Just a word before we go...Second Sunday of Advent...December 4, 2022
Advent always makes me think of Carly Simon; in particular, the words of her 1971 hit, “Anticipation.” “We can never know about the days to come, but we think about them anyway.” A slight change in wording and the next line becomes ‘and I wonder if you’re really with me now, or if I’m chasing after some finer day.’ Those words cause me to think about another woman, Mary of Nazareth, who conceivably might have been having that same thought as she carried the Savior in very troubled and troubling times. For Mary was no stranger to the violence of her times. In fact, she, Joseph and Jesus would have been victims of the trauma of living through the poverty, chaos and grit of Palestine, subject to the whims of both Caesar and local rulers, even to the point of becoming refugees.
We tend to sugarcoat the Nativity story to suit our sensibilities; Advent urges us to look beyond and beneath that illusion to see the reality of God’s choice, in order to understand how radical, how powerful it was, and remains. The idea that God chose that time and that place to have Jesus enter our world, into the stark reality that was Bethlehem, should boggle our minds, and our hearts.
John the Baptist, that voice crying the desert, entreats us to repent. Indeed, we need to repent, not in a way that denies us our lives, but in a life-giving, life-enhancing way of opening our hearts to view and love all of creation as ourselves, equally beloved of God. When we can do this, we just might catch a glimpse of that kingdom promised by Isaiah.
Each of us has our own personal desert to navigate, but navigate it we must if we are to expose ourselves to the scrutiny that is necessary for real metanoia, the repentance that John preaches. It is only when we embrace the darkness, feel the losses and the injustices, while remembering who it is who stands with us in solidarity...because he himself has experienced the same, that we can fittingly prepare ourselves to welcome the miracle of the Incarnation...and not just at Christmas, but right here, right now.
Back to paraphrasing Carly for a moment… ‘I’m no prophet, and I don’t know all your ways, but I’ll try and see into your eyes right now (in the person in front of me), and I’ll stay right here because these are the good old days.’