Cuffing Season

Can you feel it in the air? The cold breeze calls for a warm presence and a loving home to stay in. While I wish my signals for the new liturgical year were wreaths and candles, often the visual of couples interlocking mittens under the leafless trees will give me my first inclination to wipe the dust off of my blue breviary book for Advent. 

Most years, I roll my eyes at the affection displayed against my will by people far happier than me. Recently, however, I have grown to find the correlation between the seasons of late Ordinary Time and Advent and budding couples as an endearing look into the liturgical season often overshadowed by its successor.

Despite the drastic change in liturgical music, vestments, and decor, many people do not truly change their prayer or demeanor upon the advent of…well…Advent. Compare this with the Church-wide eagerness to take part in a Lenten sacrifice and you find a lack of authentic preparation for The Birth of Jesus. 

Personally, I think this comes from the rigidity of lenten preparation compared to the more abstract methods we prepare in Advent. Even though blissful young couples might remind you of your perpetual loneliness and your inability to capture the attention of someone you care about, they actually might be the solution to a lackluster leadup to Christmas.

Many late fall and early winter activities are designed to make you fall in love all over again. Advent is the same way, except this love is allocated with the Incarnation! Many of the season’s hymns are derived from ancient songs meant to recreate the Messianic anticipation. 

The Gospel of Luke’s Holy Family narrative transports us into the excitement and anxiety of the coming months of the Nativity. Although the average Christian is familiar with the Advent stories, the very fact that we are different people with new perspectives each year offers new joy and wisdom from the Gospels. 

The experience of going to a restaurant, movie, or ice skating might be activities you have done in the past, but through our growing maturity and the greater context of our life’s progression, these feel completely unique and special. For example, a child might dwell on the foiling of Herod’s evil plans, whereas a young adult might focus on the teenage Mary’s enthusiastic yes when  many would hesitate.

The other less-commercially-adopted part of Advent is the undertones of the second coming. The season’s cute anecdotes of Jesus’ birth are surrounded by ominous reminders that His second coming will not come at a known time or nearly as humbly as His first coming. 

Therefore, we are called to be sober and alert, for we know not the hour. To translate this into relationship terms, we get a very countercultural stance. In a world filled with people supporting the idea of settling down after a decade or two before finally becoming equipped with the selfless skills required to care about someone outside yourself and your drinking buddies, Advent stands firm in promoting the development of virtue now because our spouse can come at any time.