Dai­ly Reflec­tion
Novem­ber 29, 2015

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from … the anx­i­eties of dai­ly life….” Luke 21

It’s Advent!  Too often, my first response might be to make a list of what needs to be done in the weeks ahead to pre­pare for Christ­mas.  It is easy to feel anx­i­ety about “get­ting it all done.”  Or, we can pause and reflect on enter­ing into Advent this year as a sea­son with mean­ing.  I know it will be a bet­ter sea­son if I can re-adjust my expec­ta­tions in a way that will bring me to Christ­mas Day with a clos­er rela­tion­ship with God and a deep­er con­nec­tion to the nativ­i­ty.
The read­ings for the First Sun­day of Advent, this first day of the new litur­gi­cal year, begin with a hope and a reas­sur­ance: “The days are com­ing when I will ful­fill the promise I made….”

That read­ing from Jere­mi­ah was orig­i­nal­ly meant to encour­age a peo­ple who were dev­as­tat­ed by war, whose coun­try was over­run and whose lead­ers had been tak­en away by the ene­my.  The Israelites were unsure of who they were and what they would become as a peo­ple.  Jere­mi­ah com­pares them to a for­est that has been cut down, leav­ing no safe­ty, no resources.

And to those peo­ple, God promis­es that out of that bar­ren land, a tiny shoot, a small sign of life will appear on a life­less stump: “I will raise up for David a just shoot; he shall do what is right and just in the land.”  God goes on to promise them not only that Judah would one day be safe, but that Jerusalem would be secure.  To those liv­ing back then, the promise would have seemed out­sized and almost impos­si­ble, yet offer­ing hope.
God’s promise of safe­ty, secu­ri­ty and love is for me, too.  The read­ings in the final weeks of Ordi­nary Time and the first weeks of Advent are meant to have us pon­der the life we have today.  How can I live that life?  Am I wan­der­ing in my own desert aim­less and con­fused? Or, do I real­ly believe in my heart that God is here in my every­day life with me, help­ing me to be safe and secure?

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus, in his deep famil­iar­i­ty with the “end time” read­ings of the Old Tes­ta­ment, offers a vision of a world out of order.  The sun and moon are no longer in align­ment and the roar of the sea and waves ter­ri­fy peo­ple. These read­ings don’t fright­en me but they do grab my atten­tion, as if God is beg­ging me not to be over­whelmed with what is out of order, but to pay atten­tion to the promise, here and now.

Jesus talks about the anx­i­eties of dai­ly life and cau­tions us to “not become drowsy” from them.  I know I have expe­ri­enced anx­i­ety in life over fam­i­ly, health and work.  We can fret about every­thing from ter­ror­ism to our “To Do” list.  But Jesus is offer­ing us hope, con­so­la­tion and his end­less love.  He tells us to pay atten­tion at all times and to pray for strength.  What he real­ly wants is for us to know how very deeply each one of us is loved and cher­ished by him.  I find this very consoling.

Rely­ing on that love releas­es my fierce grip on con­trol of my life.  We can stop each morn­ing, set aside our “To Do” list and pray.  We can ask God to help us feel how deeply we are loved and to help us let go of things that real­ly don’t matter.

I am moved to turn to the words from today’s First Let­ter to the Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans, “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one anoth­er … so as to strength­en your hearts…”  It’s Advent!