With Christmas in full swing in the high street, the liturgy of the church is still focused on Christ’s second coming and not (yet) meditating in his first. But it is difficult to orient our lives, anticipation and preparation with balance and vision towards a glorious Christ who is yet to come. It is easier to prepare for a Jesus who is a sweet, innocent baby. However the readings we shall hear this Sunday challenge us to take the real events of our everyday lives – all the pain and suffering, anxiety and hopelessness, all the joy and the peace, and to see them as a means to recognize the presence of Christ to us. In this way we make Advent something more than the preparation for a single-day feast of a birth. This is really what Advent is about – seeing the presence of Christ in our lives as salvation already come.
