Prepare the Way of the Lord in JOY!

Growing up, I was a child of both the effects of the baby boomer generation of the 1950's and the counter cultural revolution of the 1960's. Thankfully, I have learned to appreciate both trends for their positive and negative effects on my personal intellectual & spiritual growth and development. The 1950's presented for Americans cultural acceptance of the then status quo lifestyle of the Eisenhower administration, and for the most part people were content with living their lives according to the paternal guidance of Ike; especially after the tragic effects of the Second World War. However, with the end of the 1950's American spiritual and cultural norms were changing...and would change dramatically in the next decade.

I was born in 1960. Eisenhower was still in the White House, JFK was poised just off-stage for his platform of the New Frontier, which called Americans to boldly take up the challenges of modern world, with it's technological achievements and expectations. We were still a few years off from the opening of the Second Vatican Council, so even Catholics were part of the complacent Ike era, and really did not anticipate what the 1960's would bring for the Catholic Church and the modern world.

When I think of the many tasks and obligations we endure in our anticipation of the Christmas celebration, it strikes me that we need to ...prepare the way of the Lord and do so in an enjoyable manner. Secularism and its constant usurpation of the essential meaning of ,SACRED, doesn't always allow us to prepare in joyful anticipation for the coming of the Savior on Christmas. Rather, the tedious activities of Christmas preparation often overshadow the great theological anticipation and expectations of eschatological joy, we as faithful Catholics are preparing for at Christmas.

When I was considering what to write for this particular column, I recalled the great Saint Thomas Aquinas when he stated,"...there is nothing in the mind that is not first in the senses." Advent is itself a theologically sensory experience that demands and deserves our appreciation of celebration of Christ the New Dawn that comes to us in the Incarnation.

Part of the counter-cultural revolution of the 1960's included the Hippie movement and their alternative lifestyles that contradicted everything their parents frankly stood for in life. Their clothing was different, hairstyles were different, colors were bold, people expressed themselves more freely and openly than in the 1950's. As a child of the 1960's my own life experienced the complacency of life that resulted from the Ike years, but were charged with a sense of energy and change that embodied the 1960's.

Advent calls us to celebrate, prepare and anticipate the most significant event of all human history, the Word made Flesh and dwelling among us! This is why we should prepare our Christmas celebration with happiness, joy and celebration, not because we are celebrating a holiday...but because we are celebrating THE HOLY Day of God's redemption in our world.

At the beginning of this article, I posted an excerpt from the movie, GodSpell, which in its day was a controversial adaptation of the life of Jesus, derived from the Gospels. However, the song, Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord, gives us a theologically choreographed example of the intensity we should have in our celebration of our faith as we prepare to celebrate the Mystery of God among us, and as we celebrate our collective conversion and transformation into a joyful people engaged in a timeless journey of faith that begins with the celebratory event of Christ's human birth.

So as you prepare, take a moment to celebrate just like the counter-cultural minstrels of GodSpell, and enjoy the path of conversion and preparations for Christmas.