Which Advent Do We Prepare For?

Is Advent a preparatory fast in preparation for the liturgical commemoration of the historical birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, or is Advent a season unto itself. A sacrament of the end of time begun in the incarnation and still waiting on its final consummation at the close of the present age? Is the content of Advent’s proclamation centered in eschatological dread, judgment, and condemnation or eschatological hope, expectation, and promise?

Is Advent really the beginning of the annual cycle or does Advent bring the year to a conclusion? The fact is that each of these “either/ors” are really “both/ands.” And it is precisely because we cannot eliminate one or the other but must hold them in tension that we have inherited “a season under stress’’ [Richard Hoefler]…shaped by darkness and light, dread and hope, judgment and grace, second and first comings, terror and promise, end and beginning.