Advent: Here it comes again!
Today’s blog is from a friend of mine, Richard Korkor from Hunter’s Hill, Australia. He writes reflections for his parish bulletin. I think you will enjoy his thoughts
Today marks the beginning of the Advent season. Each one of us comes into this season with different experiences. Upon reading this some of us will be surprised to even hear the word Advent – you can hear the silent voices already – oh my gosh I can’t believe we are here.
For some of us, we are arriving at this point with deadlines in focus, projects that need to be completed before the year's end, and final assignments that will need handing in or attending to end-of-year exams. For some it is starting to think about Christmas logistics, when should I start my Christmas shopping and what will Santa do this year in light of perhaps tighter home budgets as cost-of-living pressures grow.
Where will celebrations be held this year, how will we get to Aunt Betty for lunch and Uncle Arthur for dinner, the negotiations around whose family will we visit this year or what version of turkey will make it to the table, maybe the turducken gets a look in this time around.
In some parts of our world Advent begins but wars continue, and perhaps a sense of hope as to when things will end seems elusive. For others, Advent begins amongst conflicts within our own homes, our classrooms, or workplaces. Being misunderstood or underappreciated, not being listened to or picked on can make us feel isolated or frustrated.
Yet amongst this messiness, amongst the confusion, where we can feel like there is no hope is precisely where hope is working quietly in the womb of life, gently making itself present without force without fuss, forming itself into a language that makes itself present and ready for us when we are ready to turn our face towards it.
Throughout Salvation history, we read and learn of a people created in God's image and likeness who struggle with and try and make sense of who this God is. Is he a distant deity who takes sides in wars, rewards prayers done correctly, and punishes those who reject him? Is he a God who watches from a distance and only comes after the coast is clear to rescue us like a white knight in shining armour, not wanting to get his hands dirty in our mess?
Or is this God, the creator of heaven and earth, all things visible and invisible closer to us than we can even imagine? Through the beautiful Yes of Mary, God becomes one of us, born precisely within the mess. It was as if God was saying, “Hey Habibis I’ve been with you and in you and working through you all this time however because I love you so much, I need to find a language, so you understand me better. So here I AM as a little baby.”
Perhaps we can even hear God’s words to help soften our hearts to each saying, “Please remember that I am within the poor just as much as I am within the rich, within the aggressor as much as within the persecuted. However, love cannot force itself onto anyone and so I love you so much that I have to let you go in the hope that you can stay awake to my presence in you and around you and see me in all things great and small.” Is this what we mean by incarnation?
In our gospel this week Jesus asks his disciples to stay awake. Maybe this is the message for us this Advent. Are we able to stay awake to Christ’s presence in all that exists around us? Can we, whilst acknowledging the messiness around us allow ourselves to turn to the Lord, so we can see his face and be saved? What are we being saved from? Perhaps it is to never give up Hope.
Recently in my rounds at the hospital and prison, I have heard it said that the world is in a mess, Jesus must be coming soon. When this happens in such a setting it often but not always reflects a person's inner turmoil, a place where they no longer feel in control. Jesus becomes the exit strategy. I wonder whether, through this Advent season we can become more aware of the glimmers of hope that help sustain us and in turn encourage us to share and live the joy of the gospel.
Nativity Virginie Demont-Breton
