Already? Not Yet!

I can’t believe that it’s already the second week of Advent, let alone twenty days until Christmas. The days and weeks seem to be moving so quickly, whether approaching the end of 2011 or advancing from the start of the liturgical year.

Yesterday evening at Mass, an Australian Jesuit preached on the notion that Advent waiting isn’t something passive. Yes, God’s decision to take on the full experience of humanity– body, mind, and soul– in Jesus is entirely God’s own, yet we are, especially in this time of year, invited to prepare to receive that mystery into the substance of our own lives. Such preparation requires effort, no less than that involved in cleaning one’s house before a friend’s visit, spending hours in the kitchen to prepare a family meal, or cultivating the vision that enables one to see God in friend and stranger, colleague and enemy, the comfortable and the afflicted.

As this insight continues to take deeper root in me– within the context of my hopes for renewal in confidence and community– I find that it grows my desire to more fully encounter not only God’s presence, but also God’s loving acceptance, in interactions with those whom I meet. Yet I often feel too hurried by the swift passage of time to recognize and embrace the opportunities for this longed-for grace to take living form in my words and actions. So many such moments have surely passed already in the past week, stirring some regrets over missing them. But it’s not yet the end of Advent by any means, and I suspect that God won’t withdraw this insight, nor its fruits, once Christmas is over. Still, I can’t just wait around.

In the readings for the Second Sunday of Advent, people filled with hope and longing, people who are encouraged to wait confidently for God’s triumph of peace and justice for all humanity, go out into the desert to encounter a prophet announcing these same tidings, and preaching a way of life that fosters their full reception. I already know well the landscape of my own inner desert, but I’ve not yet fully allowed it to be a place of encounter with fellow men and women of faith who, like me, await the renewing, vivifying, enlightening arrival of Christ. That’s what I hope for, as Advent has already progressed this far, and I’m not yet where I wish to be. I’ve got my own work and preparation to do, and while it’s not yet finished, I gratefully recognize that it’s already underway.

Atacama Desert, Chile