H O P E
During this first week of Advent, we wait in the hope that somehow, someday, our broken world will be healed. We ponder our lives, pausing to consider those things that don’t quite align with what we think God would desire for us and our world. We take time to be honest about our longings, about our mental, emotional and physical prisons. What keeps us from being the creatures God created us to be? What stands in the way of our communion with God and the rest of humanity? What restricts our spiritual growth? Advent gives us a new direction for these desires; it presents us with new possibilities. It allows us to hope for change – it gives us license to be so foolish as to expect that the Messiah will actually appear.
This radical hope is both ancient and new. On the one hand, we step into the old, old story; we join Mary and Joseph and the rest of God’s followers as they wait for Christ to join them on earth. But our expectation is more than mere pretending. We also await a disruption. We also expect that God will break into our lives and mend our brokenness. We wait for God to disturb our waters and transform our lives that we may be instruments of God’s healing for the world.
We wait in faith. We wait in prayer. We wait with a holy restlessness.
During this first week of Advent, we wait in the hope that somehow, someday, our broken world will be healed. We ponder our lives, pausing to consider those things that don’t quite align with what we think God would desire for us and our world. We take time to be honest about our longings, about our mental, emotional and physical prisons. What keeps us from being the creatures God created us to be? What stands in the way of our communion with God and the rest of humanity? What restricts our spiritual growth? Advent gives us a new direction for these desires; it presents us with new possibilities. It allows us to hope for change – it gives us license to be so foolish as to expect that the Messiah will actually appear.
This radical hope is both ancient and new. On the one hand, we step into the old, old story; we join Mary and Joseph and the rest of God’s followers as they wait for Christ to join them on earth. But our expectation is more than mere pretending. We also await a disruption. We also expect that God will break into our lives and mend our brokenness. We wait for God to disturb our waters and transform our lives that we may be instruments of God’s healing for the world.
We wait in faith. We wait in prayer. We wait with a holy restlessness.
And we are not ashamed to plead: “O come, O come, Emmanuel!"
God’s word which sounds throughout the world,
Whose mercy wraps us round and round,
In John now finds an urgent voice:
“Repent! God’s grace shall here abound!”
Relentless as the searing sun
Yet gentle as the morning dew,
This voice cries in our wilderness:
“Receive the Gift; be born anew!”
The broken reed will Christ restore,
Frail flames he’ll fan to blazing fire,
With tenderness our wounds he’ll bind,
The flock he shepherds, saved entire.
Anointed with the Spirit’s pow’r,
He’ll preach good news, make strong the weak,
Demanding justice for the poor,
The basic rights that all would seek.
Our eyes, so blind, will see God’s reign
Revealed in those we once ignored;
Our tongues that babble, gossip, rage
Will speak out for the voiceless poor.
Lord Jesus, come: find us awake,
Rehearsing now what is not yet.
This work of God, our works of God,
Your glorious coming manifest! Amen.
Br. Aelred-Seton Shanley, OBL, OSB, CAM.
From Hymns for Morning and Evening Prayer
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