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In our heart of hearts, we find that we are all seeking - seeking peace, seeking purpose, a place of belonging, a meaning and sense of worth beyond what our own lives and world provide us. We yearn for more.
We look for a star to guide us, or an angel to lead us, or family and friends to embrace us. We desire authentic lives lived with real connection to others and to ourselves, a desire that is one of ongoing tension and ongoing struggle. We search high and low, often finding that the comfort we thought would fulfill us was only fleeting.
If there is a remedy to our common struggle, if there is an answer to our questions of yearning, where can it be found?
Many of us know the birth story well – how the whole of Bethlehem was clogged by travel, folks occupying the beds and rooms across every inn and home in town. Not a single space remained, apart from an old shed out back filled with animals. It was this place where Mary and Joseph found themselves, with a small feeding trough to lay their child.
This is where we tend to leave the story: two loving parents leaning over a child, surrounded by warm animals, and bathed in heavenly light. But at some point, the heavens had to close up, the angels returning back to heaven, the warm animals burrowing themselves into sleep. The night grew cold and the reality of the world began to set in for the new parents – fear, anxiety, darkness, a place to belong instead of competing with sheep for a place to sleep.
Here, in this reality, is the place the child was born, the baby in that lie nestled in the trough. The child was named Emmanuel, which did not so simply mean God, but God With Us. The God who came to the world in the midst of real life, not fairy tale. The God who came to a world filled with anxieties and fears, with struggles and strife.
When we celebrate Christmas each year, we are gifted the opportunity to remember. We remember the story of two parents and the little town of Bethlehem. We remember the God who became flesh. And here, we haul our hopes and fears of all the years, and place them at the feet of the child.
With all our pain and all our joy, with all our loneliness and all our hope, with all the suffering throughout the world, we remember each Christmas that God desired to be there, right in the middle of it all. To be right here, in the midst of our own homes and lives. To accompany and to love. To be in relationship and to bring meaning.
Far off, in some distant field, sat a group of shepherds tending to their sheep. And as the night grew old, there appeared to them an angel. “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all people,” the angel announced. “Today, in the city of David, a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.”
And away up the hill, from the direction of town, came the sound of a newborn baby’s cry. How else could God gain the trust of creation? How else could I be persuaded that God knew my life inside and out, that God earnestly and completely cares, unless God lived a life like mine? God risked it all to get close to us, in hopes that we might learn to love, and be loved, once again.
Wishing you all the peace of God as you enter into Finals Week. And as you return home, or wherever it is you find yourself this Christmas, remember that God has decided that the best place for him to be, the greatest of all places to build his home, is right in your arms.
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As we begin the final couple of weeks of the semester the Church celebrates the 2nd Week of Advent. People often say that Advent is a season of waiting. When I was a child we would make a construction paper countdown chain and tear off a piece of the chain every day until Christmas. Truth be told, my siblings and I were waiting for Christmas morning and gifts from Santa. Later, as a parent, Advent was a busy time to prepare for all the festivities of Christmas, decorating, shopping, wrapping, baking, candy- making, sending cards, attending school programs and travelling to visit family. Here at St Ambrose these last few weeks are filled with projects, exams, celebrations, special traditions like the Giving Tree, Candlelight Mass, and Midnight Breakfast.
In the midst of the busyness of the semester and the season, the Scripture readings that are proclaimed are filled with beautiful images and promises of a Kingdom filled with hope, peace and love. We are waiting and hoping, not so much for Christmas morning and gifts, but for God’s Kingdom to come. Often, “waiting” might seem as if we’re doing nothing – sitting idly by while time passes, biding our days until the next thing comes about. But real waiting, the waiting of Advent, isn’t an idle waiting, it’s an active one. Throughout our 30 Days of Prayer and Service, many Ambrosians have been doing their part to “Prepare the way of the Lord and make straight His paths.” These acts of service give people hope and a glimpse of a world where people are fed, clothed, known, consoled, forgiven, and loved – waiting in action.
As we begin crunch-time, in the midst of a season of waiting and a semester that is ending, how might we embrace our call to wait - waiting in action, full of hope and joy and anticipation?
