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First Sunday of Advent
December 2, 2018
A small Experiment in Waiting
It seems opportune from time to time to suggest ways of reading these reflections. May I suggest a three step procedure something like the See Judge Act of the YCW. Metaphors from daily life may illustrate the point. Shopping for our food we often take three steps: Take a look; Have a taste; Make a meal of it. The same goes for buying clothes, choosing a book to read, or simply scanning the nightly TV menu. We could well do the same with what we find among the Sunday Reflections by reading it three times: first a quick scan to see what it's about; then a careful reading to taste and test the thoughts on offer; finally, if it's to your taste, going through it at leisure to assimilate the message and fit it to oneself in meditation. Perhaps today's toying with the idea of 'advent = coming' is best seen not as an opportunity for discussion and debate but as an invitation to share the experience of watchful waiting.
This Advent I want to walk through the desert to feel my emptiness. It's a deep uncertainty, a hunger and a loneliness that I live with. I'm always busy comforting and covering myself, blanketing the loneliness or stuffing myself with sweet delights that do not nourish. So busy that I can even think I am richly fulfilled – except in those empty times...
The days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.
In those days, in that time, I will raise up for David a just shoot ;
he shall do what is right and just in the land.
In those days Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem shall dwell secure;
this is what they shall call her: “The Lord [is] our Justice.” (Jeremiah 33)
I will be still each day just to feel the nothing. I will wonder, about nothing in particular. I will wait expectantly for the coming – for 'the days that are coming'; for the one that is promised to be coming with justice and truth. I will allow myself to drop into the void, the dark void that can only be called "Void of Justice", "Void of Truth", that is our busy world.
'The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light; on them a light has shone.' I have always loved to hear that proclamation in the midnight liturgy. Once I wondered who they were, those people, till at last I saw it is us in our primordial state of edging towards a new level of consciousness. We know the darkness, as the animals of the field, the birds of the sky, the fishes of the sea perhaps do not, because we see ahead a light glimmering.
Your ways, O Lord, make known to me;
teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior,
and for you I wait all the day.
Good and upright is the Lord;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the Lord are kindness and constancy
toward those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
The friendship of the Lord is with those who fear him,
and his covenant, for their instruction. (Psalm 25)
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
In his own day Jeshua gave this teaching a new language that was easier for his listeners, in an eight-fold blessing of which the first four make up the core of his Way. We too need to up-date the language of the 'beatitudes':
1. to be 'poor' or 'humble of spirit': to know our place in the cosmos and to learn not to overreach ourselves;
2. to be 'meek', or 'gentle', or simply respectful of every other person – in a word, not to be a bully;
3. to be one who 'mourns', one who knows how to feel for the other and with the other – it's called compassion;
4. to know a 'hunger' and a 'thirst' for justice and truth, for truth and justice – in an environment of lying where selfish greed can get away with nearly anything.
Desert time is stock-taking time, an audit to uncover the sloppy ways that have become habitual: “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths.”
Brothers and sisters, may the Lord make you increase and abound
in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you,
so to strengthen your hearts to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen. (1 Thessalonians 3)
In the still dark desert nights under a sky gleaming with myriad light I feel the abundance lavished on me, on us, and it seems just natural to pour that overflowing abundance on everyone around. The cosmos is bursting with goodness; my role is to be an open source of gracious gift to others – not my gifts but coming from the Lord to me and flowing through me to my neighbours, friends, sisters and brothers. “To abound in love for one another just as we have for you.”
Have you ever noticed that the more effective Christmas Card images show a star shining in an empty sky above a little town in an empty landscape, or above a little stable on a lonely hillside, or a star guiding three kings across plain empty hills. Perhaps unconsciously these artists have known how to sketch the desert experience that makes us aware of how desperately we need the coming of the Anointed One. There will be signs, the gospel says:
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,
and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. (Luke 21)
There are warning signs everywhere, but these are signs of hope: Stand erect and raise your heads! In a time when our world is suffering a pathology of depression because we fear a terrible war could break out any time, and if not open warfare then further exploitation of the weak by the greedy until we are sick of belonging to this rapacious race, we should take this call to heart: Stand up, lift your heads and hold them high. Be not afraid. Be bold in faith and trust, and love that cares not what it costs to remain human, humble, gentle, compassionate and true.