First Monday of Advent 2023 The Middle Days

The first week of Advent breaks like a wave 🌊, a huge wave that announces something us coming, something anticipated but as yet unseen. Over the horizon, not yet in sight, but announced by the disturbance in the routine.

The third week begins with Gaudete and thoughts of true revolution; true justice, true peace. During the week is Las Posadas The final week begins what Gaudete started: the “O” Antiphons to the Magnificat.  And the final week ends, of course, with the Christmas vigil: Christmas Eve.

But what about the second week? The first wave has broken, the clocks are reset, the time is coming. But the second week just stands between the first week and the third week, almost as gatekeeper; or perhaps just gateway.

That of which the season of the year and our customary devotions reminds us, we, Dearly Beloved, in our paternal duty, now preach to you. You must observe the fast of the tenth month [December], whereby, for the complete harvest of all fruits, there is most fittingly offered to God, the giver of them, an offering of self mortification. For what can be more salutary for us than fasting, by the practice of which we draw nigh to God, and, standing fast against the devil, defeat the vices that lead us astray. 

For fasting was ever the food of virtue. From abstinence there arise chaste thoughts, just decisions, salutary counsels. And through voluntary suffering the flesh dies to the concupiscences, and the spirit waxes strong in virtue. But as the salvation of ours souls is not gained solely by fasting, let us fill up what is wanting in our fasting with almsgiving to the poor. 

Let us give to virtue what we take from pleasure. Let the abstinence of those who fast be the dinner of the poor. Let us have thought for the protection of the widow, for the welfare of the orphan, for the comforting of those who mourn, for the peace of those who live in discord. Let the stranger be given shelter. Let the oppressed be aided, the naked be clothed, the sick cherished. 

--Leo, Fifth Century

We’re not doing that anymore; nobody’s fasting in December. It’s certainly a way of preparation, but we’re more inclined to treat the year as a preparation for December. And in December, if anything, we’re eating too much, and maybe secretly hoping all that food will be gone come January. But that’s not what we’re thinking in the second week of Advent.

There’s Lucy’s day this week, but who notices, or knows when it is, or makes buns for the day (more food!)? No, this is pretty much the “early” shopping week. Although you’re probably already too late, really. 

What, then? Lessons about spiritual purification are too dour for our December. Giving to the poor is better done by somebody for us. So what do we always want for Christmas?🎄 

We want stories.

WHEN the great Rabbi Israel Baal Shem-Tov saw misfortune threatening the Jews it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light a fire, say a special prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished and misfortune averted. 

Later, when his disciple, the celebrated Magid of Mezritch, had occasion, for the same reason, to intercede with heaven, he would go to the same place in the forest and say: "Master of the Universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayers." And again the miracle would be accomplished. 

Still later, Rabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov, in order to save his people once more, would go into the forest and say: "1 do not know how to light the fire, I do not know the prayer, but I know the place and this must be sufficient." It was sufficient and the miracle was accomplished. 

Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he spoke to God: "I am unable to light the fire and I do not know the prayer; I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is to tell the story, and that must be sufficient." And it was sufficient. God made humankind because God loves stories. 

--Hasidic tale told by Elie Wiesel 

Fable; parable; tale; short story; novella; novel. That’s how the categories of prose story run; at least since the 19th century, when folklore was (eventually) accepted as literature. The categories divide on length, and on content. Length becomes more important when you get to short stories; but fables are short, tales usually longer. From short stories on, content is the dividing line. 

We spend this much energy on story because we love them. And what are Advent and Christmas about if not stories? 

Some of them even stories about the pathos of God.