Here we find ourselves in the middle of Advent and exactly two weeks from Christmas. Where did the time go? As an academic, this time of year represents the collision of many forces. The impending holidays, the end of the semester, the emotion of recalling again that I won’t see this season, family who used to be much more part of my life.
It’s a joyful time of the year in many ways but I always feel an undercurrent of sadness brought on by self-examination. I feel as though Jesus in today’s reading is speaking directly to me, though I was not of his generation. Jesus today recalls that many dismissed John the Baptist as if he were possessed by a demon and that Jesus himself was dismissed by the then high and mighty as nothing more than a friend of prostitutes, tax collectors and others towards the bottom of the social ladder. I wonder whether I would have been quick to dismiss them too as I am sometimes of people of my own generation who seem different to me or perhaps carry messages that I don’t want to hear.
So my job this Advent is not just to get the cards finished and do my shopping. It’s to spend some quiet time listening for that flute calling me to dance as Jesus puts it in today’s reading. I hope my ears are good enough; I hope all of our ears are good enough.
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Since its inception in 1997, Online Ministries has been blessed to have myriad members of the Creighton University community offer their personal reflections on the daily scripture readings.
