Advent is time to fast and pray

The following are excerpts of a sermon delivered yesterday by Father Constantine White at St. Nicholas Cathedral:

We are now in a period of preparation for the upcoming celebration of the feast of Christmas — the incarnation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This time is called the Nativity Fast, or Advent, meaning “coming.”

We await the coming of God into the world, and in the Orthodox Church this time is a true spiritual preparation for celebrating Christmas. It is a time when we fast, abstaining from animal products, so that we might focus every time we eat, or don’t eat something, on what we celebrate at Christmas.

Christ — that is, God — is born into the world so that He might bring salvation to a world that had been separated from God. The world became separated from God because of sin, because of human beings following their own will rather than the will of God. This separation caused the paradise, which God had created — where there was no suffering, sickness or death — to be filled with sickness, suffering and death. But “because of the tender compassion of His mercy, God could not endure to behold mankind oppressed by the Devil” (Baptismal Service of the Orthodox Church).

In the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, it says, “[God] did visit [humanity] in various ways: You did send prophets; You did perform mighty works by Your saints, who in every generation were well-pleasing to You; You did speak to us by the mouth of Your servants the prophets, foretelling to us the salvation which was to come; You did give us the law as a help; You did appoint angels as guardians.

“And when the fullness of time had come, You did speak to us through Your Son Himself, by whom You did also make the ages; who, being the Radiance of Your glory and the Image of Your person, upholding all things by the word of His power, thought it not robbery to be equal to You, the God and Father. …

“He lived in this world and gave us commandments of salvation; releasing us from the delusions of idolatry, He brought us to knowledge of You the true God and Father. … He gave Himself as a ransom to death, in which we were held captive, sold under sin. Descending through the cross into hell — that He might fill all things with Himself — He loosed the pangs of death. He arose on the third day, having made for all flesh a path to the Resurrection from the dead, since it was not possible for the Author of Life to be a victim of corruption.”

This is why Christ is born: to free us from the chains of death, to give us everlasting life, a life that was intended for us when God originally created us.

Each one of us, whenever we turn from God, whenever we sin, makes the coming of the Christ child necessary. Christ is born only to save us. Our preparation for Christmas should be much more than putting up decorations, buying gifts and sending out cards, none of which is a bad thing. Giving gifts to people and sending greetings are, in fact, good things, but they easily can become our sole focus and preparation.

When we receive guests into our homes at Christmastime, we prepare by cleaning up and decorating. How much more should our spiritual preparation be as we prepare to receive the Christ child into our lives?

With fasting and prayer before Christmas, we can keep focused on the real meaning of this feast. Our fasting will be a constant reminder to us that Christ is born to save us. Our fasting will be a constant reminder to us that we should turn from sin, the sin that makes it necessary for Christ to be born into the world so that He can suffer and die on the cross to save us. Turning from sin, despite all the distraction that the world gives to us during this season, we can truly prepare to receive Christ, and we can, with true joy and happiness, celebrate that great feast of the Nativity of Our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Emmanuel — God with us. Glory to Jesus Christ.