The Advent season, which begins today, was invented in the early Middle Ages to support efforts to evangelize the pagans in rural Europe.  At its beginning, Christianity was spread by apostles and evangelizers who used the system of roads that linked the major cities of the Roman Empire.  As a consequence, Christianity remained an urban phenomenon for several centuries. 

The pagan cultures in northern Europe were largely unaffected by the proclamation of the Gospel until the sixth century.  While urban Christians professed hope in the Resurrection, their pagan cousins celebrated the winter solstice as a hope-filled event that promised the end of winter and the approach of spring.   

Christian evangelizers reinterpreted the pagan winter solstice celebration, hoping that this familiar practice would serve as a metaphor for the Gospel message.  They pointed out that just as the sun promises new life for crops and animals, the Son of God promises new life for people’s souls.  Those evangelizers symbolized this message of hope by celebrating adult baptisms at Christmas rather than Easter.  (This is the source of the Christmas Midnight Mass; it was patterned after the Easter Vigil, which began at midnight and continued until dawn.)  

The season of Advent served as an analogue to Lent; it was proximate preparation for those approaching baptism.  Originally, Advent began on the feast of St. Martin (November 11), and continued for approximately forty days, in imitation of the Lenten fast.  The purple color of vestments and church decorations are reflections of the penitential character of Advent’s origins. 

After the majority of those medieval rural pagans converted to Christianity, evangelization efforts ceased.  As a penitential season of preparation for baptism was no longer necessary, Advent began to lose its penitential character.   

Today, Advent focuses on the end of time and Jesus’ glorious return.  This new and secondary focus fits well with Advent’s original purpose.  The repentance and reform required for baptism is identical to the ongoing repentance and reform required to be ready for Jesus’ glorious return.  This Sunday’s Scripture readings speak about the habitual repentance required of the faithful. 

The three passages of Scripture that constitute our Liturgy of the Word today are biblical apocalyptic, that is, literature that speaks about “the last things,” “the end times,” the end of the world.  It is important to note, however, that the readings do not suggest that the end of the world will happen during human history.   

These biblical prophecies do not indicate that there will be a time in human history when there will be no wars, no temptations, or no injustices.  God’s plan for the consummation of the world will take place outside the normal course of historical events.  We are obliged, therefore, to attend to two important implications in biblical prophecy about the end times.  Firstly, biblical apocalyptic is not to be understood literally and secondly, there is no room in the world for any degree of perfection. 

Human history is littered with examples of religious fervor that led to vicious personal behavior and widespread social atrocities.  All these were the results of failing to understand what the Scriptures say about the world’s limitations.  The irrational expectation that some degree of perfection is possible, or required, in this life, is the cause of all sin, both personal and social. 

If you expect perfection from yourself, you will make yourself hopelessly neurotic and an unbearable burden on others.  If you expect perfection from others, you will make yourself depressed, angry, and vengeful, and you will do great harm to the lives around you.  If you expect perfection from the world, that is, a perfect life, perfect satisfaction, or perfect peace, you will become indignant, entitled, and self-centered. 

At the time of year when we strive to find “the perfect gift” and to have “the best Christmas,” Advent is a reminder that there is no room for perfection or superlatives in our finite universe.  Advent is an invitation to repent of the unrealistic expectations we put on ourselves and others because these inevitably lead to despair and judgmentalism. 

God does not require perfection of us because perfection is not possible in this world.  Instead, God expects what is possible for every person to achieve.  Jesus defined love of God as loving one’s neighbor; this good act, loving one’s neighbor, is the ultimate act of good that is possible in a finite world. 

The season of Advent remains a time of repentance, no longer for those approaching baptism but for those who make the effort to live the life of baptism.  Advent invites us to the habitual repentance that is possible in this world, the repentance that is manifest in patience and mercy for oneself and others. 

True repentance must be a lifelong habit because our capacity for repentance is as limited as the world, and because it serves as a reminder that we sin grievously when we fail to attend to what God’s Word tells us.  The prophet Isaiah said, “Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” (Isa 2:3)  We require instruction from God if we are to have any hope of salvation because, if we rely on our own wisdom, we walk our own path, a path that always leads away from God.