Every Advent, we hear the mighty voice of John the Baptist calling out in the desert, his radical voice urging people toward repentance, conversion, and purification.
The Messiah is coming! The Kingdom of God is at hand!
Surprisingly, this challenging message fell on receptive ears. Crowds of people came out from Jerusalem and the surrounding towns to listen to this unusual character, dressed in camel skins and eating locusts.
They heard the call, felt the urgency, turned away from their sins, knelt in the Jordan to receive a baptism of repentance, and changed their lives for the better.
The Baptist was so persuasive and compelling that many mistook him for the Messiah.
Creating space for Christ
As we begin the Church year anew, we seek to create a greater space in our souls, thoughts, marriages, families, homes, and workplaces for Christ to enter in and reign on the throne of our hearts.
Hearing the Gospel once again, thinking through the wonder of the birth of the Son of God and its implications one more time, we instinctively want to become more Christian in our attitude and practice at this time of year as we prepare for Christmas.
The ancient and enduring story of God’s love for us in Jesus takes on a fresh brilliance and we feel a surge of fresh hope.
In an age of technological sophistication, material abundance, and cultural complexity, the simplicity of God appears more striking than ever.
John’s message in the natural beauty of the desert is not complicated. Turn from sin. Share your food and clothes with the poor. Act with justice. Welcome the Messiah.
The Son of God unobtrusively enters human history, born in a stable of humble parents, attended by shepherds, coming in poverty and humility.
Jesus preached in ordinary language, using images of farming and nature.
He healed simply by touching people and speaking words. He multiplied plain bread and fish. He ate and slept, knew joy and fatigue, experienced love and rejection.
He washed feet and chose to abide with us in the humility and simplicity of the Eucharist. He died like a common criminal, mourned openly by few.
On the surface of things, much of Jesus’ life appears simple and basic. Yet, underneath the seemingly ordinary externals, God was definitively present in His fullness, redeeming the world and saving humanity from sin.
Fullness in the sacraments
The Church, in turn, uses ordinary and simple elements in the sacraments to communicate the fullness of divine grace.
Water, oil, bread, and wine, coupled with particular formulas of spoken prayer, are the matter and form, which the Lord uses to save us and to abide within us through the power and beauty of the sacraments.
On the surface of things, the methods by which God chooses to act in our lives appear simple and basic, yet the sacraments are the fullness of God’s power and grace, leading us ever deeper into a saving communion with Christ.
We certainly need institutions, structures, meetings, plans, and resources, both in the life of the Church and in our individual lives.
We rely on technology, finances, long-term strategies, and marketing efforts to communicate the vision and the mission of Jesus Christ.
We analyze data, seek measurable results, and look for some transformative change in the midst of our efforts.
But all of this complexity and work quickly becomes an empty shell if the Lord is not at the center of it all, standing before us in all of His poverty and simplicity, inviting us into a living relationship of love with Him.
Living Advent
Advent is a good time to clean out our hearts and our closets, to embrace more silence and peace, to resist the December treadmill of “instant Christmas,” and to seek a greater stillness.
Go to Confession, read the Gospels, volunteer to help someone in need, reach out to a neglected friend, spend more time in prayer, and slow down.
I contrast how I feel when my office and apartment are orderly, free of clutter, emptied of what is extraneous, stripped down to at least some ideal of the essential, with the times when it is cluttered, dirty, and disorganized because I have not had the time to attend to it.
Our physical spaces are like our souls. When we don’t prioritize Mass and prayer, when the superficial and unessential take pride of place, when we are going a thousand miles an hour, rushing through life, we lose our connection with God, our peace, and even our sanity.
The spiritual life is often more a process of subtraction before it is an addition. We need to get rid of the clutter of sin and distraction, so there is space and opportunity for the Lord to speak, and abide within us.
This simple abiding reaches its perfection in the Eucharist, by which the Lord fills us with His Word and His Body, coming to dwell in our souls with a divine peace, a joyful radiance, and a saving grace.
Our efforts to evangelize and restructure our diocese will only bear fruit to the extent that all of our people come to discover the transforming power of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Advent is a blessed opportunity for us to enter into the silence and simplicity of our Lord’s glorious Eucharistic presence.