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Now, as we approach the third Sunday of Advent, the
readings remind us that Advent truly is a beginning. It is a beginning
that, like all true beginnings, we make from nothing.
The Psalmist vividly illustrates this with the image of mountains being threshed and crushed, hills turned like chaff, and all of it scattered by the storm. We see God reducing it all to nothing to begin again and build. St. Lucy, whose memorial we celebrate today, allowed her earthly body to be used that way. Rather than allow her purity to be taken away she died on the sword and truly allowed God a new beginning for her in Heaven. Beginnings are scary. Remember how you felt walking in the first day to a new school with your knees quaking just a little bit? Perhaps that wasn’t as frightening as seeing mountains turned to dust or dying on the sword but if we’re honest with ourselves we can admit that all beginnings are tinged with a little fear. We need a little of that in Advent. Not trembling fear, but a little tinge to remind ourselves that it’s really a beginning, something new, not just the humdrum of shopping and the Christmas card list. God truly gave Himself a new beginning taking the form of a helpless infant born in the most humble of places. He did all of that so that we may have a new beginning just by accepting Him. |