I was in a laundromat on one occasion and noticed that the wallpaper had as its pattern old advertisements for washing machines. One that my eye happened upon was from the early 20th century and said something like, “During this season of the Gentle Prince, show someone your love by making her life easier by buying a washing machine.” I was taken by the poetic expression of the ad: Advent described as "the season of the Gentle Prince" has a nice ring to it, I think.
Jesus is the Gentle Prince who promises to bring about a Gentle kingdom, the kingdom we hear about from the prophet Isaiah when he tells that at the last the lion will lay down with the lamb and they will be so docile that a child will lead them. This kingdom is promised to us, but God asks us to wait for it; he asks us to be patient.
Before Jesus’ departure he prepares his disciples for this waiting. He tells his disciples they will experience wars and hear rumors of wars, he tells them there will be great cataclysms and catastrophes, he warns them that they will be persecuted for the sake of their loyalty to Christ. He tells them that humanity history will have to run its course before he comes again. He tells them that they will have to be patient for his return.
God works through long processes. This is true across the board. If modern scientific theories are to be believed, the development of the universe such as we see it today occurred over the course of billions of years, beginning from a single point and taking unimaginably long periods of time to form things like stars and planets. And once our planet formed, the process by which life developed took millions of years to unfold.
God’s M.O. is to work through long, complex processes that take their point of departure from infinitesimal beginnings. This is true of salvation history. He begins with the call of Abraham, beginning with one person and promising to him that he will be the means by which all the nations of the earth are blessed. Through the history of one man’s descendents he builds a people and then nation of faith to welcome the messiah who comes only after many centuries. And now that he has come to establish his Church whose history continues to unfold from its modest beginning of twelve men.
So we have to be patient and let God bring about his peace and his justice according to the plan he established for us from before time began. In so many instances we show our impatience. We try to establish our own peace.
In the midst of temptation, when our peace is disturbed by an inclination to do something immoral and selfish, when giving in to self indulgent fantasies is attractive, we so often find in some moral compromise an attractive means to restoring peace, to casting away whatever disturbing us. Instead of remaining faithful to Christ and letting his way of bringing about peace to work in us, by increasing our virtue and holiness, we choose our own way and act according to our own wisdom.
When our peace is taken away by the threats and malice of an enemy we try lash out. Rather than imitating Christ by returning curses with blessings we respond in kind to our enemies, as though we could bring about a peaceful kingdom on our own terms and by our own means. Practicing patience within context of the life of discipleship means practicing peace, patience, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, humility, and chastity.
These are virtues aren’t very fashionable in our time. It seems like the popular celebrates the one who is clever enough to have the last word in a dispute. These are admired because it is imagined they always rise above their enemies and enjoy greater peace. But this is of course a man made peace and so destined to fail and leave one worse off than one was facing the temptation or the hostility of enemies.
Restraining ourselves from responding to enemies or giving in to temptation isn’t purely a passive response to what’s going on around us. It isn’t an admission that we aren’t up to the task of competing and winning in life. It’s allowing room in our lives for something deeper to stir, the grace of God that will establish us in the kingdom of his peace.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
1st Sunday in Advent
We begin Advent today, which means it’s that time of year to say, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it’s Advent.” Which means in a few weeks we’ll be saying, “I can’t believe it’s Christmas,” and then not long after that, “I can’t believe it’s Lent,” and then “I can’t believe it’s Easter.”
We find ourselves saying this sort of thing all the time, which shows that we have a sense that time is slipping away, going quickly by. And yet the Gospels tell us again and again that we need patience. Even as we feel time going quickly, we are impatient.
Jesus addresses both of these attitudes in his preaching. He tells his disciples that he will be back soon, that they must be vigilant in their waiting, but also that they must not grow weary if he takes longer than they expect. He warns his disciples today, for example, that they must not be so eager for his coming that they are gullible to those who come proclaiming themselves to be the messiah.
We go between patience and impatience. We wish time away as stressful things press upon us, and then we find ourselves lamenting the quick passage of time. In another passage from the Bible, Jesus warns us to “allow our hearts to become drowsy from dissipation and drunkenness and from the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap” (Lk 21: ).
If we pay careful attention we see that both extremes are present here. Jesus warns us against “dissipation and drunkenness” – trying to have too much fun – but also “anxieties of daily life” – not having enough fun, taking our daily tasks too seriously or becoming morbidly preoccupied with competitiveness that is a necessary part of life, but one that consumes us if we let it.
Neither of these extremes is very far from us. Dissipation is mass produces by the popular culture, and we work more than ever. Very often the two extremes go together. The person who is occupied with the daily anxieties of life as though his dignity and happiness depended on career success and the fulfillment of professional or academic ambition, turns to dissipating realities to “blow off steam.”
We have to maintain a balance in life, but striking a balance isn’t simply a matter of compromising between fun and work or serious pursuits and play. A proper balance can only be maintained if we turn to the one who holds the key to a proper ordering of our lives, Christ. Only when we understand that our dignity and happiness will be achieved by a closer conformity to his example will we be able to make an appropriate balance between work and play. And only then will we be able to really make good use of the time given to us, and not experience it either as wasted and desiccated, gone before it could be enjoyed.
We must orient ourselves to Christ by turning to him as the key to our living a good life, a life according to God’s intention. We turn to him today at mass, but we must turn to him more frequently than this. We must turn to him in prayer, daily, and we must turn to him in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession. Our lives are to be a patient waiting for the Lord, which mean giving ourselves over to the life of discipleship as Christ configures it through his Church.
Let us all resolve during this season of patient waiting to make use of the time, to not let it slip away. Let it be what all our time is to be: a patient waiting for the Lord, who will come to now in the gift of peace and grace, and at the last with the gift of eternal life.
We find ourselves saying this sort of thing all the time, which shows that we have a sense that time is slipping away, going quickly by. And yet the Gospels tell us again and again that we need patience. Even as we feel time going quickly, we are impatient.
Jesus addresses both of these attitudes in his preaching. He tells his disciples that he will be back soon, that they must be vigilant in their waiting, but also that they must not grow weary if he takes longer than they expect. He warns his disciples today, for example, that they must not be so eager for his coming that they are gullible to those who come proclaiming themselves to be the messiah.
We go between patience and impatience. We wish time away as stressful things press upon us, and then we find ourselves lamenting the quick passage of time. In another passage from the Bible, Jesus warns us to “allow our hearts to become drowsy from dissipation and drunkenness and from the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap” (Lk 21: ).
If we pay careful attention we see that both extremes are present here. Jesus warns us against “dissipation and drunkenness” – trying to have too much fun – but also “anxieties of daily life” – not having enough fun, taking our daily tasks too seriously or becoming morbidly preoccupied with competitiveness that is a necessary part of life, but one that consumes us if we let it.
Neither of these extremes is very far from us. Dissipation is mass produces by the popular culture, and we work more than ever. Very often the two extremes go together. The person who is occupied with the daily anxieties of life as though his dignity and happiness depended on career success and the fulfillment of professional or academic ambition, turns to dissipating realities to “blow off steam.”
We have to maintain a balance in life, but striking a balance isn’t simply a matter of compromising between fun and work or serious pursuits and play. A proper balance can only be maintained if we turn to the one who holds the key to a proper ordering of our lives, Christ. Only when we understand that our dignity and happiness will be achieved by a closer conformity to his example will we be able to make an appropriate balance between work and play. And only then will we be able to really make good use of the time given to us, and not experience it either as wasted and desiccated, gone before it could be enjoyed.
We must orient ourselves to Christ by turning to him as the key to our living a good life, a life according to God’s intention. We turn to him today at mass, but we must turn to him more frequently than this. We must turn to him in prayer, daily, and we must turn to him in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession. Our lives are to be a patient waiting for the Lord, which mean giving ourselves over to the life of discipleship as Christ configures it through his Church.
Let us all resolve during this season of patient waiting to make use of the time, to not let it slip away. Let it be what all our time is to be: a patient waiting for the Lord, who will come to now in the gift of peace and grace, and at the last with the gift of eternal life.
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