Is Advent a Penitential Season?

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Is Advent penitential? On first blush the answer seems to be “no”! 

In the history of the development of the liturgy, the focus of the early church was first on Easter and a solemn preparation for this feast we now call Lent. This makes complete sense. If we do not understand the suffering, death and resurrection into glory of Christ, then in the words of St Paul, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). Nothing could be more important to our faith than this.

Liturgically, the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany season was a “Johnny come lately.”  Advent (Latin adventus) is the translation of the Greek, parousia (παρουσία) or “coming”. In Matthew, Jesus says, “So will it be also at the coming (parousia) of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:39). Parousia usually refers to Christ’s own, “Messianic Advent in glory to judge the world at the end of this age” (BAGD 781).[1]  

In church tradition this term has taken on a dual meaning, referring to the first Advent of Christ in his nativity, and then to his second coming at the end of time. Matias Augé notes that, “In the ancient Roman sacramentaries, the term [adventus] is used both for the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, the Adventus secundum carnem, and his coming at the end of time.”[2]

Advent is a season of joyful anticipation preparing our hearts for the coming of Christ, first in his Nativity, and then his second coming at the end of time.

Advent has a different character than Lent. Perhaps an apt metaphor for Lent would be training for an athletic competition. We place ourselves under a discipline to improve our performance. We might say, no pain no gain.

Unlike this, the metaphor for Advent is maternity. Yes, pregnancy involves watchful discipline and a degree of difficulty but the goal of new life makes this a time of joyful anticipation. During this season the church invites us to journey toward Christ's Nativity and to practice watchful anticipation, but always with a sense of joy.

Instead of being primarily a season of penance like Lent, it is a season of illumination and deeper conversion. The church invites us to join the family of Christ and celebrate his saving history leading up to the Nativity. The means of conversion is prayerful watching, and learning the family history of Christ in Sacred Scripture.

Everything in Christ’s life from his birth to his eventual ascension into heaven in glory is part of the mystery of salvation (CCC 512). As the Catechism reminds us, “Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled 'with power and great glory' by the king’s return to earth” (CCC 671). There is an already-but-not-yet tension in the unfolding of Christ’s kingdom upon the earth.

Following the reforms of the liturgy at Second Vatican Council, the General Norms of the Roman Missal remind us that Advent is a period of devout and expectant delight,

39. Advent has a twofold character, for it is a time of preparation for the Solemnities of Christmas, in which the First Coming of the Son of God to humanity is remembered, and likewise a time when, by remembrance of this, minds and hearts are led to look forward to Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time. For these two reasons, Advent is a period of devout and expectant delight.[3]

Advent is a season of joyful anticipation. In this season, the church recounts the whole salvation history of Christ, beginning in the Old Testament, until Christ’s incarnation leads us all to Easter. Only then, by remembrance of this, do we look forward and prepare our hearts and minds in hope of Christ’s Second Coming in glory. The readings for Advent weave together both aspects of Christs two fold coming.

It is not difficult to find Catholics who miss the joy implied in this message. We need to go deeper in our understanding of the spirituality of this season. We are not waiting in lugubrious penance for the return of our Lord in judgment. We are not fearfully thinking “be good or else.” We are instead preparing our hearts for conversion, and for a definitive encounter with God who became a man. This conversion leads to the joy of the Spirit.

We are not saving ourselves through our works of penance. In love, God took the initiative. As St Paul notes, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). This is why we can offer him “devout and expectant delight.” We must receive the joy of the Gospel.

Having said this, a prayerful meditation on the salvation history of Christ must indeed lead us to ongoing conversion as we grow in deeper surrender to our Lord. And yet we need to admit that many people are distracted by the proverbial “holly jolly Christmas” celebrations which seem to start earlier every year.  

The question is what is the most effective way to promote the joy of the Gospel?

Pope Francis has rightly complained about Christians who are joyless pickle faced “sourpusses” (Evangelii Gaudium, 85) who succeed in turning people away from the truth by their negative attitudes. Is being grumpy about how early someone put up his or her Christmas tree, really an essential truth of the Gospel?

If various spiritual disciplines and penances help you to focus more on the salvation history of Christ, and lead you to a deeper anticipation of his coming, they receive that blessing. It would seem to me; however, that encouraging people to read prayerfully the salvation story of Christ found in Scriptures would be infinitely more powerful.

Is advent a penitential season? Maybe, to a degree. It would be better to say it is it is a season of conversion, awakening, and joyful anticipation.

Matias Augé notes,

The second coming of Christ, a recurrent theme especially in the first weeks of Advent, is closely connected with the first coming. The certainty of the coming of Christ in the flesh encourages us as we wait for his glorious final appearance, when the messianic promises will be finally and completely fulfilled. In fact, in the birth of Jesus the ancient promises are fulfilled, and the way to eternal salvation is opened. [4]

This Advent, as we join in the joyful celebration of the Incarnation, let this celebration be the lenses through which we see the return of our Lord in judgment at his Parousia. In faith, hope and charity, may the work begun in his first coming be our life, our strength and our joy. In faith, we surrender to him. In joyful hope, we anticipate him, and his love will not disappoint us.

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[1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 781.

[2] Matias Augé, “The Liturgical Year in the Roman Rite,” in Liturgical Time and Space, ed. Anscar J. Chupungco, trans. David Cotter, vol. V, Handbook for Liturgical Studies (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2000), 201.

[3] The Roman Missal: Renewed by Decree of the Most Holy Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, Promulgated by Authority of Pope Paul VI and Revised at the Direction of Pope John Paul II, Third Typical Edition (Washington D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011), 114.

[4] Matias Augé, Ibid., 327–328.