Jer 33:14-16; 1 Thes 3:12-4:2; Lk 21:25-28, 34-36
In Advent, a light shines in the darkness. One single candle pierces the gloom this week, and it grows week by week to two, three and four as we move into the darkest days of the year. I thought of a short story by the Nobel Prize winning Anglo-African novelist Doris Lessing, “Sunrise on the Veld” that I used to teach years ago to 12th graders. Lessing describes the sunrise in the African countryside as “the sun painting the earth and sky afresh.” The sunrise is a wonderful image of God’s grace. We are gifted with magnificent sunrises here in Harrodsburg. It breaks through our city and our fields, radiating God’s light, especially in our personal darkness. Advent is, a four week retreat of waiting patiently, paying attention to the action of God. God breaks into our lives as light in the moments of our daily activity. For Christ has already come, and he continually comes into our lives. We continually wait and watch patiently. Our lives are a continual Advent.
The first reading today speaks of God fulfilling God’s promise to keep us safe and secure. In light of world events, we need to hear this. But, as Jesus says in the gospel, we also need to be “vigilant at all times” and not let the anxieties of life get to us and distract us. We are anxious about many things like Martha and our anxieties do distract us.
Doing the examen of consciousness twice a day can help us be vigilant and pay attention to the action of God breaking in upon us in unexpected ways, bringing peace. That’s light. It’s like the sun stealing over Harrodsburg when at sunrise and sunset and having one’s breath taken away by its beauty. The second letter of St. Peter says: “You will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2Peter 1:19).
God’s light is always mediated by others. Grace works through nature. Who brings you God’s light? To whom do you bring this light? The examen could be a blessed spiritual practice, promising an Advent of growing light. This graceful in-breaking of God’s light leads us, of course, to “increase and abound in love for one another and for all” as St. Paul describes in the second reading.
Ask for this grace: to pay attention to the light shining in dark places. It’s the promise of Advent, the transfiguration of the landscape of our lives, painting our lives afresh in our continuing Advent.