The Church prepares for the Christmas in a season called Advent. It is in the Advent season that the Church asks us to prepare for the coming of Christ. The Church does this in her readings during the season, but in a profound way the Church lights 4 candles leading to Christmas. These 4 candles are usually found in the Advent wreath. For four weeks we light 4 candles (one a week) embedded in a wreath.. The Advent wreath is beautiful because each time we light an additional candle in the wreath, the hole in the center of the wreath becomes all the brighter. It becomes more evident, not in the wreath, but in our very lives during the advent season that we are missing something; that their is an emptiness to be filled. And what are we do fill the emptiness with? Things? People? Job? Money? God reveals to us on Christmas day, that the hole we have in our lives was meant for Him alone. And as we look for tangible and physical things to fill our loneliness, God comes into the world in a physical form as a small baby infant.
It's in the manger that we find a baby. It captures and draws us in, just like every baby we encounter. In the the baby we see hope, joy, beauty. Just like any baby born into the world, it needs to be tended to, nurtured and cared for. Our relationship with Christ is no different. We need to be attentive to Christ in our hearts and in our lives. We need to nurture and care for that beautiful relationship that continues to reside in our hearts.
Though the Christmas season is over, it is never to late to fill the hole in our hearts by nurturing that one relationship that will end all loneliness. Let us go like the great shepherds and the wise men to go encounter with Christ! In the advice of St. Augustine let us bring our gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh; let us bring our gifts and talents, our prayers, and our sacrifices.
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