“How do Christmas lights get so tangled in the box?” I wondered to myself. Year after year it was the same routine: dig the boxes of Christmas decorations out of the closet; locate the lights, untangle the cords, then test for burnt-out bulbs. Drag the ladder from the garage and — my least-favorite part — climb to the top to hang the hooks and lights. These days were always fun times with my dad but being atop the ladder was well outside my comfort zone. As the tallest in the family though, I had no choice.
It’s never 100 percent fun transforming the house for Christmas, but isn’t it worth it when it’s finished?
Because spiritual preparation is admittedly rather difficult and perhaps less familiar to us, the church gives us an entire season to transform us: the season of Advent.
The main figure of Advent is St. John the Baptist, and the past two Sunday Gospels focus on John and how he called people to prepare for the coming of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry here on Earth. “A voice cries out in the wilderness,” Isaiah foretold, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” (Mt 3:3). John called the people to him and told them the most important thing that they could do to prepare for the coming of Jesus was to “repent” (Mt 3:2), which many did, “confessing their sins” (Mt 3:6). We, too, are called to confess our sins as a means of preparing our hearts and souls to receive all the grace of the coming of Christ.
Here at the seminary, as in many of our parishes, we hold an Advent penance service, offering the opportunity (and encouragement) to pray and go to confession. It is a great gift to confess our sins and to have our souls cleansed, our sins forgiven and wiped away. Confession is the best way to prepare for all holy days and in a special way, Christmas. It’s a free opportunity for an incredible amount of grace that is always available to us but seldom received.
Just as we can’t get to the beautiful glowing house without dusting off the boxes, untangling the lights and braving the ladder, it’s the dusting of our souls from sin, unraveling our disordered passions and enduring the awkwardness of confession that enables our souls to glow with the glory of the Lord. As we enter into this final stage before Christmas, let us hear the call of John and get our hearts and souls ready for Christmas.
Young, who is from St. Theresa Parish in Ashburn, is in his first year of Theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md.
Corpus Christi