This Sunday, Dec. 2, is the beginning of Advent, a season in which Christians around the world look with joyful anticipation to and prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas.

The words of Isaiah in the first reading for this Sunday set the tone for the coming four weeks:

“ ‘Come, let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.’ ... O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

Pope Benedict XVI said at the beginning of Advent two years ago that the joy that marks the preparation for Christmas and the hope with which Christians look toward the establishment of God’s kingdom of peace and justice must be communicated to others.

“Advent is a time when Christians must reawaken in their hearts the hope of being able to renew the world with the help of God,” he said. “May this season of joyful expectation and spiritual preparation for the Lord’s coming be a time of sincere conversion and interior renewal for Christians.”

The words of Isaiah and Pope Benedict present a challenge to Christians today because the Advent time of preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas is not the type of preparation for Christmas that our society is marketing. The message we’re hearing is that you prepare for Christmas by buying more things and consuming more things — all under the auspices of holiday gift-giving.

There is no better example of this than the shopping madness that characterizes “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving when a full-court press is applied to attract people to stores and shopping malls before daylight so they can cash in on gift-giving bargains. Some stores opened this year as early as 4 a.m., and some people camped out over night so they could be the first ones in line when the doors opened.

There also were instances of some stores opening at 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. That’s when stores in one outlet center in Ohio opened their doors. The outlet called it “Moonlight Madness” — an appropriate description of the entire “Black Friday “extravaganza.

And if some recent trends are an indication, it probably won’t be long before Thanksgiving Day is turned into another pre-Christmas shopping marathon. Noting that some stores were open this Thanksgiving, a Nov. 22 story in the New York Day News said: “Forget the turkey. Bargain hunters want to celebrate Thanksgiving by shopping.”

Another marketing slogan is emerging for Thanksgiving Day shopping. It’s called “Dark Gray Thursday.”

What from a Christian perspective can be said about this?

One answer to this question might be found in another question raised by the U.S. bishops two decades ago in their pastoral letter, “Economic Justice for All” The bishops asked: “Are we able to distinguish between our true needs and those thrust upon us by advertising and a society that values consumption over savings?”

The bishops added, “All of us could well ask ourselves whether as a Christian prophetic witness we are not called to adopt a simpler lifestyle in the face of the excessive accumulation of material goods that characterize an affluent society.”

And the pastoral noted: “Christ warned us against attachments to material things, to total self-reliance, against the idolatry of accumulating material goods and seeking safety in them. We must take these teachings seriously and in their light examine how each of us lives and acts toward others.”

Advent, if taken seriously and observed as it is intended, can be a time for Christians to put things in the proper perspective. Gift-giving is part of the Advent-Christmas season, and it can be done without going to the extremes that our consumption-oriented society advocates. It can be done without a Black Friday.

But there is much more to this holy season devoted to preparing ourselves to receive Christ on Christmas Day. It’s about, as Isaiah says, instructing us in the ways of God so “we may walk in his paths.” It’s about, as Pope Benedict said, conversion and “interior renewal.”

And none of this can be found in a one-day shopping spree.