An Advent-ture

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. For all those unfamiliar with Catholicism, this is the official beginning of the Christmas season, black Friday notwithstanding. Today people came to get their advent candles blessed. There are four candles in an advent wreath. Each candle symbolizes a season during the year, and at the same time, the seasons of life. The use of candles is supposed to symbolize the light Christ brought to the world.

But, regardless of your religious belief, is it true? Did Christ bring a light to the world? Is the world any better off now than it was before the advent of Christianity? There is no doubt that some of the greatest evils done in the scope of history have been done in the name of Christ. We have but to look at the crusades, and the troubles in Northern Ireland to see that Jesus has been the inspiration for some nasty stuff. Then there is the Spanish Inquisition made so popular by Monty Python. We all know Galileo was a happy customer. It would be hard to believe that Christianity as made any difference in the world at all.

But as we look at world history before the coming of Christ, we see a very different place. People throughout Western Europe and Northern Africa had a much different view of humanity than we do today. During those times the idea of showing mercy to someone was considered a weakness. Villages were regularly sacked and innocent villagers killed by bands of raiding bandits and/or armies of conquest. It was no fun to be a poor peasant in the centuries prior to Constantine, I can tell you. You come home from a hard day of tilling the fields, most of the fruits of which would go to the king, only to find your daughter raped and the village pillaged again. It’s got to be a drag. The common thought of the day was that whatever misfortune fell upon you was probably deserved. You must have pissed off some god or something. And helping you would have set the helper against that god as well. So you didn’t get much help.

This was true everywhere except in the Judaic culture which had a tradition of helping the stranger in their midst. Indeed, the Greeks and the Romans liked having Jews living in Athens and Rome because they did bring their own brand of social welfare with them and did help the people living in the cities to some degree. Overall, the average citizen did admire the Jew, although the official government stance was that they were crazy as hell. Christianity, of course, sprang from Judaism. For the purpose of this article, you don’t need to believe in Jesus or his divinity. We do know from Josephus and other historians that he DID in fact exist. Moreover, that there exists a religion (over which people kill each other) based upon his existence which has managed to last 2000 years bears witness to the fact that he existed. You can bet that something happened. Early church writings would often cite the names of witnesses and suggest that people ask those witnesses if they didn’t believe.

Anyway, Christianity brought with it some rather novel and heretofore unheard of ideas to that ancient world. You were supposed to love your neighbor as yourself. And you neighbor was anyone who needed help, even if they were your worst enemy. Instead of a weakness, mercy was seen as strength. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. You were supposed to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. You were supposed to care for the sick, and visit the lonely. You were not only responsible for your own welfare, but for the welfare of everyone, everywhere. Peace was better than war. Forgiveness was better than vengeance. It was okay to be a soldier, but only do your job and nothing more; don’t profit from it. No wonder the early Romans found them nuts—and a threat to their system of government.

Now as religion, Christianity fails miserably at living up to the teachings of her founder, but prior to the advent of Christianity, these ideas did not even exist. The only reason people are helping out the victims of our economic downturn at all is because there was a Christian church. These humanitarian principles brought to us by this carpenter have permeated world culture. In Hindu and Buddhist tradition, misfortune was a result of the Karma of the person suffering. You were not supposed to interfere. Only the Koran impels us to help one another, but then Islam comes from the Judeo-Christian tradition. The only reason we can look at the failings of the church and criticize her for them is because the church herself proclaims there is a better way–a better way which we would not know had the church never existed.

I once dated a girl who was a dyed in the wool atheist. She didn’t believe in god at all. She figured that when you died that was it, end of story. But she did go to church every Sunday. I used to ask her, “Why do you go to church when you don’t believe in god?” and she told me, “Well, they do a lot of good work then, don’t they?” And she proceeded to tell me about how her church fed the hungry and build houses for the homeless and cared for the sick, etc.

So, in spite of the wars, the persecutions, the pedophilia, is the world a better place because of the advent of Christianity? Well, prior to the church those wars, those persecutions, even the pedophilia, would have been not only acceptable but also glorious. As much as the church fails, it is because of the church that we know there is a better way to live, whether you believe in god or not. And you don’t have to believe in god to want a better world. So Jesus did bring a light into the world. It may flicker a bit, and a strong wind will come from time to time to blow it out. But the people always relight it. This is the meaning of Advent.