Life sometimes feels like a symphony, other times like a cacophony. We experience a world of grandeur and wonder and goodness; we experience a world of destruction and despair and violence. We can choose to simply attend to the consonant moments, and push out of mind all that troubles us and all that is outside our immediate concern. Or we can choose to simply get lost in dissonance, and find some sort of solace in our cynicism and guilt. Yet, there is a third way. We can take in, at our deepest level, the advent of Light and Dark, and choose to be shaped and formed by this journey. We can open our hearts and minds to the full experience of our shared enterprise, uncertain where it will take us, ready to be broken, ready to be made whole.Our way forward, the commitments and efforts we enact in our individual lives, depends on which path we choose.
“Oh, come, our Dayspring from on high, And cheer us by your drawing nigh, Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death's dark shadows put to flight.” Light is all around us, and always has been. And so to, Dark. This is what it means to be human. And while we must always work toward love and justice, there will always be pain and loss. The season of Advent calls us to fully live this reality. And if we can find the courage to make this journey, our hope and our faith is that Christmas will be realized: not that Dark will be extinguished, but that there will always be Light.
With those killed through senseless violence and war,With those seeking peace and justice,With those lost through illness and disaster, With new life and new creations, With the pain of exploitation and destruction, With the beauty of the rising sun and an emerging smile, With all our shortcomings and transgressions, With all our strengths and good works, we walk the path of Advent, following the star, seeking the Light.
