Advent Musings

Every year as we celebrate the Season of Advent many reflections are offered for us to ponder. Here is another one.

As a child the Season usually meant an impatient wait for Christmas. If Advent was even thought about religiously it meant waiting for Jesus to be born in a stable in Bethlehem among the animals and filth of a stable.

I like Richard Rohr’s take on it:

As adults I think we need to think more about that and how important it is to bring that awareness into our lives so that our consciousness is forever looking for the good that our world offers to us and not the negatives that are becoming so prevalent in our society today.

It is true that we are caught up with many ‘doings’ and Christmas does creep up on us… but if we take our faith seriously and want to make a difference in this world, which is slowly losing a sense of the wonder of Creation and of the Creator God, Advent is a time for us to really appreciate and rejoice in the Everyday God.

I want to look more closely at just one person’s role at this time: Mary the Mother of Jesus the Christ. When she gave her Yes to become the Mother of Jesus she was depicted as the white, blue clad virgin praying at a prie-dieu. In reality she was about 13, more dark than white and probably dressed in black doing her house work! That courageous YES came with a conscious consent while heaven waited; and we wait as we ponder the reality of what this meant for the humble Mary who had nine months of waiting and contemplating the child she was carrying. To even begin to see Mary as a thinking, intelligent woman in her time where she could have been murdered for her condition (saved by Joseph) moves us out of the Pollyanna version that we have come to accept.

Life was hard for Mary and so are many of our lives now. Can we see Mary as a genuine person who being the Mother of God listens to us as we cry to her? Our waiting needs to reflect on how we are living our lives in preparation for ‘Christ being born daily’.

The Four Candles

1st Candle: Candle of Hope – God keeps God’s promises

2nd Candle: Candle of Preparation – Reminding us to make room for Christ

3rd Candle: Candle of Joy – The cosmic Christ being born every day

4th Candle: Candle of Love – God so loved the world….

As we approach this Christmas let us continue to be mindful of those who like Mary and Joseph are refugees not finding room in our ‘inns’.

Marie McAlister rsj