Fourth is not last but the Middle

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on the first Sunday of Advent, titled, "First Sunday", which you can find here.  We are now to the fourth, and last Sunday of Advent.  All of the other Sunday's of Advent had a full week in which to ponder meaning and significance.  However, the fourth Sunday seldom has that opportunity. This year it really does not even exist.  The fourth Sunday of Advent is like a middle child.

Shepherds' Field Church, Beit Sahour, Palestine

I know all about being a middle child.  As families have gotten smaller, the middle child experience is going the way of the dodo bird, or having a nice snow cover for Christmas.  That is true of this Fourth Sunday, which also happens to be Christmas Eve.  American penchant for hurrying things has us always moving things to be earlier and earlier.  Many Americans celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and not Christmas Day.  Celebrations seem to begin earlier on Christmas Day, too.  It was not too long ago at my work that we only got off 1/2 day as a holiday on Christmas Eve, but that has changed to all day.  Of course, we as a nation may be more mobile, and a full day allows persons to travel.  Christmas Day is one of the days of highest attendance at movie theaters.  It is not just the secular.  I recall years ago the first mass for Christmas Eve was Midnight Mass, but that has changed.  First it was 10:00 pm, and gradually moved to our local church has its first mass being at 4 pm.  Few parishes still have a midnight mass.  When I was young I recall midnight mass being so crowded that the aisles were full of people standing.  With mass beginning at 4:00 pm, the Fourth Sunday of Advent will come to a close, with not even a candle lighted for the evening dinner.

Cave excavation and chapel at Shepherd field

What this all means is that the Fourth Sunday of Advent is really second fiddle to Christmas Eve.  I can fully appreciate the need to accommodate celebrations with different parts of a family.  That gets me to the middle child.  They (we) are the ones (at least me) that not only wore hand-me-downs, but also hand-me-ups.  Between older and younger siblings, they are the ones that are caught in the middle.  Let me put it this way, middle children are the Rodney Dangerfield's of the family.  Can that be a good thing?  Yes, I think it tends to help shape us and perhaps make us more resilient.  Although resiliency can be earned in other ways.

Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

Being a middle child is about the opposite of being the Third Sunday of Advent.  That Sunday even has its own different colored candle, which is said to give special recognition with it having a special name as Gaudete Sunday.  This gives hope to us middle children.  The purpose of advent, adapted from the Latin adventus (coming or visit), is to prepare for the coming of Christ.  By now most, but the best procrastinators, have purchased and wrapped gifts.  The houses have likely been decorated for a few weeks.  I will do some preparing tomorrow, helping decorate church for the Christmas season, which last 12 days.  By Tuesday, when I take my daily walk I am sure, as in the past, I will see some Christmas trees having been placed outside.  The American idea of moving fast and faster means little contemplation of the true meaning of Christmas.

Recognized location of the birthplace of Jesus Christ
Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

Each person has different events and even if we experience the same events, there would be different interpretations.  That is the way it is with Advent, and with Christmas.  We each will interpret  and get out of it what we want, or really what we put into it.   The Fourth Sunday of Advent is still here, for a few hours, and while it may be in name only, what follows is the main event, the joy of Christmas, where, as Linus said to Charlie Brown,  that a Savior was born this day in the city of David.  Christmas is about many things, but it is about giving; after all, God so loved the world that he gave his only son.  While Jesus was not a middle child, I think he can find the humor in being one, and how that can relate to something like the Fourth Sunday of Advent.
Merry Christmas!

Photos by author, April 2013