First Sunday of Advent
The call for change is STRONG and CLEAR in the Scripture readings for this Sunday. An urgent call that announces...Advent begins...God is doing something new...in you...in me...in us!
This season of anticipation...this season of waiting, watching, preparing, and hoping is all about the radical love of God. This Advent season is all about us hearing the unceasing invitation to make space for Love who surprises us with intimacy, disarms us with innocence, claims us through vulnerability, and beckons us to entrust ourselves to a child born in poverty as a refugee.
How radical is this call? Well...
In Isaiah, we read...
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.
In Romans, Paul urges us...
it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.
For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed;
...put on the Lord Jesus Christ...
And in the Gospel of Matthew, we are shown how critical it is to be watchful and prepared for the time of God's coming. So, I ask you...
During this Advent season,
What swords do you personally need to beat into a plowshare? Is it the sword of unkindness, of self-preoccupation, of self-righteousness, and/or complacency?
How can we help our nation to not raise a sword against another? (Always mindful that there are many kinds of swords...economic, domestic legislation, foreign policy, foreign aid, military)
How can we be part of beating our national swords into plowshares? (Always mindful that there are many kinds of plowshares...comprehensive pro-life stance, care of the economically marginalized, access to healthcare, affordable housing, ending racism, sexism, and many other "isms," and strong educational systems)
What can you do in these next few weeks that will wake you from your slumber and help you to put on Christ...live Christ...be Christ?
How might you live prepared to receive the light of God, be the light of God for the person standing next to you, for the persons you will never meet? (Remembering that God, who calls you to be God-light, changed the world through a life that began in a stable, ended on a cross, and defeated death through resurrection...)
So...may this Advent be a radical turning to Love for each of us! May this Advent be a time of deep, intimate awakening to the God who is with us! May this Advent be one where our waiting upon God fills us to overflow and births in this world justice and peace; hope and wholeness; holiness and oneness!
Advent Blessings upon you!
Sister Didi Madden, OP
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