SUNDAY 9 December 2018 [ advent
– week 2 ]
• Baruch
5:1-9 • Psalm ___ • Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11 • Luke 3:1-6 •
Bibliography: Pope Benedict XVI (B16) 1st Vespers, Advent, 28 November 2009.
[_01_] John the Baptist spoke of PREPARING THE WAY
OF THE LORD, MAKING STRAIGHT HIS PATHS.
Arrivals can be tricky, challenging,
in these ways, I’d like to reflect on… the
LANE
of someone’s arrival
LETTING
GO of someone’s arrival…
I’d like to reflect on, after this
Gospel passage is the LANE, the LENGTH of time and the LETTING GO.
As you know, “company”… “guests” they arrive
in our LANE …and the also invite us not only to do things but also to LET GO.
[_02_] LANE OF ARRIVAL.
These days, the latest devices –
phones – and cars – tell you if you are in someone else’s lane or someone is in
your lane.
In fact, if later today, you are to
encounter someone, you can track their “lane”, their direction, their
whereabouts. Where are they…
[_03_] In 2005, I had to meet someone at the airport…
and things were not quite so advanced or easy… and I had no phone with GPS.
And, I was rolling the dice…because I don’t think I even had the arriving
guest’s cell phone number. I certainly had no lane-detection on my car.
So, I had to do the whole thing by
sight.
The airport and airline would not
provide guidance. As you know, the airline will only tell you that the flight
has arrived, or what “lane” or “gate” or
“terminal”…they will not give up any information on individual passengers. It’s
all up to you, or to me, to be in the right place – the LANE - at the right
time.
[_04_] When someone is in your LANE … how do you
feel about that? When someone gets in
your LANE or in your SPACE…
I went to the airport to help out
some people who were waitng for this arriving guest.
I found out later was that I was not the only
one asked to pick him up. I found this out after I arrived at Newark Airport.
[_05_]
This was actually good news… I was
trying to get out of this all along and now I was free. I could go back to my LANE.
It’s interesting … a paradox … the
only thing that I really remember about that day was the trip to the airport,
meeting him, greeting him and then sending him on his way. His presence is all I remember. I have no
recollection of anything else I did that day. I only remember the person I met.
[_06_] ADVENT is an ARRIVAL.
There is an arrival LENGTH OF TIME of
which John the Baptist is urging is not very much…. And a LANE,
a way to be prepared.
Pope Benedict XVI (B16) wrote that
Advent (1st Vespers,
Advent, 28 November 2009) in a technical and ancient sense
referred to a personal presence, or a personal arrival, a VIP, surely someone
who would need to be greeted at the airport.
Jesus is also arriving. And, while
other people may also be greeting and meeting him, each of us is called to meet
him personally, each in our lane.
Because, when someone important is
arriving we also prepare ourselves, internally, do we not?
I’d like to touch also on the LETTING
GO of an arrival.
[_07_] LETTING GO.
I’d like to make an observation of the
events of this past week …which was an advent with lower-case ‘a’, the arrival
of a VIP. The body of deceased
President George Bush, 41st President of the United States was
transported to Washington D.C.. It was a political-national ‘advent’ with small a.
Yet, I believe this advent resonates
with our understanding of presence, personal presence, respect for life,
respect for eternal life, and of LETTING GO.
President Bush was lying in state in
Capitol Rotunda on Capitol Hill. Hundreds of members of the legislature, of
Congress, the Senate, the judiciary, the Supreme Court, military and cabinet
members were there.
And, this presence absorbed their
action and attention and perhaps forced them to surrender – to LET GO of their
smartphones and their agendas. They could not do anything. They could not make
excuses. Their presence – or absence – would be noted.
They just had to sit there which may
have been hard for them, but it was not a bad thing.
[_08_] In
Advent, we are called to be in a LANE, and
to LET GO..
B16 wrote that, in our daily lives,
we all experience having little time for God and also little time for
ourselves. That is, we find it difficult to be fully present to Christ or even
fully present to our own thoughts. We
end up being absorbed by ‘doing,’ by producing, by action. Rest? That’s boring…
[_09_] In my case, at Newark Airport, I was able –
and rather eager -- to say good-bye and sayonara
to my passenger because someone else would now drive him, in their LANE. My duties were fulfilled. I had nothing more
to do. I had no reason to wait.
[_10_] In Advent, we are asked to find reasons to
wait, reasons to be present, reasons to rest, to pause – in our LANES --- because
while we may not wait to wait any longer than necessary, God waits for us as
long as possible, as long as He needs to.
And, like the father of the parable
of the Prodigal Son, watching out for us. To meet us, and he sees us coming
down the lane, down the street, from a long way off.
He finds us even in a crowd.
Knowing this Good News, we are
called to welcome Jesus each day, to prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight
his paths…[_fin_]
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