Dear Friends,
Today marks the first day of the Western Liturgical year and also the season of Advent. The prayers and scriptural readings of the Church on this day remind us to keep vigilant for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But what exactly are we waiting for? Is it the Parousia? Is it the return of the Historical Jesus? Is it the Eucharistic Christ? Or could it be the mythic Christos?
I contend that any and all of these options apply.
Advent is a time to listen. It's a time to put our noisy prayers aside and just sit in the presence of God, waiting for his voice to speak to us. While Lent is the season for emptying oneself of the unnecessary, Advent is a careful measure of many deliberate moments when we allow God to fill us with perfect Grace. This is achieved by waiting. We look for God in every moment. We embrace silence so as to listen. We allow our reason to accommodate our faith and trust. And most importantly we give ourselves room to accept that when God finds us, the encounter is his and his alone to direct. This may lead us to any given series of unexpected results. Our role in this is to surrender our expectations. When God finds us, the experience is almost never as one would anticipate. This is why the Gospels express the excessively humble origins of the Savior. Messiahs are supposed to be kings, military commanders, and conquerors. How easy it is to miss that which one is not expecting.
Such is the spiritual journey of our lives. Such is Advent.
Blessings to you all in this Holy Season,
Fr. Bryan
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1 comment:
Thank you Father. This blog is really taking off--and i appreciate your pastoral approach combined with news, etc.
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