Advent begins today! The readings present us with two messages: Have hope and Prepare for God.
The first reading is about a future time of unity and peace. I can't help but feel the message is all about our country these days; there are deep divisions affecting not only the political parties, but friends and families as well. There is a deep need for healing and reconciliation. Sometimes we can’t imagine that there is any reason to have hope.
Isaiah reminds us that our God is faithful to us always and knows about the situation we are in. Our God is always moving to bring us together. What is the coming together? What might we all “stream toward” together? Isaiah says, “that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” Our only real hope of coming together is to come together in greater fidelity to our God. The closer we come to our God, the closer we will come toward each other. It will no longer be about a winning and losing – about victory over the other, by destroying the other. When this hope-filled unity comes, Isaiah says, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”
Each of us can find a desire in our hearts that sings, “Let us go rejoicing” to this kind of communion and peace. As Paul says, it is a time for us to “wake from sleep.” This is a season to “throw off” many things that are all about darkness and to “put on the armor of light,” to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Are we, as a country, so stuck in discouragement that we are no longer attentive to signs of hope, to graces being offered us, to any light at all? Can this Advent season be one in which we give ourselves to more opportunities for togetherness, for bridge building? Sometimes genuine healing and reconciliation in our families, our communities and in our world need serious preparation. The best way to prepare is by letting light into places of darkness.
Think about this. What nice, caring, generous things can I do that builds a bridge, without recalling a hurt or continuing my finger pointing? Is there a friend or neighbor or church community member I have recently fought with about our differing opinions about something? Could a coffee or tea together be a time to let Advent come alive by spending time saying that our relationship is more important than our differing ideas?
Advent is not about our “getting ready” to let God come to us – this season is not about saving ourselves, but recognizing God is already with us and in us. All we have to do is feel God’s presence in our hearts. This wonderful season is about recognizing our own weakness yet feeling how deeply God cares for us, even in our deepest failings. We don’t love that freely or with such depth, so we may not believe it, yet from Isaiah’s time we have been encouraged to “walk in the light of the Lord!”
As we find these ways of preparing, we can pray, with growing desire, “Come, Lord Jesus. We await your coming. Come O Lord.”
