WAY OF LIFE
This past Sunday’s homily has stayed with me. In it the priest proposed that Advent is about going into the darkness. That it isn’t about the holiday preparations, parties, or busyness – but instead if we let ourselves, it is about going deeper, perhaps to those places where God isn’t or seems to not be present in our lives. That it is in this darkness where Jesus’ birth is fully experienced. Where his light breaks through and he is born within our hearts. This invitation stays with me. But how do I do this? How do I plunge into the “darkness” in this crazy season? Today’s gospel gives me a hint. Jesus remarks “for although you have hidden these things from the wise and learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” Childlike….
Recently, I decided to go for a run even though it was raining. By the end of the run it was pouring and I was running through all of the puddles. It was a blast! I felt like a little girl and I was smiling from ear to ear. This experience reminded me that being childlike means allowing wonder, curiosity, and a willingness to “let go” have a place in my outlook, choices, and attitude. Perhaps it is in doing so that we become open to the light that God has in store. Another aspect of being childlike is embodying an attitude of fearlessness. True, children’s bones don’t break as easily as ours and they haven’t been scarred by life’s experiences quite yet – but their fearlessness enables them to do some very scary things. To try many new things over and over again, to be away from home, to leap off of jungle gyms, etc. They seem to face these experiences not only with curiosity and trepidation but also with a heart of trust. Somehow, they are convinced that all will be OK. Could it be that that is God’s promise to us as well? Perhaps we are invited to trust our foundation and just like Jesse, believe that “from *our* roots a bud shall blossom.” If I bring back little Joan could I be more willing to go into the darkness – the unknown – and believe that God’s got me? That God will find me or I will find him – that he will reveal himself to me in ways I do not currently know? Could I adopt a “way of life” in the next 4 weeks that opens me to this? Perhaps that could include making time to journal, time for silence, time undistracted, time away from work, obligations, busyness. Honestly for me it may just mean foregoing the TV show and snacks after a really long day of work. Perhaps even something like this opens me to face those deep places that I have been ignoring. In the end, I haven’t quite figured out what way of life I am invited to, but I am convinced that there is a deep invitation for me to listen to the stir. To take the plunge, to be curious, and to look up.
What does being childlike look like for you? What way of life during Advent will enable your buds to blossom?
Joan Ervin