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Holy Name Monastery
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Advent is Upon Us

Waiting

November 30, 2021 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

Advent is all about waiting.  But not sit on your-hands and see what happens kind of waiting.  Nor waiting for someone else who is talking to God to hang up.  It’s more like a glorious party line.  You can pick up (or click on at any time).  Whenever you’re ready.  It is wonderful that we do not have to take turns – we don’t have to wait to be in touch!  At the heart of Advent is ACTIVE waiting.  Even when we don’t know that we are waiting, or what we are waiting for, we’re waiting.  Even when we can’t find words for what we are waiting for, we’re waiting.

We’ve been waiting for so long, actually for most of our lives, that the darkness may feel like home.  We’ve become comfortable in our incompleteness.  Now to leave home is downright scary!  Change my ways of interacting with God and God’s people?  Whew!  Allow my rough edges to be smoothed – mmmm, sounds irritating (no pun intended).  We are gifted with Advent-time to do personal “Isaiah work” of filling in every valley; leveling every mountain so the hills will become a plain, and the rough ways made smooth.  As the familiar banner asks: If not now, when?

There is a TV reality show on restaurant revival that is introduced with a premise that sounds like a good Advent theme.  “Turning around a failing restaurant or diner is a daunting challenge under the best of circumstances.  Attempting to do so …  may be impossible.  But we’re ready to take on the challenge.  Can it be done?”

From outdated décor to trendy interior, from canned food to fresh ingredients, from surly employees to service-oriented staff, they attempt to overhaul the whole shebang with straight talk, great cooking skills, creative interior decorators and an excited team of mostly volunteers.  The most important ingredient to the success of the project depends on the employees.  When the TV crew arrives, the expectation is that the local staff will be ready with their litany of what is going well and what they’d like to see changed.  They are looking for help to determine, and then implement the next best steps to be taken.

There is no pretense each week to portray the chef as a Christ figure, but one may see an analogy between our Advent Scriptures and the theme of this human example of this dramatic overhaul driven by someone who knows what they’re doing.  The overhaul of the run-down and failing restaurant, and our personal overhaul, is only possible if we’ll allow our goals and projects to be placed under wise management.  For us that’s Jesus, the One who’s coming to town in our Advent scriptures.

The Gospels that we’ll hear throughout the Advent season make frequent two-fold references to the already and the not yet.  This Sunday, Jesus berates the crowd for knowing how to interpret the signs in nature, but not the present time, the already.  This is where we, too, may fall short.  Often, even before one’s feet hit the floor, we tune in (or ask Alexia) for the day’s weather conditions, adjust the AC or heater and dress accordingly.  At the threat of a hurricane, we gather in supplies and hunker down.  We see the waxing moon and wait patiently for the night of the full moon.  This kind of waiting requires a common sense alertness to natural signs.  But the kind of waiting Jesus is talking about requires a deeper discernment and alertness to the signs of His appearance – the signs of the times, our times.

Advent offers us a new opportunity to awaken to the signs of the times.  In the words of John the Baptist, we hear the voice of Isaiah warning us to be alert for “the voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord.”  The last Gospel we heard as the liturgical year ended (this morning) and the first Gospel for the new liturgical year impress upon us the same warning: Be vigilant! Pray always! Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy!

One of the ancient Advent prayers offers us sentiments that Benedict echoes in the Rule: “Give us grace that we may cast off the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light.”  Many Advent hymns express this same theme.  For example (the hymn we sang on Friday) – “Wise and foolish, still we wait.  Is the bridegroom at the gate?  Clear the shadows from our sight, fill our eyes with radiant light.  Come, Lord Jesus, come!” 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

First Reading: Jeremiah 33:14-16                   Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:12—4:2
Gospel Reading: Luke 21:25-28,34-36
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Filed Under: Blog, Front Page, Homily Tagged With: Advent, Advent is Upon Us, Christ, Come Lord Jesus come, Jesus, Season of Advent, Waiting

Advent is Upon Us

November 30, 2020 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

Advent is Upon Us!

Today, this year, Advent has already dawned, the sun is up in the east.  It arrived in a world in the midst of a pandemic in a way that reminds me of Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog.”

Here, in our country, it seems, more so than usual, that Advent is being eclipsed to begin celebrating Christmas…. TV ads, house and yard light displays, Christmas music (What happened to the plaintive Advent songs?).  Others are experiencing anticipatory dread of a holiday separated from loved ones.  Thousands of heavy hearts daily grieve the loss of family members, neighbors and friends.  Circumstances have left many without work, no dependable source of income or the means of providing food and life’s necessities.  A pale of depression and loneliness hangs over people aching for a human touch, a phone call …  any sign that someone is aware of their pain.

Every Advent we have to delve into the Scriptures in order to feel the sense of the messages of hope, peace, love, and joy.  Our nighttime darkness will continue to lengthen until December 21 and the winter solstice moving us ever closer towards the celebration of Jesus’ birth.  The advent hymns we’ll sing – and the antiphons used at Morning and Evening Praise – keep impressing upon us the need to pray for “comfort for those who sit in darkness” and those whose “hearts yearn for the light of Christ.”  We must announce to a “world that waits in silence” that “our souls in stillness wait.”  We believe the words of the prophet Habakkuk:  The message I give you waits for the time I have appointed. It speaks about what is going to happen.  And all of it will come true.  It might take a while.  But wait for it.  You can be sure it will come.  It will happen when I want it to.

While Advent is certainly a time of waiting it is also a time of anticipation and celebration in its own rite.  It is the between-time that Karl Barth speaks of: “Unfulfilled and fulfilled promises are related to each other, as are dawn and sunrise.  Both are promise and in fact the same promise.  If anywhere at all, then it is precisely in the light of the coming of Christ that faith has become Advent faith, the expectation of future revelation.  But faith knows for whom and for what it is waiting.  It is fulfilled faith because it lays hold on the fulfilled promise.  This is the essence of Advent.”

We’ve all had experiences of waiting … that’s part of all our lives.  The season of Advent reminds us that waiting is often the cost of love.  In waiting for someone, our own everyday business becomes almost meaningless as we anticipate, worry, and prepare for a loved one’s return, or an estranged family member or the unknown visitor who becomes the friend we had just never before met and now recognize as Christ personified.  In waiting, we realize our own powerlessness; we realize our deepest hopes, and needs and yearnings.  People and events we didn’t know we missed until we encounter them.

More than ever, this year, in the midst of the pandemic, I suspect the spirit of Advent will pale in the face of the hurry to put up decorations and play some Christmas music.  People can’t wait for Christmas to come with the promised vaccine.

May our waiting for the coming of the Holy One this Christmas help us understand and carry on the mystery of compassionate and generous waiting.  Don’t expect a dramatic vision but do try to become more conscious of the Christ coming through our doors, in one another as each   enters our community room or are seated to “break bread” at mealtime.  In our corporate commitment we pledge to be the embodiment of the compassion of Christ.  And it is obvious from our visitors’ comments that this is one of our signature ministries.  Our guests, and we who live here, know that our companions care for us …  the question at times may be: “do we care about each other?”  One litmus test: “Until you know what hurts me, you cannot truly love me.”

In his 2020 Advent letter, Pope Francis reminds us: “Advent, a time of grace, tells us that it is not enough to believe in God: it is necessary to purify our faith every day.”  We pray: “O Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with Advent hope so that we may learn to cope with the delays and disappointments we encounter with patience and wisdom.  May a spirit of gratitude and humility guide us on our journey to your dwelling place, enabling us to endure, with joy, the costs of waiting for love, reconciliation, and peace.”

Ask yourself as you turn off the light each night…

+ To whom did I offer a word of hope, affirmation or comfort today?
+ How was I a ray of light to someone who felt the darkness of loneliness?
+ Tomorrow, how will I prepare for Christ to be born anew in my heart?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

First Reading  Isaiah 63:16b-17,19b;64:2-7                Second Reading 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Gospel Mark 13:33-37

 

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Filed Under: Blog, Front Page, Homily Tagged With: Advent, Advent is Upon Us, Advent Sunday, Christ, Christmas, Holy One, pandemic, Peace, Pope Francis, season of hope

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