In last Sunday’s gospel we heard Jesus say, “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” He doesn’t mean literally to keep awake, of course, but to keep our wits about us, to stay focused. And we know when Jesus is coming: on Christmas.
During this season of Advent, as I prepare for Christ’s coming, I do a lot of things. I decorate, whistle Christmas songs, buy gifts, and enjoy parties with friends. That’s a lot of doing. But how am I being? Am I calm, mindfully focused and awake to possibilities? Or am I anxious and unable to process clearly what’s around me? Probably a bit of both.
A popular graphic on T-shirts and pictures on social media sites these days says “Keep Calm and Carry On.” The phrase originated in England about 70 years ago. During World War II, the British government commissioned this as one of many posters to help people deal with the stress of wartime. I imagine my anxiety would have been pretty high if I lived in London while bombs were coming down almost every night. Now a poster itself can’t alleviate the stress, but the sentiment might help me keep perspective and move productively through the day.
So during this season I’m going to Keep Calm and Advent On.
I don’t know about you, but the build-up during Advent can add a lot of stress to my modern life as I go shopping in busy crowds of people, buy gifts I may only feel obliged to give, and then sometimes worry about paying for it all. My concerns for other people’s expectations - real or imagined - can literally change my mind, as can my surroundings.
I’ve bought some pretty awful or unusable things for people when I lost focus and given in to the bright lights, terrible Christmas Muzak over the speakers, and the SALE signs. I lost my calm.
Worse yet is when I’m at home trying to get the house ready for guests. I often enlist the help of those I love most and in my crazy need to make the house perfect, I pass on my anxiety to my family. Jesus probably doesn’t care about how “perfect” the lights are hung on the front porch, but if one of my sons doesn’t do it right I sure have a tendency to point it out. Why? I lost my calm.
Advent is all about expectation, but it doesn’t have to be filled with anxiety. Just the very thought of Jesus coming as an innocent baby on Christmas is a simple, wonderful delight that can light up our being. That thought could be as a smile from a friend on a difficult day, or an easy joke that makes us laugh. Staying focused on the “why” means I may be less apt to lose the “how.”
Am I doing all this stuff because that’s what this is all about?
If I’m calm and mindful about what this season is about then I’m getting gifts ready and preparing my house in celebration of what is to come: the birth of Jesus the savior. It’s a choice, of course. But this year if I lose my mindfulness, hopefully I’ll know enough to choose the peace of Christ, and to Keep Calm and Advent On.
Bill Campbell is a professor of music at St. Ambrose University and St. Paul's coordinator of contemporary music.
