Advent - looking back or forward?

It's nearing Christmas and ... the exams. This week there's one exam. for those doing Old Testament exegesis. You can sense the tension: students skipping meals and other activities, staying up late in the night, more silence than usual. I'm busy with a couple of assignments that I have to complete by this week. Lots of reading. For the past two evenings I've this terrible headache .... probably from too much reading. Fr Buscemi says it's a good sign - at least I have a head. I realised that my eyes are alot weaker now, and the heavy eyelids are not helping: it reduces the scope of vision, and everything is alot darker. I've resorted to what old Fr Marcus used to do - hold up the eyelids with scotchtape... and to think I used to laugh at him. Things come full circle.

Last night before I slept, I was thinking about the group that is coming to spend Christmas in Bethlehem. It's such a unique experience. We'll be celebrating Midnight Mass in one of the caves of Shepherds' Field. Then on Christmas Day we'll celebrate Mass at the Manger. I was thinking of the prophecies about the Messiah in the prophetic books; and I was wondering how difficult it must have been for those early Israelites to believe in those words. It's like someone at the MTR shouting to everyone that Jesus is coming in a few days' time. We'll all be sceptical, if not frightened by these people. Ever notice how you try to step away or avoid these people, eyes looking in another direction to avoid eye-contact, telling yourself "please don't come near me; please don't point at me and ask if I believe". Well lucky for us today we have the benefit of hindsight. The Messiah came 2000 yrs ago so we can easily say we believe. But Advent is also about looking into the future coming / 2nd coming of the messiah. No hindsight here. I wonder if we're looking just too much to the past in commemorating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and forgotten that it's also a celebration and preparation for his 2nd coming. Look forward guys! It's coming!