The four Sundays of Advent feature readings that exhort us to a spirit of repentance in awareness of the imminence of Christ’s return.

The season of Advent itself prepares us for the coming of Christ, as the term ‘advent’ itself signifies, but the structure and composition of the sanctoral cycle at  this juncture is such that more emphasis is always placed on  the return of Christ in glory at the Last Day than on his incarnation and birth at Christmas. As such, Christmas comes as something of a thematic surprise. Having provided an abundance of exhortation anticipating Christ’s return, the pleasant shift at Christmas is intended to lead us to gratitude for the mercy of God in this meek and holy incarnation for us. He did not come, as we might have expected, were we to listen only to the instant and urgent admonitions of Advent, to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him (see St. John 3:17).

This somewhat jarring thematic surprise that is noticeable when Christmas follows Advent is certainly more noticeable when Easter follows Lent. In the latter case, the Church is led to and through the Passion of Our Lord finally to his miserable death on Good Friday, only to become overjoyed again on Easter Sunday in an abundance of celebration. In that case there was actually quite a bit of utter surprise and thrill in the hearts of the disciples, who had just forsaken Jesus and fled in terror and grief. The case of Advent and Christmas is less of a shift, but it also reflects a very real surprise nonetheless. For in truth the message of the prophets was mixed. Although  they had repeatedly made clear the joy that would commence with the coming incarnation of our Lord, saying, for instance, “the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads” (Isaiah 35:10), they had also warned repeatedly that the coming of Christ would be as a day “that shall burn as an oven” when “all the proud, yea, and all they that do wickedly, shall be stubble” (Malachi 4:1). And although we now know that the Lord’s coming is split between his first coming, in mercy, and his second coming, in judgment, that did quite become clear until the day when Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. Thus, it was something of a happy shock, or surprise. And so also, liturgically speaking, Christmas comes as a glad surprise at the end of Advent. Well does the Apostle then encourage us, on the Fourth Sunday in Advent, saying, “Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). For we know that this surprise is but a foretaste of the abundance of surprise that shall gladden our hearts on the Day of Days, more than we can even imagine, when we shall finally enjoy the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.