Disorder (yesterday’s word) brings about much needed CHANGE (today’s word). CHANGE is good, though it can feel scary. Uncertainty and instability can make us falter and hesitate and lose heart. But if we walk bravely on, into what seems dark to us, we may be amazed at the light that awaits us. Isn’t this what Mary did? She gave birth to the One who is the great Changemaker. This Advent, may we also be willing to be overcome by the Spirit of God, giving birth to the Christ in us, the Changemaker, God incarnate.
Catherine de Hueck Doherty said, “When people begin to see, love, respect, and reverence Christ in the eyes of another, then they will change, and society will change also.” See, love, respect, and reverence Christ in another. This is the incarnation. But do I see this image of God in others, this spark of the divine in each one? Or am I only trying to convince others that my way is right? Am I only trying to do what I think is best for the other? Do I see the good, the beautiful, the godlike in others, or am I only trying to get them to conform to be like me? Gregory Boyle, a priest who works with gang members in LA, talks about bringing about change by forming kinship with others. And this kinship, he says, is not about serving the other but about being one with the other: “Jesus was not “a man for others”; he was one with them. There is a world of difference in that.” What a challenging way to think and live and be!
So, this Advent, I want to bring about CHANGE by seeing and loving the Christ in you. May you see and love the Christ in me also…Not to make us all the same, but so the beauty and diversity of Christ’s love can be seen and experienced in our world. As the song says, “It’s been a long, a long time coming. But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will.”
“Don’t revel only in the past, or spend all your time recounting the victories of days gone by. Watch closely: I am preparing something new; it’s happening now, even as I speak, and you’re about to see it. I am preparing a way through the desert; Waters will flow where there had been none.” Isaiah 43:18-19
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