What is expected of each of us during this Advent season? Do we think about Advent as just another season in the liturgical year of the Church, or do we actually consider the importance of this time of preparation? Perhaps we are too much into the secular vision of Christmas, and have chosen to spend our time and our energies on shopping, decorating, and entertaining. It is intended to be a time of preparation - Advent, from Latin, means "the coming". During this season we are called to prepare for Christ’s coming, both as a celebration of the anniversary of Christ’s birth, but also as a preparation for Christ’s Second Coming.

In today’s Gospel, Luke tells how John went preaching throughout the territory of the Jordan River by telling the people to turn away from their sins and be baptized, and God will forgive their sins. This message is still pertinent in our lives today. If we are to truly be prepared for "the coming", we must turn away from our sinful ways and instead place God first in our lives.

The idea of stewardship is interwoven into this message. We have the free will to choose to place God first in our lives through living as Christian stewards, or we can choose to involve God in our lives when it is convenient or when we really need a favor. As Christian stewards, we must choose to make this Advent season a time of preparation, a time to cleanse our souls from sinful ways through the sacrament of Reconciliation, and a time to allow Jesus to once again enter into our lives at Christmas time. It is a time when we renew our commitment to live as Jesus’ disciples by placing God first in our lives.

With all of these activities going on, devoting the necessary time and energy to the preparation time of Advent can be difficult. We all have been blessed with the time that will allow us adequate Advent preparation time as well as time for all of the fun things that this season brings. However, if we choose to place God at the bottom of our list of activities, we are not truly living the Advent message. If we do not place God first during this time of the year, we likely will not place God first in our lives during the rest of the year. I believe that we do not always intentionally place God below these activities, but rather we get caught up in the rat race of our lives.

One way that we can place God at the top of our list is to spend the first portion of each day in dialogue with Our Savior asking for guidance and direction for our lives. As Christian stewards, God has entrusted to each of us different gifts of time, talent, and treasure and has given each of us the ability to use these gifts however we chose. During this time spent with Jesus each day, we can reflect on those gifts that God has blessed each of us with and we can choose to steward these gifts in a manner that is consistent with this Advent message.

The seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas are always times when we are made much more aware of the needs of our brothers and sisters. We are called to share with those less fortunate than ourselves. Are we thankful for the gifts God has blessed us with, and have we chosen to share these precious gifts with others? Are we frightened of the thought that we will not have sufficient treasure and time for ourselves and choose to place our own wants ahead of the needs of others? We can and are called to live out the stewardship way of life by sharing our first fruits with those who are in need of these gifts as a sign of true thanksgiving to God for what He has blessed us with.