Dear Friends,
Advent begins today. The way the season is laid out, the
first two weeks invite us to concentrate on the big picture – the coming of God
into our world. The last two weeks immerse us in the more familiar way of celebrating
Advent, namely in preparation for the well-known, well-loved coming of Christ
at the stable in Bethlehem.
Another way to describe Advent is to emphasize that our God
comes and continues to come into our adult world – to meet us wherever we are
and to enfold us in love as we live our topsy-turvy lives.
The Dominican Herbert McCabe writes in a compelling way about
this very contemporary coming, albeit in non-inclusive language: “God’s way is
very much simpler than our ways. He doesn’t have our complications. He is just
simply in love with us. Not just with some of us, not just with saints or
people who try to be good, but with absolutely everybody: with liars and
murderers, with traitors and rapists, with the greedy, the arrogant, the
inconsiderate, with prime ministers and priests and policemen. He loves us all.
And not in some general way. It is not a question of some vague warm feeling
for humanity, for the whole human race. He loves each of us intimately and
personally – more intimately and personally than we can love ourselves. He is more
personally concerned for our good and happiness than we can be for ourselves.”
(God, Christ and Us, p.26)
God is in love with us now, in our adult lives, as we are,
where we are, however we face the future. But we are not easily convinced.
"There are certain questions we should ask ourselves,
particularly during the Advent and Christmas seasons. Born 2,000 years after
Christ…when we talk about God’s coming, do we not focus exclusively on the tiny
babe born long ago?... Do we scan the horizons of our world for Christ’s
coming, or have we locked God up in the prism of a bygone past?
"In our personal religious life, we are tempted to dwell on
our childhood and our youthful enthusiasm, and we never really grow up. We
surreptitiously undermine the possibility of a truly adult life. We give God no
chance to exercise His initiative. We do not allow Him to reveal Himself in
ways that would make Him credible as the God of adult life. We would like to overlook
the divine advent yet to come.” (Johannes Baptist Metz, The Advent of God,
pp.10,12)
Beginning today, we can take a fresh plunge into Advent. What
one practice can you, can I, initiate to welcome God into our messy, much-loved
world?
Perhaps it can be as simple as praying daily the last words
of the New Testament. At the end of the Book of Revelation, we read, “Yes, I am
coming soon,” and the reply “Amen! Come Lord Jesus!”
Amen! Amen! Amen!
Come, Lord Jesus! Come!
~Sister Joan Sobala
