THE GOALS OF NATIVITY FAST & ADVENT
(Tuesday, December 3)
I’ve reflected on this in previous years. But since we are again in the pre-Christmas season, I’m again reviewing the main purpose(s) of Nativity Fast or Advent, so I don’t lose sight of the whole point of it. Here’s my list, to which you, my readers, might add whatever I missed:
1. THEOPTIA. The first thing our church-traditions are helping us work on right now is our vision. More specifically, our capacity for “Theoptia,” which means “seeing God.” In order to behold or “see God” being born to us in Bethlehem, my heart, mind, and body need a bit of a house-cleaning. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” The fasting-discipline, including some extra attentiveness and tender-loving-care of my spiritual and physical health, helps me to re-focus on the presence of a tender-loving-and-caring God in my life.
2. SPIRITUAL AWAKENING. I’m being awakened from the indifference and complacency to the Advent or coming of Christ into my world, which may have settled into my heart amidst the concerns and fears that creep into the heart when I lose focus, lose God-reliance, and get self-reliant and self-centered. This spiritual awakening to God, others, and myself is helped through:
3. HUNGER & THIRST of a healthy kind. The kind of hunger and thirst that the Holy Prophets had, for the coming of the Messiah, is one I re-embrace when we celebrate the Prophets and immerse ourselves in their prophecies this season. (Today on the NC we celebrate the Prophet Sophonias, also known as Zephaniah.) I turn away from not-healthy desires and aspirations, either physical or spiritual, which infect me with the “More” Disease: they always demand “more” and are never satisfied. This season I let myself join the blessed, those who are satisfied: “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
4. JOY & PEACE. Ultimately, the bit of daily, consistent “work” on my spiritual and physical health this season liberates me to experience true joy and peace, coming to all of us from an unexpected, unassuming place, a little cave in Bethlehem.
Joy takes work. Peace takes work. And as far as I’m concerned, it begins in my own little “cave.” Let me take up this dignifying work today, as I clean house, that I may see more clearly the abundant light pouring out on all of us from the most unexpected places.
