Sue Seconi, parishioner of the Catholic Parish of Whanganui – Te Parihi Katorika Ki Whanganui, reflects on the significance of Advent as a time of waiting, hope, and spiritual preparation.
On 1st December 2024, the Catholic Church celebrated the first Sunday of Advent.
Since building our home 49 years ago and raising a family, I’ve always put my homemade Advent wreath on the dining room table. Each year, I carefully arrange one pink and three purple candles into a polystyrene circle. To hold it all together, I wrap it in plastic greenery and purple ribbon.
It serves as a focal point, drawing my attention to the season of waiting.
This year, I’ve found myself wondering if Advent is more the beginning of the liturgical year or a conclusion to everything that’s come before. With a spiritual stretch of the imagination, I think it’s both!
September seemed like it would never end. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law died, and I got sick of wiping condensation off the windows, drying half-wet washing, and struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living. I pray for peace, but conflicts escalate uncontrollably. At the same time, I pray for our military personnel deployed overseas. With a spiritual stretch of the imagination, I do both.
But deep down, I can’t help concluding that there’s no money to be made in peace.
In all honesty, I’m hanging out to sing “Rejoice, rejoice – Emmanuel.” That hymn has a way of centring me in the fact of our faith: that God is present in our lives. It’s just that sometimes I forget.
The Long Wait
We New Testament people aren’t so different from the Old Testament people—we all wait. In fact, the whole of creation waits.
The pre-Bethlehem people waited for Isaiah’s prophecy to be fulfilled: that a virgin would conceive through the power of the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Messiah. Everything between Genesis and Revelation revolves around waiting and arrival. One of the last sentences of the last chapter of the Bible reads: “I shall indeed be with you soon. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20)
Anna and Simeon (Luke 2:38) trusted in the waiting process for their whole lives. Can you imagine the random day when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple, and Simeon immediately recognised their child as the promised Messiah? No wonder he wanted to embrace Him! These two faithful people teach us so much about the need to cling to hope, even when the outcome takes longer than we’d like.
Are We Ready?
The truth is, we have no advance date for Jesus’ second coming—only that it will be “soon,” whatever “soon” means. Perhaps if we did have a due date, we’d put off preparing until the last minute. But the critical point is that we need to be ready and alert now because He will come without warning.
This theme appears repeatedly in the New Testament:
- St Matthew (24:43–44): “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
- St Luke (12:39): “We must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
- St Paul (1 Thessalonians 5:1–3): “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” He compares it to the sudden onset of labour—ready or not, the baby is on its way! (I can vouch for that!)
- St Peter (2 Peter 3:10): “The day of the Lord will come like a thief.”
The Church continues to repeat this directive to prepare—whether we die first or live to see His return.
My own father died suddenly in his prime. It felt like a thief had robbed me of time with him. If I’d known in advance, I could have said, “Thank you,” or, “I love you,” or so much more. That experience reminds me of the saying, “We’re here one minute and gone the next.” It’s crude but true. Earth isn’t our permanent home.
Taking Stock
So now, let’s be ready. We’ve got 28 days!
Is it time to deal with an unresolved issue screaming to be addressed? To make peace with a grudge that’s eating away at us? To rekindle a broken friendship? To seek Sacramental reconciliation for a troubled conscience? Or to set aside time to pray and truly listen?
The gift of Christmas—2,000 years ago, in an obscure town—changed the world forever. God entered our human history through a young couple who trusted Him with all their might. This nighttime birth is the reason for the season.