Q. Is Advent a penitential season?
A. No, Advent is not a penitential season, but it has aspects that are penitential in nature.
While that is a super canon lawyer-y way to answer the question, it is actually the correct answer. Lent is the only penitential season in the Church (CIC c.1250) Advent is the season of “devout and joyful expectation” in which we focus first on our Lord’s Second Coming and then, starting Dec. 17, on His First Coming at Christmas.
Advent is meant to be joyful. Unlike the Israelites, who waited in faith for the Messiah and their deliverance from the Power of the World, we know that the Messiah has already come and we rejoice in the freedom from the Power of Sin He offers us even now through His grace communicated to us most exultantly in the Sacraments.
But, knowing as we do that we do not always live in His freedom but at times live as if He has not already come, turning to the World and Sin for meaning and fleeting happiness, in this season in which we remind ourselves that He will be coming again, we are called to “make straight the ways of the Lord” in our hearts by renouncing sin and being reconciled to Him. Hence the penitential aspects of Advent (like purple and an emphasis on conversion of heart).
So just as the Church “fasts” from the Gloria until Christmas, so that when we sing the angels’ hymn announcing the birth of Christ, it is all the more joyful, it is good for us to “fast” from something until Christmas, so we can temper our hearts to be better prepared for not just a joyful celebration of Christmas but a joyful welcoming of Christ when He comes again.
This question was answered by Father Caleb La Rue, chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
