Getting ready for Christmas

BY BISHOP HUBERT BUCHER

Bishop Hubert Bucher is the retired bishop of Bethlehem in the Free State. This is the first of his three-part series of reflections on Advent.

The popular definition for Advent as “preparation for Christmas” is good — but it’s not the full truth.

It is good, because Christmas is the birthday of Christ, which is important for the whole of humankind.

The importance of the birth of Jesus was highlighted by the search for him by the Magi, who came from the far-away east; an event we celebrate soon after Christmas on the feast of Epiphany.

In our time, the preparation for Christmas begin in the business world as early as in August. The closer we get to December, the more the business world keeps telling us that Christmas is the time for buying gifts, because the shops want to boost their sales.

Not that giving gifts to our loved ones at Christmas is not a good. Our giving of gifts reminds us of the love God our Father has for each one of us: “So great is the love of God for us, that he sent his only Son to be our Saviour.”

So in preparation for this Christmas, let us desire to rediscover the true meaning of the giving of gifts to each other: to express our selfless love for each other. In doing so we try to imitate God our Father, who loves us with a truly selfless love. Read 1 John 4:7-12: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God…”

If you have children, impress on them that they should not look forward to Christmas solely because they hope to get presents. Help them to look forward to Christmas because it is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, who has made God’s love for us visible.

We are reminded in the gospel of St John which is read on Christmas Day: “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, as the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (1:14).

As Advent begins, I strongly recommend that homes have an Advent wreath. Gather around it with the whole family on a particular day of each week during Advent, and light a candle at the beginning of each new week of Advent. Perhaps sing a few hymns with your children, and pray from a prayer book, or pray a decade of the Rosary, or say prayers just as they come from your hearts.

Of course, while gathering round the Advent wreath one should switch off the TV—and explain to the children why—so that everybody can really concentrate on the celebration of this domestic Advent service.

If you are familiar with Bible Sharing, you could also read a passage from the Bible during the service and invite everybody to say whether there was perhaps a word or a sentence in that passage which touched them in particular.

One could also invite a person from  the neighbourhood to join such a service, especially a person who is very lonely. This would bring joy into his or her life. In this way, you and your family would live out the love of God which became apparent in the birth of his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at Christmas.

Bishop Hubert Bucher is the retired bishop of Bethlehem in the Free State. This is the first of his three-part series of reflections on Advent.