The nights have been clear and cold here in the Bay Area. We can see the stars and I reach to touch them, they seem so close. Advent is the time of stars in the heavens. Advent is when we follow the star to Christmas. We reach and we follow the star.
There’s a good deal about light and dark in today’s assigned lessons as we leave behind thanksgiving and open the door to Advent. Light and dark, life and death, judgment. We are told the four last things are to be considered in these Advent Sundays: Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell. Indeed, these are the four last things we will face when we die, and it appears they are also the four last things to consider when we are alive, if we want to live life to the full.
And so in today’s Epistle, Paul writes to the Roman church (13:8). He speaks of the night being far spent and the day at hand. He tells us to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, walking honestly as in the day. He even tells us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” which I would assume means wear Him like a garment, a protection against the dark and the judgment.
These are big things, subjects we would rather avoid. Especially judgment. We define deviancy down and further down, so that we can deny judging anyone and thus not be judged ourselves. And yet we know deep within there is a moral law all mankind senses, reckoning that a standard has been set, a standard we don’t meet. And with law there is judgment.
What happens when we die? Where do we go? Will we be held accountable for our life on Earth? Christian theology answers these questions in ways that make sense and that have proved true. For in the last twenty years+ witnesses to Heaven have returned to give testimony to what happened to them there. A great deal of literature has been collected, depositions, great clouds of credible witnesses.
And so we face the light and the truth of who we are, in Advent. Today we face death, that it will happen to each one of us some day… today, tomorrow, in fifty years. We are told to live each day as if it were our last, to savor each moment, for these minutes will not return.
We light our first Advent candle in our Advent wreathe. It is only one small flame in the dark, but it will light the others, each week, until we see the light of Bethlehem, the light of the world, the light of Christ.
Our preacher said that yes, we are in the Endtimes. For Catholic teaching says that the Endtimes – the Apocalypse – began with the birth of Jesus. Each of us has a role to play, a job to do, a vocation assigned to live out fully. Each one is a precious bead in the great rosary of the universe, in the miracle of time itself. Each one of us is necessary to complete the picture of man’s salvation. What is your vocation, job, role? What is mine?
Yesterday was the 150th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s birth. He led the West into the light of freedom, away from the dark of tyranny. He was a great leader for he sensed his destiny was to act at certain times. He was unpopular often, as many leaders are, for he listened to what he thought was right and wasn’t swayed by opinion. They say he wasn’t a religious man, but I say he listened to his head and heart and the angels that hovered about him. He knew the road to take to win freedom back. He worked long hours and slept little. He was brave. Steady. True. Industrious. “Never, never, never give up,” he said. “The price of greatness is responsibility.” And some humor alongside: “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something.”
Reminds me of a certain political figure who recently won the White House. And it is interesting that President Trump had an American mother and a British father; Prime Minister Churchill had an American father and a British mother. Both leaders were (are) brash and committed and decisive… and fearless.
It is good we practiced gratitude for our blessings this past week. Gratitude humbles us. Gratitude says, we owe something to someone else. Indeed. We owe much to those giants that have preserved the West, and fought for our freedoms through war and peace. We owe much to our local church, filled with good souls who try to love us. We owe much to our own families who try to put up with us. We owe much to Our Lord who gave us life itself and continues to breathe life into each day we live.
We open the door to Advent, to the advent of Christ among us, that we may be worthy of His gift of life. We light our little candle and watch it flame and flicker, knowing that we are growing green with each day of penitence and prayer, until we complete the circle of pungent pine and shine our little lights on the Light of the World.
We begin at the beginning, the first day of the Church Year. In this new year we open the gates of Jerusalem – and our hearts – to the Messiah as our Gospel reading describes. Today the story begins, and each one of us will play a vital part in the greatest drama of all, life overcoming death, eternally, minute by minute.
We follow the star and see where it leads.
Christine Sunderland
Christine Sunderland 