Another season in the life of the Church is upon us. We the members of the OEF council have each committed to sharing a personal reflection on Advent with all y’all. Do with them as you are led. Here’s the first of five:
Some years ago, Sr. Shoshanah and I took the time to read the Bible straight through, Genesis through the Revelation, not exactly together, but at the same time. We would talk to each other about what each of us was working through as we went along. As we finished up, we noted that one theme running throughout was that we humans just seemed to mess up a lot, over and over and over. For one thing, the violence inflicted on each other was thoroughgoing and seemingly never-ending. Even though another theme is that God stayed with us throughout all this mess, it still struck us at the time that there wasn’t a lot of progress made by us humans in all that history.
Very recently we had a conversation about this experience, connecting it to current events. Given all the bad behavior present in the world today (that we hear more and more about, thanks to technology), we came to the conclusion that we haven’t made much progress, in all these thousands of years. And we continue to not do so. Violence abounds amongst humans and from humans to the rest of Creation. Are we ever going to get any better?
I must admit that I got pretty down after this conversation.
I’m especially pessimistic about matters of race. Apparently we have made progess there. But, I think, only apparently. The political and social climate these days, here in the United States and in many other places around the world, is, I think, not in a good enough place to make progress.
One symptom of this that really hit me recently is my own attitude towards people with whom I disagree. For instance, the justice system in the US is extremely flawed and biased. How can “those people” – the racist judges, juries, lawyers, …, of course – keep perpetrating these travesties? I then put such people down, look down my nose at them. Only recently did I realize I was doing this, pretty unconsciously. Besides the problem of removing the log from my eye first, there’s the whole issue of this violent attitude towards others. All of Creation is due my respect, but I can’t seem to give it. I’m not blaming the current social climate, but it has certainly influenced me. There is a bad habit in many places these days of putting others down, and I have fallen into it. Of course, it’s up to me to buck it, to realize when I’m doing it, and stop and ask for God’s help with it.
But given this culture, of divisiveness and down-putting, where I don’t think I’m the only one who has fallen into this habit, I must keep asking: Have we made any progress? And again, the answer I’ve been hearing is that we haven’t, and I’ve been feeling pretty down about that.
And now we all, even I, approach Advent.
In the Advent reader I’ve been using for some time (“An Advent Sourcebook”, Liturgy Training Publications, 1988), one of the first readings contains the following text:
“So just when the world seems doomed to certain extinction, the Sun comes forth in a blaze of light and begins its paschal journey across the whole of human life and experience…” [p. 3, Chrysogonus Waddell]
Yes, this pessimist thinks that the “world seems doomed”. But I have to believe the rest of the sentence! And I do! The Sun (Son) is coming forth! Every year this happens to me. Every year I need this reminder. Dang, every day I need it!
I need the reminder that there is, in a word, hope. In the face of all the mess, all the bad behavior, all the racism, all the violence, even all the lack of progress, God is here. Giving us hope. Although the evidence may say otherwise, that we are perhaps a species doomed to never making progress, we must keep going, keep trying, with God’s hope in us. As a friend put it recently, Hope Abounds. Advent reminds me of this.
May this Advent, as all previous and future Advents, remind us all that God’s hope is always coming into the world.
Peace & All Good!
brer bruce james kay, OEF