by preaching doom and gloom. Until now. The first of today\u2019s readings looks like a description of a utopian, impossible world in the future, when all hostilities will cease: \u2018The wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion cub feed together with a little boy to lead them. The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together.\u2019 If you have watched \u2018Planet Earth II\u2019 on the BBC, you will know how improbable these predictions are. But the prophet isn\u2019t playing the part of David Attenborough in the Bible! The prophet is talking about the animals living in you and in me. These are even reflected in the many words we use to describe people\u2019s behaviour or their attitudes: \u2018sheep-ish\u2019, \u2018bull-y\u2019, \u2018cow-ard\u2019\u2026 Christmas is a magical time when we try to tame the animal within us and to coexist peacefully even with those we cannot stand all the year round. Sadly, quite often these efforts of ours may not last much beyond Christmas dinner\u2026 In a couple of weeks\u2019 time millions of people around the globe will set out, some of them on journeys of thousands of miles, facing up to the uncertainties of travel and of potential industrial action, in order to meet up with their families and friends. Others, like myself, unable to go away at this time, will spend hours on the phone or the Internet talking to their loved ones in distant lands. It will be an admirable effort. It could be even more exquisite if it didn\u2019t stop after Christmas Day! Taming the animal within is an ongoing process that never, ever stops. An old Cherokee was teaching his grandson about life. \u2018A fight is going on inside me,\u2019 he said to the boy. \u2018It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.\u2019 He continued, \u2018The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.\u2019 The grandson thought about this for a minute, and then he asked his grandfather, \u2018Which wolf will win?\u2019 The old Cherokee simply replied, \u2018The one you feed.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-a"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}