The end of December always gets me thinking about time. It’s not just the counting down of the days till Christmas. And it’s more than the looming end of the calendar year. No, the final days of Advent prompt us to think about time in a more cosmic scale.

Jesus poses a question: What did you go out to the desert to see? What are you looking for? This is an important question for us today, because if we don’t know what we are looking for, how will we know when we find it?

John says that Jesus will “gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff” (the useless stuff) “he will burn with unquenchable fire.” This is scary stuff for those who are not prepared. This is why John calls for us to “prepare the way of the Lord!”

How do we approach Advent? Like Lent, the sanctuary and ministers are draped in purple, the liturgical color of penance. Unlike Lent, there are no mandatory days of fasting or abstinence. Advent is not mentioned as a penitential season in Canon Law.