Title: Advent Invites Us to Journey Together
Intro: The Jubilee Year tradition adds another layer of meaning to this Advent season.
Scripture: Revelation 22:1-5
Reflection
Dear Friends,
There is something quietly revolutionary about waiting together. In a world that prizes individual achievement and personal spirituality, the season of Advent reminds us that our faith was never meant to be a solitary endeavour.
As we light candles week by week, counting down to Christmas, we are participating in an ancient rhythm that has always been communal and always been shared. This year, that collective dimension of our faith feels especially significant as the Church embraces what Pope Francis calls synodality—the practice of walking together on our spiritual journey—and as we stand on the threshold of a Jubilee Year calling us toward renewal and hope.
Synodality might sound like theological jargon, but it is actually a beautifully simple idea. The word comes from the Greek "syn-hodos," meaning "journeying together”. It is the recognition that the Church is not just a hierarchy handing down decisions from above but a community of believers who listen to one another, discern together, and move forward in shared understanding. Pope Francis has made this vision central to his papacy, calling for a Church where every voice matters and where we genuinely seek the Holy Spirit's guidance through one another's experiences and insights.
The Jubilee Year tradition adds another layer of meaning to this Advent season. Rooted in ancient Scripture, the Jubilee was a time of liberation—debts were forgiven, slaves were freed, and land was returned to its original owners. It was a radical reset, a chance to begin again with justice and mercy at the centre. When the Church celebrates a Jubilee Year, it echoes this biblical vision, inviting pilgrimage, repentance, and renewed commitment to the Gospel. It is a holy pause asking us to consider what needs to be restored, what needs to be forgiven, and what new possibilities God is opening before us.
Advent, with its emphasis on preparation and expectation, offers the perfect spiritual landscape for embracing both synodality and the Jubilee spirit. Consider how we observe these four weeks before Christmas. Parishes gather for evening prayer services. Families come together to light Advent wreaths. Communities organise charitable efforts to serve those in need. We do not rush toward the manger alone but move together in anticipation, our collective waiting mirroring the original Advent story. Mary did not carry her extraordinary yes to God in isolation—she ran to Elizabeth, and their shared joy became a moment of mutual recognition and praise. The shepherds heard the angels' announcement together and went as a group to Bethlehem.
What makes this season particularly ripe for synodal practice and Jubilee renewal is its invitation to listen. Advent is inherently contemplative, asking us to quiet the noise and pay attention. It carves out space for silence, for reflection, for truly hearing. And is not that exactly what both synodality and the Jubilee require? Before we can journey together or embrace genuine renewal, we must learn to listen together—to Scripture, to the movements of the Spirit, and to one another's stories of faith and struggle.
The penitential aspects of Advent also align beautifully with these themes of conversion and fresh beginnings. The Jubilee calls us to examine what needs liberation in our own lives and communities. What debts—spiritual, emotional, relational—need forgiving? What injustices need addressing? What old patterns need breaking so something new can emerge? Synodality asks similarly difficult questions. Do we make room for voices that have been marginalised? Are we willing to have our assumptions challenged? These are not comfortable questions, but neither is the spiritual work of Advent, with its call to acknowledge where we have fallen short and turn back toward God. Yet within this discomfort lies tremendous possibility—the chance for authentic transformation rather than superficial change.
Perhaps most powerfully, Advent, synodality, and the Jubilee are all animated by hope. Advent looks forward to Christ's coming—not just his historical birth in Bethlehem, but his return in glory and his daily arrival in our lives through grace. It is a season suspended between memory and promise, rooted in what God has already done while reaching toward what God will yet accomplish. The Jubilee similarly proclaims that no situation is beyond redemption, no person beyond mercy, and no community beyond renewal. And synodality embraces the "not yet" quality of our life together, acknowledging that the Church is not finished, that we are still becoming what God calls us to be.
As we move through this Advent season and into the Jubilee Year, we might consider how our preparations can reflect this spirit of walking together toward new beginnings. When we gather with family or parish communities, are we truly present to one another? When we read the prophets' urgent calls for justice, do we listen for how God might be speaking through contemporary voices? When we light our Advent candles, can we see in that growing brightness an image of a Church and world being renewed, shining more fully when all contribute their unique light?
The journey to Bethlehem is one we make together, just as our journey through life as believers is fundamentally communal. This Advent does not just prepare us for Christmas; it prepares us for a new way of being Church and living as disciples—walking side by side, listening deeply, embracing the possibility of genuine renewal, and trusting that Christ meets us not despite our togetherness but precisely within it.
May the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen...
