Most of the commentaries on the Advent season and its associated Scripture readings focus exclusively on a very conventional view of Advent and Christmas.  Most Catholics could probably parrot these views with very little preparation or thought. 

The conventional views depict Advent as a time of waiting, hopeful expectation, preparation, etc., for the feast of the birth of the Savior.  These conventional perspectives on Advent are true, but they’re not true enough. 

Until the early Middle Ages, Christianity was almost strictly an urban phenomenon.  The Apostles and their successors used the Roman road system to spread the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire.  As the Roman roads connected Roman towns and cities, the preaching of the Gospel was restricted to those urban centers. 

Long after the Christian Emperor Theodosius outlawed the practice of pagan religion in the Empire, pagan religious practices continued unabated in rural areas.  In the eighth and ninth centuries, bishops began to send missionaries to preach to those rural pagans.  In an attempt to explain the Gospel message, the missionaries adapted and reinterpreted pagan practices and beliefs.   

Some of those “Christianized” pagan practices are with us still.  Christmas trees, evergreen garlands, and the feast of Christmas itself derive from the naturalistic pagan religions of rural European peoples.  The Christian reinterpretation of those practices led to establishing a new practice of adult baptism.  The pagan celebration of the “rebirth of the Sun,” that is, the winter solstice, became the Christian celebration of the “birth of the Son” of God.  Instead of baptizing at Easter, early medieval pagan converts were baptized on the feast that became Christmas. 

This new practice of baptism required an analog to Lent, the traditional time of fasting, prayer, and preparation for those adults who would be baptized at Easter.  Advent (Lent for medieval pagan converts) started on St. Martin’s Day, November 11, and continued for approximately forty days until Christmas, the Nativity of the Lord.  After an appropriate period of proximate preparation, converts were baptized on Christmas at a Liturgy that mimicked the Easter Vigil; that Liturgy was the origin of Christmas Mass at (mid)night. 

After a few centuries, of course, the unevangelized pagan population had dwindled to the point that the practice of adult baptism on Christmas fell into disuse.  Advent lost much of its penitential character because there were no longer any Elect preparing for baptism.  Consequently, the Advent and Christmas seasons evolved into their current state as seasons of remote preparation for the delayed return in glory of the Savior. 

Most of the commentary about Advent, Christmas, and the seasonal Scriptural readings depict our contemporary practice of Advent and Christmas as being either a faint reflection of a previous penitential practice or as a reference to the Lord’s glorious return.  As I said above, this is true but not true enough; it’s not true enough in the sense that there isn’t enough religious truth included there to satisfy my tastes.   

In defense of my criticism, I refer to today’s second reading.  Paul wrote, “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones.” (1 Thes 3:12-13) 

Ideas like “preparation,” “hopeful expectation,” and “waiting” sound very abstract.  We know, of course, that we need to be prepared, hopeful, and patient while waiting for the Last Day; we are reminded of this on the First Sunday of Advent.  The nature of that patient, hopeful preparation, however, can be obscured by the current nature of Christmas.  With the probable exceptions of a headache from overspending, overeating, or over imbibing, what should we be prepared for at Christmas time? 

Paul counselled the church at Thessaloniki “to be blameless before God.”  Of all the various things that require preparation, hopeful expectation, and patient endurance during Advent and Christmas, blameless living is both imperative and challenging. 

Most conversation and thought about Advent and Christmas focus on sentimentality, family togetherness, conspicuous consumption, and the unavoidable disappointment associated with materialistic values.  In my limited experience, blameless living tends not to figure prominently in the American consciousness during the seasons of Advent and Christmas, yet nothing is more appropriate to these seasons. 

What are you prepared to do during Advent this year?  What do you hope for as Christmas approaches?  What do you consider of sufficient value that you are willing to wait patiently for it to arrive?  I’d like to suggest that the full truth about Advent and Christmas requires that blameless living is the answer to those questions.  The Covenant of Baptism, the on-going conversion required by discipleship, the celebration of the Savior’s birth, and readiness for the Savior’s return require that we live blamelessly in God’s sight by always being honest, just, reliable, and devout, and allowing others the sovereignty of their conscience.  This is a truth worthy of a season of light and peace.