While channel surfing through the TV stations some time ago, I came across a program showing the training of a student airplane pilot. The student was learning to fly a plane. The training took place in a cockpit of a plane, except the cockpit was not in a real plane but in a classroom. Instead of a cockpit window there was a computer screen showing what it would look like as the pilot attempted to land, take off or fly the plane. Everything was computer generated and the computer was giving the student pilot different scenarios of what could go wrong while piloting a plane: a down draft or an updraft of wind, a mechanical problem with the plane or some other ways in which trouble could develop.
The TV camera showed the face of the student as he responded to each situation that the computer threw at him. His face was intense. After the training the student pilot was asked how he felt about the training. He said that, while it was stressful and tense, he welcomed it. He said that, while he did not like to think about these things happening, he knew that one day he would have to deal with these situations and so this trained him to handle them when they occurred. He said that when they did occur, it would be too late for him to prepare, so he was taking advantage of this training now in order to be prepared.
I know all analogies limp, but in a way this example of the student pilot in a simulator preparing for what will happen can be a way for us to think about Advent. Why do we have this season?
Obviously we have this season to prepare to celebrate the birth of our Savior. We remember that Jesus came into the world at Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.
But we are also invited to remember a second coming of Jesus in the future when he will come for each one of us. One day we will stand before God to give an accounting of how we lived our lives. Like the student pilot, we may not like to think of this happening, but we know it will happen and we can prepare now for it. Each one of us will one day stand before the Lord when we experience our physical death. And when that happens we might not have time to prepare. As Jesus says in the Gospel, it may come upon us suddenly like a trap.
So we are asked to remember three comings of Jesus: His first coming in Bethlehem, as important as that is; his coming in the future when he will come back, as inevitable as that is; and the fact that he wants to enter into our lives now. Our salvation depends on how we respond to this coming here in the present.
If we had invited people over to our house, there would probably be things which we would have to do to get the house ready. It would be too late once the doorbell rings and the guests have arrived. We are asked to invite the Lord into our lives. Where in our lives do we have to get ready to welcome the Lord? Where in our lives would we be embarrassed to welcome the Lord, where we are not living as the person we know he wants us to be?
We have this opportunity in Advent to change and allow the Lord to come more and more into our lives. This is the time to act. This is the time, like the student pilot, to prepare for what will happen one day, when we stand before the Lord. What a loss if we do not take advantage of this opportunity.