“How much greater is
the God we have than the one we think we have.
Behold the One who can’t take His eyes off of you. Marinate in the vastness of that.” Gregory Boyle S.J. founder of Homeboy
Industries and shepherd among the gangs of Los Angeles.
“God can get tiny if we’re not careful.”
Advent is upon us. For centuries now, Christmas has come and
gone. And yet, the season of Advent like
the seasons of nature, it never grows old.
Paradoxically, the season offers new life during a time when nature is
at rest and sunlight diminishes. As I’ve
matured, I’ve grown to consider Teilhard de Chardin’s words. We must “trust
in the slow work of God.” Ours is a
God who waits. Who are we not to?
Among the festivities, social
gatherings, and holiday cheer, God can get tiny if I’m not careful. I can reduce him even more as I romanticize
and commercialize the nativity event. In
a season of anticipation and waiting, one action in all of the scriptures
consistently strikes me; Mary’s move to “ponder.” Advent invites us to intentionally set aside
time regardless of our emotional state or life’s busy-ness … to ponder.
The beauty in pondering is; I never
know where it will take me, what I will discover, what gift I might receive,
what gift I might give.
Between the proclamations,
mysterious visits by the magi, angels everywhere, near escapes, virgin birth, healing,
the nativity story makes for good foundations in creative fantasy fiction as
inspired by authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Forever skeptical, I’m in good company with a
pair of skeptics in Joseph and Zechariah.
Zechariah resigned to the fact; Elizabeth might never have a child. Young couples fearing the possibility they may
never give birth to children may feel intense pain, loss, threat to separate,
inadequacy, hardships beyond what I’m able to describe. Joseph, on the other hand, prepared to divorce
his young wife, Mary, for she had conceived a child, a child Joseph knew was
not of his doing. Imagine his broken
heart, distrust, anger, confusion, loss, uncertainty, betrayal, disappointment
…. And yet for both, angels came to
their aid. Angels! Angels?
I’ve pondered on many occasions what that must have looked like then and
what it might look like today.
Luke 1:5-25 Angel to
Zechariah
But the angel said to
him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son …” Elizabeth would bear new life in John.
Matthew 1:18-25 the Gospel during advent and for the
Christmas vigil Mass
Such was his intention
when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your
home. For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and … Mary
would bear new life in Jesus.
The Gospel reading for both Christmas day and for Easter,
new life at birth followed by new life with resurrection
John 1:1-5
In the beginning was
the Word,
and the Word was with
God,
and the Word was God….
What came to be
through Him was life,
and this life was the
light of the human race;
the light shines in
the darkness,
and the darkness has
not overcome it.
For many, Advent is not an easy
season of joy, but I have found it to be a season of hope. I recently heard Fr. Greg Boyle S.J. speak to
a standing room only crowd at St. Louis University’s Global Center. He spoke of the suffering and dignity of
homies, gang members in Los Angeles. As
I listened, I couldn’t help but throw the three passages above into a spiritual
blender. Fr. G described his personal
event that, for me, shed light on events leading to the birth of Jesus. Fr. G
shared this account from his book “Tattoos
on the Heart.”
On numerous
occasions, Fr. Boyle offered rehabilitation to Pedro, a gang member of rage and
resentment submerged in alcohol and cocaine abuse. Pedro had always turned Fr. G away … until
one day Pedro accepted. The gang member
began the “long, hard, slow work of
returning to himself.”
Thirty days into treatment,
Pedro’s younger brother, Jovan, who fought his own drug demons, succumbed. One day, to stop the pain, Jovan put a gun to
his head and committed suicide. Intense pain
penetrated and overwhelmed Pedro’s core.
Was rehabilitation worth it? How
much longer could he continue, could he hang on?
Fr. G
appeared on time to drive Pedro to his brother’s funeral. Without words, Fr. G trusted the “value of simply – showing up.” The Jesuit feared a relapse or Pedro’s
possible surrender to return to the streets.
In the car, Pedro insisted on sharing a dream he’d had the night before.
“It’s a trip, G (Fr. Greg Boyle). I had this dream last night. And you were in it.”
And in this dream, Pedro and Greg
are in this large, empty room, just the two of them. There are no lights, no illuminated exit
signs, no light creeping in from under the doors. There are no windows. There is no light. He seems to know that Greg is there with
him. A sense, really, though they do not
speak. Suddenly, in this dark silence,
Greg retrieves a flashlight from his pocket and slides it on. Greg finds the light switch in the room, on
the wall, and he shines this narrow beam of light on the switch. He does not speak. He just holds the beam steady,
unwavering. Pedro says that even though
no words are exchanged, he knows he is the only one who can turn this light
switch on. He thanks G for happening to
have a flashlight. He makes his way to
the switch following the beam with some trepidation. Pedro arrives at the switch, takes a deep
breath, and flips it on. The room is
flooded with light.
As Pedro completes telling the
story, he says, “And the light … is better … than the darkness.”
Pedro bears
new life.
“The slow work of God.
We hope, we wait, for this
astonishing light.”
When have you discovered new life? What is your story? What new life will you discover?
“How much greater is
the God we have than the one we think we have.
Behold the One who can’t take His eyes off of you.”
Marinate, ponder in the vastness of that!
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