"The greatest treasure of Christianity is that it has a future, because God has promised a future. Only we have a valid vision of the future, which God has drawn for us in detail," writes Miklós Pocsaji, pastor of the Albertfalva-Kelenvölgyi Reformed Parish in the Reformed Newspaper.
According to the calendar, Advent is the period of preparation leading up to the Christmas holiday, which for us Reformed people is both sacred and very dear to our return holiday anticipation. Even the world celebrates Advent in its own way, although it no longer knows its original meaning. In the church, our services are filled with anticipation, we make a wreath, we light its candles week by week, and its light will grow brighter as we approach Christmas.
But is that all Advent? A celebration that returns year after year? A memory of the coming? Undoubtedly, she is beautiful, kind and we love her. But the most important message of Advent is not the present, not even the memory of the first Advent and coming, but the return of Christ and the coming of God's kingdom with him! The desire that Jesus Christ planted in our hearts is that he will return. Advent is past, present and future at the same time! This is what the resurrected Christ says to John in heaven: "I am (...), who is, and who was, and who is to come: the Almighty." (Signal 1.8)
What makes Advent truly Advent? From the fact that we will be connected to his person in spirit, personally and in the community, in the church as well. Customs and traditions are meant to reinforce this. But there are no more times of peace, there is war, so talking about lighting candles and waiting is a luxury. Our lives are changing, and we can be grateful for that! For now. The once Christian civilization, "the West", is the only civilization on earth that has turned against its own religion. And let's add: with our faith. Every day we read news stories in which this confrontation appears, but these are only the tip of the iceberg. Today, instead of peaceful waiting, our classroom part became militant waiting. What is the fight about today?
Christ came, taught, healed, died for us on the cross, rose again and ascended to the Father. All this is not a beautiful religious story, but the news that changes everything, the gospel. There is a fight today because they don't call it "the" love, but something else. Pairs of opposites: acceptance and exclusion, love is love and hate, and a thousand more slogans that transform thinking and feeling, on a mass level. The "cancel culture" increasingly extends to Christianity, its holidays, traditions, and appearance in the social environment.
However, if they try to remove his memory from the minds and emotions of the masses, because of what happened - it is truly indelible. Christ's coming (Christmas), death on the cross (Good Friday), resurrection (Easter) and ascension. What divine wisdom! The cross happened, and immediately afterwards it became the past, so it exists inaccessible, so that neither its fact nor its validity can be erased! Our task: to remember and remind! Today, Advent is not just a custom, a tradition (even sacred), today it must be remembered and reminded in a spiritual way, against competitive oblivion, with a warrior's faith.
Advent is mostly this, the memory of the future! To remember, to keep in mind the all-pervading hope that Jesus Christ will return, and that will be the fulfillment of the second advent - our salvation. It is a huge misunderstanding that Christianity preserves traditions or carries the past into the present. The greatest treasure of Christianity is that it has a future, because God has promised a future. We alone have a valid vision of the future, which God has drawn for us in detail and has done so that we may know, and what we may know, believe and proclaim. Do we know? We hope your image and truth? Because Advent is mostly about waiting for Christ to return. The faith and hope of this. Looking forward to the future, as we can read at the very end of the Writing:
"Come, Lord Jesus!
Source: reformatus.hu
Featured Image: Pixabay
